What a break! I spent all last week at Camp Goddard with 50 sixth graders. I had a cabin full of smart young boys who were excited to be there. All of the adults that went with us were great. I'm so glad I could be a part of it. There was more than once this week where I sat back and thought, "I can't believe they PAY me to do this." I even called Ricky from the boat dock to brag to him that I was having the time of my life. This was easily the best teaching experience I've ever had. I can't wait until next year.
We hiked three different trails and taught different lessons on each one. The first day we hiked the longest, hardest trail: Cedar Canyon. It was only 1.5 or so miles long and had a lot of ups and downs over loose rocks. We learned about ecosystems and raced corks in the fast-flowing stream at the bottom of the canyon. We then climbed (on all fours) up a steep rock face. Later we canoed and rowed in the lake while some of the kids fished.
The next day we hiked the Geologic Time trail which was over easier terrain but took us to a beautiful bluff overlooking the lake. Later we dug for fossils in the fossil pits and made cabin flags. My cabin named themselves the Davis Demolition Squad. We lost out in the flag competition to Ms Dean's Jelly Beans. On Thursday we hiked the Man and Water trail which had us traipsing all over camp taking water samples that we analyzed that afternoon during our lab. We even had a girl get a sample out of the sewer lagoon. We cheered her on with the chant: "P-O-O-P! Get THAT POOP!!!!" Yes, that WAS the most interesting sample under the microscope.
Wednesday night was the big campfire and being an Eagle Scout, I got the honor of starting it. It was pretty soggy so I cheated and used a little lighter fluid, but that thing really turned into a GREAT fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and sang campfire songs (a lot of which I'd never heard). Each cabin put on skits and most of them were original works (not ours) AND were really good (but not ours). Our last night there, we were treated to an amazing lightning show through the numerous windows in our cabins. My boys slept through the whole thing but I heard that some other teachers had to deal with some fraidy-cats. Glad it wasn't me!
Friday was a long trip home and I was absolutely beat. All I wanted to do was hit the sack and sleep late, Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Before I knew about Camp Goddard, I'd volunteered to work at the Saturday TAKS Academy, so I had to drag myself out of bed early the next morning and sleepwalk through a few hours of TAKS tutoring. I made it...barely. All in all, it was a GREAT experience. All of the rewards of teaching with very few of the headaches and all of it with a beautiful backdrop. I recommend it to anyone.
Just in case you aren't keeping up with our Project 366 over on flickr, here's a link to a few more pics I took last week.
