So this week was my third week of teaching. There's only 2 weeks left now! (The last week of teaching was never filled, which also means I'll be getting out of Ohio a bit early.) For me this week was definitely the hardest. It was funny because about half of the crew leaders thought this week was the best and half thought it was the worst. I'll try to quickly recap for you...

The groups were smaller than last week which was a little bit of a relief. They seemed well behaved on Monday, I think this was before they realized we were giving them a lot of freedom to do things. As the week went on I think they decided they were going to go crazy with that freedom. But I am getting ahead of myself.

This week we had a group that contained 4th and 5th graders. I didn't think it made a huge difference to have the younger kids there. I had a group that was really into climbing logs, picking up sticks, acorns, rocks, etc. and generally being destructive. Despite the skit we do on Monday to show that picking up rocks and sticks is not allowed that never seemed to sink in. I think the most frustrating thing about this group was their inability to listen and follow directions. There was definitely a lot of pretending to not hear me when I asked a kid to do something. Also a lot of repeating... every time we had to do an activity in the passports I think I told them the page number at least 5 times. The best part of environmental education and this program is that you let kids get outside, be active and explore. It kind of ruins the experience when half of your time is wasted with "don't do" this or "don't do" that.

All complaints aside I am having a good time. I am learning a lot and the time flies by every day from when the kids arrive to when they leave. I'm going to take some time to give you an idea of what we do each week...

MONDAY
Kids arrive and get oriented. The activities we do are called "Touch the Earth," and they generally let the kids just have some fun out in nature. We also introduce Magic Spots. Magic Spots are a favorite; the kids get some time every day to sit in their own special spot and do whatever they want (given it is quiet and solo). We also do Artists & Scientists where kids look at nature from an artist's view and a scientist's view.





TUESDAY
The kids get their passports. They go through the passport office where their teachers are dressed up in wigs and act as the tough passport officials. Then we do the first concept path. There are 7 major concepts the kids learn throughout the week on various concept paths. Magic spots again (every day).



WEDNESDAY
Second concept path. In the afternoon magic spots and Micro Parks. In Micro Parks the kids get to build their own national park for leprechauns. They are awesomely creative and love building the parks and giving tours. (Don't have any photos of this one yet)

THURSDAY
Final concept path. Then magic spots and Lost Letters. In lost letters, they get clues that require them to look for things in nature. Figuring out the clues gets them different letters until they can spell out "discovery."

Decoding the letters

Getting a clue

FRIDAY
Friday we start with a story at a camp fire (this is actually supposed to be on Thursday night but so far all the groups have opted to skip the evening portion so we cut some activities and do it Friday instead). The story reviews the concepts and the kids get a necklace that reminds them of the concepts. Then we do Model Planets, where the kids get in groups to make their own planets. They figure out their planets can't support life and everyone moves the contents of their planet to "Earth." Once everyone gets to Earth we all get in the planet and realize that its so crowded things are getting destroyed, a metaphor for real life.

Discussing how we can walk carefully

"Earth"

A model planet being created

In the afternoon we think about our environmental bad habits at Magic Spots. We share plans to fix them at the Sunship Convention. After that there is a closing ceremony that kind of finishes what we started on Monday, then the kids return to school.

Media at the Sunship Convention

Whew, so there's the overview. If you read that whole thing congrats on making it through. Now I'm off to work on my to do list for the weekend...