Are you sure you don't want a jacket?

Last Monday we did not have school; I honestly forgot that most places get national holidays off! It was beautiful having a three day weekend, especially knowing that all the Cornellians were in class. However, I would rather have a block break than national holidays. Anyway, Katie and I went on a little shopping excursion for the day, most importantly to Ikea. I have a small obsession with Ikea/furniture stores in general, so even though we did not need to buy anything, we spent a long amount of time just wandering. It was really nice to have the day to do whatever we wanted and not worry about school.

As I mentioned in my last post, the junior high students went on a trip to Sky-Y Camp in Prescott, AZ from Tuesday to Thursday. Overall, it was a really successful event and I am glad I went! However, there were definitely some issues, mostly dealing with organization. There was not really a clear lead teacher for the trip which meant that communication failed at certain points. For example, the drive to Prescott was supposed to take us about 2 hours. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong camp at first and doubled our drive time. Surprisingly, the girls on our bus were really well behaved (even without a bathroom break!) and did not complain too much. The teachers seemed to be a bit more annoyed than the students did.

When we finally arrived at camp, we ate lunch, unpacked, and then started our activities. Mr. Forni, a fourth grade teacher that went to help chaperone, and I were in charge of a group of 15 students. Our first activity involved a few different team building things that were designed to help the kids to communicate properly. A few were effective and a few were not. The teachers were instructed to not help the students at all sot hey could really "self-discover." This was really frustrating for me because I have done a lot of these kinds of activities before and I could see where they were not being effective. However, I kept my mouth shut as I was instructed. It was really great in the end when they were successful on the see-saw. Essentially, there was a large square see-saw that the entire team had to stand on and make it balance. The trick was that when one person got on the edges could not touch the ground or else they had to start over. They did a really great job at this event and I was very proud of them!

On Wednesday, we had two really physical events and two team building events. The physical events were the high ropes course and the rock wall. I am quite proud because I completed both high ropes courses and climbed the 50 foot rock wall (I do not have pictures from the rock wall)! Plus, it was really great seeing the kids over come their fears and complete the courses. These two things were definitely a highlight of the whole trip.

Climbing the pole

Mr. Forni and me about to embark on our high ropes journey.

Going across the lily pads; this was definitely the hardest part!

High ropes course 1 (a little lower than the above pictures)

Jodi overcoming her fear of heights and totally killing the ropes course!

Beautiful view in Prescott.

That night we had a campfire, some skits, and s'mores. All of the day time activities were really fun, but staying over night with a bunch of junior high students is not necessarily my favorite thing. Thankfully, my girls actually wanted to go to sleep at night, however, it was really strange being responsible for them at night. I was the one who was actually supposed to know what was going on and where they were supposed to be at what times. I still have not totally adjusted to being an "authority figure" and this was a new level of that. Plus, there were a lot of woods around the camp and a few girls in my cabin that were definitely attempting to meet up with their boyfriends in the woods. I think we avoided any late night meetings, but, as Jodi says, we will find out in June if this true or not. I felt a bit like a mother a few times because girls would ask me if they could go shower and I also had a few girls leave without jackets. I felt just like my mother as I said, "Are are you sure you don't want a jacket? It is going to get cold." Speaking of weather, that was also a really great part of camp. It is still really hot in Buckeye (getting better but not fall weather), but since Prescott is farther north and in the mountains, it was much cooler there. It was really great being able to wear jeans and a hoody without dying and sweating profusely.

We drove back to school Thursday (without getting lost) and, thankfully, we let the kids go early and we got to leave early too. We were all completely exhausted and it was pointless to stay at school anyway. Friday was a bit of superfluous day to a certain extent; everyone was pretty checked out and there was no point in teaching any content on that day. However, did have to take a district benchmark writing test. The test was supposed to be taken on Wednesday, but we were obviously gone and took it on Friday instead. Basically, the students are given a writing prompt and must write (including a pre-write, draft, and final copy) in one sitting. This test is given a few times throughout the year to help measure their growth. However, the truly silly thing about this test is that the first one (the one we just completed) is a narrative. They do not write a narrative at any other point making it impossible to measure to their growth. When each prompt is a different genre how are we supposed to compare them? Not to mention the fact that this test is required by the district, but the district does absolutely nothing with the data. In fact, they never even see the completed tests.

This week I am picking up the afternoon class (started today, but I will save that for next weeks post) and will be visiting the high school all day on Friday. Hopefully it will be a good week!