My First Week ALONE!

I've been at Walker Creek Ranch for about five weeks now and I'm already starting to think about how sad I will be when this internship is over in early June. I don't want to focus on that already, but I'm having so much fun, I don't want it to end! When I was signing his bandana, my male cabin leader for this week asked me if I'd be here next year because he wanted to come back and be in my group again. I explained that I have an internship just until June, and the only way interns can come back is if a permanent staff member quits, and even then it's a complicated process. He certainly made me feel really good inside with his praise though!

I was ecstatic last week when I shared a group of fifth graders with Daniella, a fellow intern. They were a breeze! Before I came here, most of my experience with fifth and sixth graders had been challenging to say the least. I learned from being reassured by Molly and Andy that I wouldn't have that many behavioral issues, and certainly not a group full of challenging kids, but I also heard stories from Brian, an intern halfway through his year now, about kids "chasing the bear" - number 2 - in their pants, kids spewing on the bus to the beach, kids just being ridiculous. I had to see it for myself to believe it.

The kids that Nicky had when I shadowed her on trail were pretty good sixth graders - we only had one issue when one kid bit another kid's arm. The following week I got to jump around from group to group to see different naturalists' teaching styles. Javi's group was especially memorable. He had five special needs kids ranging in abilities from autistic to one or two who were clearly intelligent, but just a bit...funny. I hesitate to write about them in a joking manner, and I mean no disrespect, but they were some funny kids. One of his kids, Able, was quite the chatterbox. The first day, Javi ever so gently limited him to three questions a day and the dumbfounded face he made in response was priceless! His voice was high-pitched and his sometimes-stuttered words were often difficult to decipher, but he was enthusiastic and hilarious to interact with.

The week I shared a group with Daniella had it's ups and downs, but mostly ups. We had a great group of easy-to-handle fifth graders. We had some clingers and some whiners, but overall, the kids were awesome. It was somewhat challenging to have to discuss what we were going to do together and how we were going to split the teaching time, but I was used to that from last year. I like Daniella, and she was great to team teach with, but it was nice to just be able to think about what I was going to do this week without having to consult someone else...

...which brings us to this week! I was a bit nervous that my first week teaching a group by myself was going to be with sixth -not baby fifth- graders. I didn't have the best track record with sixth graders last year and, going over my health forms I noticed two or three kids had ADHD or ADD (I still don't know the difference). Several people told me kids with ADHD thrive in an outdoor school environment, so there was nothing to worry about. As it turned out, my group was great! I had great practice at quieting them down and getting their attention and I had to tell the kids to put down sticks and stop throwing rocks more often than I did the week before, but I didn't give out one check and neither did the cabin leaders.

There's a world of difference between fifth and sixth graders. In a nutshell, fifth graders are incredibly gullible and sixth graders use inappropriate language more often. For instance, when discussing a deer carcass, I pointed to the pelvic bone and asked the kids to guess which bone it was. I heard a mumbled "Penis bone" and soft giggles to which I responded with a somewhat stern, "I heard that" but was not prepared with any sort of consequence, nor did I want to draw attention to the culprit, as that's clearly what he was going for.

Kids are amazingly responsive to figurative "gold stars". If I need them to help me out - carry a box of wood blocks for a group challenge or wheel the compost to the garden - I'll give stars to those who lend a hand. At lunch: "Get me a glass of water and I'll give you a star!" When the group earns ten group stars in an activity period they all get a reward at the end - a game or some other treat - but for individuals, it's just "Good job! You get a star for that!" with nothing to work towards. I had a girl this week who was my group star score-keeper and she was also pretty enthusiastic about earning her own individual stars. She often asked me technical questions about specifically how many stars she earned and how she could earn future stars. Rarely, when kids asked me what they got for their own stars, I'd just say they just get the good feeling of having "stars." Generally, that's enough.

When I'm not working, I'm generally still "at work". I live with my co-interns, and sometimes the permanent naturalists sleep here too. Some interns came back from an adventure outside and it's hard to write when others are here (I love socializing with them!), so this'll be the end for now!