Bring the
Camp Spirit to YOUR Classroom
by
Kim Wenzl
As each school year
draws near, I make plans for teaching math to anxious
students. Whether
it is middle/high school or college students, the process
is the same.
“What can I do this year that is really going to make a
difference in students’
understanding of a sometimes intimidating subject?”
I ask myself.
My thoughts then usually drift back to the summer I just
spent at camp.
It is here that I find the answers to my question about
making a difference
to the students I teach. I’ve learned many lessons
through living,
teaching, and playing with children during the 15 summers
I’ve spent working
at camp. My goal: to bring the spirit of camp into my
classroom.
It is interesting
to me that I try to bring the spirit of camp to school and
not the other way
around. What is it that makes camp so special, a feeling
that is captured
at the many summer camps across the country, that I want to
bring this to my
classroom? There are many different kinds of camps, yet
the outcomes are
similar for most camps. The American Camping Association
uses the slogan
“Camp Gives Kids a World of Good” because camps contribute
to the development
of life skills in children. Camps also provide
opportunities for
meaningful relationships with positive role models,
exploration of self
and environment, informal interaction with peers,
experiences that
are inherently interesting and fun, physical activity, safe
experiences with
limits and supervision, and much, much more.
In many ways, camp
and school are very similar. In both resident camps I’ve
worked at, time
is regulated by the camp bell, campers carry their “stuff”
from place to place
in a backpack, campers are scheduled for 5 or 6 activity
periods a day, and
campers eat all together in the dining hall. Camp even
begins each season
with a week of staff orientation, a training period that
resembles teacher
planning week. There are weekly staff meetings and an
evaluation process
for counselors. Camp counselors write letters home to the
parents of their
campers to inform them of camp news and to give a report of
a child’s progress
in the group living environment and in activities.
Yet in other ways,
camp is very different from school. Almost all of the
learning at camp
is experiential. There are no xerox machines, overhead
projectors or chalkboards
used for activity instruction. At the camps I’ve
been associated
with, campers and counselors eat 3 meals a day (served
family style) together.
After lunch there is rest hour, a time for quiet
activities in the
cabin. Following dinner, evening programs are planned for
individual choice,
cabin groups, or all-camp. Campers then get ready for
bed and often have
devotions or affirmation time and a bedtime story before
lights are turned
out for the night. Communication between campers and
parents is usually
by letter (and now email and fax). Campers have contact
with children of
different ages - older campers are role models for younger
campers. Activities
can have mixed age and ability levels, and campers are
randomly assigned
in the dining hall to encourage a greater sense of
community.
So what is it about
the camp experience that I want to bring the spirit of
camp to my classroom?
The ways in which we achieve our mission is through
creating community,
building relationships and role modeling.
Creating community
means accepting one another for being different and
special and treating
each member with respect - always. We believe that
being a camp counselor
is NOT a spectator sport! Building relationships is
hard work - it takes
time and attention to get to know each camper. It
requires energy,
asking questions, being a good listener, and spending time
with children.
Children are in desperate need of strong relationships with
adults; counselors
become advocates and friends of the campers in their
care. These
relationships often last long after the summer is over! We
encourage staff
members to be role models by example, example and example.
There is a tremendous
opportunity to influence children positively (or
negatively) by the
actions of each adult in the camp community.
At Camp Illahee,
where I am currently the associate director, we teach our
staff five powerful
counseling tools that help achieve the mission of
Illahee. These
tools include:
• setting expectations
- Children count on adults to create and maintain a
safe environment,
in which they can work, play, try new things and make new
friends. Thus
it is important to set expectations early with each group and
have them involved
in the process.
• the art of asking
questions - Asking questions is essential to
relationship building.
We use questions to help focus the campers in a
positive way and
to help them make better choices during discipline
situations.
After each question it is then important to LISTEN; this
validates their
feelings, enhances their self-esteem and encourages
problem-solving
skills.
• having a group
meeting - Group meetings give counselors a chance to
check-in with their
group, do a fun activity together, or resolve an issue.
It is important
to consider when, where and how group meetings should be
held.
• giving positive
praise - The tool that teaches counselors how to give
positive praise
encourages them to catch children doing something right and
then tell them in
a realistic and credible way.
• Keeping your cool
- Taking a break, asking for help, and contracting with
children are constructive
ways for counselors to keep their cool when they
find themselves
at “the end of their rope.”
These tools help
with 98% of challenging situations; however, there are
additional options
to consider.
The mission of camp
and the tools used to achieve that mission are all
transferable to
the classroom environment. At school it is also important
to create community,
build relationships, and role model. The same tools we
teach counselors
also work in the classroom. So, how do I bring the camp
spirit to MY classroom?
I’m glad you asked! I bring the camp spirit into
my classroom ON
THE VERY FIRST DAY!
It is important to
make students feel WELCOME and to take an active role in
making them feel
COMFORTABLE with their classroom community. This means
learning names by
playing fun name games and other deinhibitizers, setting
expectations early
with students giving their input (full value contract),
and then discussing
the consequences in the event someone “slips-up” and
forgets to follow
the established guidelines. I do this with every class or
group I work with.
In math, I find that
using experiential activities/initiatives works really
well for building
community in the classroom while teaching mathematical
concepts at the
same time. “Electric Maze,” “Traffic Jam,” “Cannibals and
Missionaries,” etc.
are just a FEW of the many exercises that lend
themselves to this
idea of teamwork while learning problem solving
strategies.
These “hands-on” activities provide a new way of learning for
many students and
through the experience, students often make connections
and increase confidence
in their abilities. Wow!
As a middle school
advisor, I think of my advisory as like a cabin group.
We met the first
ten minutes of each day by “checking in” and doing some
sort of fun activity
or game together. This is a unique opportunity to set
a positive tone
for the rest of the day. It is amazing what you can do in
10 minutes - I just
reach into my “bag-of-tricks” to find all kinds of fun
activities (many
were learned at camp) that are a great way to start the
day. We often
saw each other again in the cafeteria and were responsible
for cleaning tables
at the end of the lunch period. This promoted
responsibility to
the school as a larger community. During our regularly
scheduled advisory
periods, we often did teambuilding exercises and service
projects.
One of my favorite
times at school is activity period, a period during the
middle of the week
where grade level teachers offer a choice of activities.
This is a great
opportunity for teachers to build relationships with
students outside
the regular classroom setting. Activity choices include:
making friendship
bracelets, playing basketball or other sport, taking a
hike around the
school neighborhood, having a club meeting (chess, rocketry,
etc.), playing theatre
games, you name it! One or more teachers staffed
each activity, and
the choices vary by the interests of the students and
teachers.
Another great way
to bring the camp spirit into the classroom is to practice
giving positive
praise - FREQUENTLY!! How often do we encourage a baby
learning how to
walk and talk? Adults in the camp environment are
particularly good
at acknowledging even the smallest of efforts and
recognizing improvement
at all levels. It is SO EASY to do!! Catch
students doing something
right, no matter how small, and TELL them!!! It is
amazing to me how
this very simple act can make a huge difference in a
child’s confidence
and self-esteem. I even use stickers and notes on papers
when I’m teaching
college students, and they LOVE it!! On grade reports, I
write very specific
instances of growth to show my students that I do notice
the small stuff
(I just have to write frequently in a log of some sort so
that I don’t forget!).
I also have a “math graduation” ceremony for each
class I teach to
help put closure on their experience. This recognizes the
growth and learning
that took place by each member of the classroom
community, not just
the students having the best grades (this is very
similar to closing
campfire/awards ceremonies at camp).
Of course, camp brings
the element of FUN to every aspect of the day. To
bring this to school,
I again reach into my “bag-of-tricks” for games, songs
and other ideas
to use when I have 5 minutes to spare at the end of class,
while waiting for
an activity to start, or just for variety in the day. I
love taking students
by surprise and presenting something in a unique way
that they will never
forget. I particularly remember dressing in a silly
costume, bringing
my suitcase to school, and making a grand entrance during
math class to get
the 6th graders excited about our outdoor education week.
These are just a
few ways to bring camp spirit into the classroom. I would
love to do more...have
sessions during teacher planning week that taught
more about creating
community, building relationships, and role modeling in
the school environment,
encourage more contact between students of different
ages, have teachers
and students eat lunch together more often, have rest
hour every day after
lunch, and read a good story at the end of the school
day. What
are your ideas for bringing the camp spirit into YOUR classroom?
Kim Wenzl (Educator
and Camp Director)
Camp Illahee
PO Box 272
Brevard, NC 28712
828-883-2181 (camp)
E-Mail: kim@campillahee.com
The
Spring 2003 edition of The Ripple Effect will be published and available
only on this Wesite.
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