My fiance and I have just returned from a five day journey up in the old-growth Redwood Forests beyond Crescent City on the Smith River. We took ten 9th, 10th, & 11th graders up there for 'Wilderness Week'...a week of hiking, camping, learning watershed ecology, et cetera.
Talk about getting to know your audience!
Scott is one of their teachers, so knows them all better. I on the other hand, realized pretty quickly on the first day that I was dealing with teens of different ages, maturity levels, socio-economic levels, cultures, even different languages.
The challenge here was how to relate to and lead these kids, as one of the only two adults on this journey. There were a couple of them who were attention hogs, a couple more were homesick, one or two with attitude. By the end of the first day however, I began to see them all as just a bunch of good kids. While it is true that they have varied interests and home lives, for all of their diversities, I realized that I could best relate to them from a mother's perspective.
I told them when it was time to gather up for a lecture or hike, whose turn it was to cook dinner or clean up or make the campfire. And then it was pretty simple.
I found a way to relate to this audience and by the end of the week, they were calling me their camp mom! And just as importantly, if not more so, they had found a common ground with each other through this shared experience and created new bonds and friendships that may not have been possible in the school yard.
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