This past week at Educo has definitely been an experience outside my comfort zone. Educo is an Adventure Camp west of 100 Mile House, without electricity, running water, or cell phone reception. My experience at Educo has made me more aware of my dependence on these three things, as well as their negative environmental impacts. I agree with the staff at Educo that we, as human beings, need to be more conscious about how our actions and lifestyles affect the environment. They do a better job than I do of practicing what they preach. But, they have inspired me to be more environmentally aware in the classroom. I do have strong beliefs that we need to do a better job of conserving energy, but when I was teaching during practicum I was too overwhelmed with PLOs and marking and other stressors that my mind did not even think about our planet.

The hardest part of the week was trying to stay warm. I sound like a spoiled city girl princess, but it is true. It snowed on Wednesday. I lost feeling in four of my toes for an entire 24 hours. The days were slightly warmer, but the nights were awful. I thought I was prepared (with thermal long underwear, fleece pants, 2 pairs of thick wool socks, a fleece blanket, and a mummy sleeping bag good to -11°C), but I honestly did not think it would be this cold in May. I was placed with a group of twelve First Nations children aged five to eleven. Several of the children had behavioural disorders and required constant supervision and instruction. Working with this group was challenging for me, and reaffirmed my choice to work with high school aged students. As well, several of the students in this group had lice (which we learned after we had shared blindfolds and bandanas several times over the course of two days). Luckily (we think), it did not spread to any of the staff members. To ice the cake, I burned my hands while cleaning oven parts yesterday. I wore rubber gloves, but some of the oven cleaner got inside and burned my hands. I think of myself as a tough girl who can take a lot of pain, but this is not a pleasant feeling.

Despite its challenges, I did have a lot of fun this week. I went canoeing (with a five year old who thought that paddling meant scraping his paddle across the surface of the lake and sending sprays of cold water backwards at me) at sunset around a beautiful, calm, lake. I saw loons, ducks, and just missed catching a glimpse of a beaver. I also learned how to belay while rock climbing. The kids got to climb the rock wall, and I was allowed to belay them. Seeing these kids reach the top of the fifty-foot wall was empowering. Hopefully, the kids can use this experience to help them conquer fears and build self-confidence.

I am in Williams Lake for the weekend and then am heading back to Educo with Kathryn on Monday. To maximize my experience next week, I need to keep rolling with the punches, and keep being useful. I am going to focus more on keeping the kids engaged in the activity, and suggesting new activities to the staff members when the kids lose interest and get bored.

My main question for myself after this week is, how could I tie a school trip to Educo into a science or biology curriculum? It would be easier to connect it to a P.E. class, or a Leadership class (both of which I would like to teach), but I want to challenge myself to justify a trip for a biology or science class.