School of the Wild

I had a ton of fun at School of the Wild. It was such a great experience, volunteering there on a regular basis would be great! I had so much fun working with the kids that were there and I got to work closely with two that were in my group. At first when I got there my specific group, the Wetlands, were still eating lunch and no where near the rest of the groups. I got to work with two other groups and did another one of our student's activities with them. We played a game that was a combination of Rock, Paper, Scissors and chase. Me and another student from our class were put on opposite teams and we were able to play against each other which the kids got a kick out of. It was great to see the competitive side of the kids come out and how important it was to them that they work together to try and beat the other team.

After I got to play the game with the first two groups, I was taken to my group down by the docks. I wasn't sure what to expect when I got to my group, and I wasn't sure what the activities were going to entail. The kids looked a little confused by me when i got there and it took a little time for them to get used to me. Right when I got there I was left with them by myself and my teacher instincts kicked in. They were told to be quiet since we were right by Spider Pond, which is where we spent all of our time. Spider pond is a small pond no deeper than three feet, that has ropes connected across the pond in the shape of a spider's web. I wasn't expecting to get into a canoe with the kids, but I was really happy that I got the opportunity to bond with two of the girls. Teaching middle school was my original plan, but I realized that when I work with kids that age I act more like a friend to them than an adult. I am so used to be a camp counselor and acting like a kid with them that it would be too hard for me to discipline them, when and if it was needed. I always connect with the girls instantly, and am harder on the boys. The boys were also messing around a lot more than the girls were, which is normal.

When we got to Spider Pond our main goal was to catch turtles. We didn't end up catching any, although it would have been cool too.  When I was out on the pond with the two girls we had to work as a team to move the canoe around the pond. The ropes that were around the pond were what we used instead of ores, because the pond was so shallow that we would have disturbed anything that lived there. While working with the girls it was nice to get to know them and talk to them about school and other aspects of their lives. I feel like School of the Wild not only uses hands on to get students to learn, but it uses the hands on activities to help the students learn about themselves and what they are capable of doing. It pushes the students to do things that they have never done before like canoeing or catching birds. Its a great experience and I wish more schools had the opportunity to do it.

Unfortunately I was not able to do my activity, there wasn't enough time. My activity wasn't very complicated and was more focused on observations and discussion. I wanted the students to pretend that the state of Iowa had hired them as wild life researchers to survey the area of the wetlands that they were visiting, aka Spider Pond. The state had special requirements for the researchers to look for, and I had a list of questions that they were supposed to follow and answer.

1. Locate and name two birds? What are they doing?
2. Locate and name two insects? What are they doing?
3. Locate and name two other animals? what are they doing?
4. What are ways we can protect these animals?

These questions were supposed to be looked at throughout the entire time I was there, and we were supposed to discuss the different things that they found while they were out on the water. The discussion would have taken place after we had gotten off the canoes, but unfortunately we didn't have time to do any of the activity.