Ok. First day is in the books. All went very smoothly. Almost too smoothly. But I will get to that later. We arrived at camp a little before 9 this morning and the school was ready for us and we were all organized and all the teen leaders showed up and most of the campers showed up(about 75 of them). We had signs in front of each aula(room) and all the kids found their rooms (aside for a couple of kids who wanted to go to the room of their choosing so that they could be with their friends - but we were all over that). And we did a nice responsive classroom activity (Where the Wind Blows) that the kids really liked. And we set up the rules of the classroom and had a nice organized recess with kids playing volleyball and board games and then the teen leaders led the talleres (workshops) in art, music, dance, and sports and that went pretty smoothly. So, everything went off without a hitch. So why don't I feel so great about it? I am trying to figure that out now. Here's what I got so far. I spoke a lot last year about becoming Dominicanized - ready for anything - knowing that plans always change and one has to be flexible and I was so proud of myself. And the camp felt all spontaneous and vibrant. And today it felt too scripted. Yes, it is nice to be more organized than we have been in the past and it does ensure that the kids have a positive experience but there has to be a balance between preparedness and spontaneity (I feel that way about my own teaching by the way) and it seemed out of balance today.
I won't go on too much about this because it really was a great first day of camp. Then, in the afternoon we took all the teen leaders - Dominican and Gringo - to the beach and it was fun. There wasn't as much interaction between the Dominicans and Gringos as I would've liked and I'm trying to figure out why that was because last year the kids really bonded at the beach. I think basically I have really high expectations about how the teen leaders are going to interact because of how it all developed last year and I need to sit back a bit and let things develop naturally. OK. That's all for now (TAFN in text speak - or maybe I just made that up).
