The Adventure Led Me Here

The moments leading up the arrival of the campers is similar to the anticipation of waiting for Christmas morning. Excited chatter echoes as the yellow bus is spotted chugging along the dusty road. Welcome signs, each with the campers’ individual names, are waved in the air. As the bus doors open, the campers are called, one by one, each one receiving a cheer before running to his or her counselor.  Each counselor is responsible for one or two campers, allowing for attention that so many of these kiddos desperately crave. Royal Family Kids’ Camp is a week long experience nationwide for kids who are or have been a part of the foster care system. Activities abound from crawfish catching, fishing, swimming, boating, the gym (where I stealthily caught a Frisbee with my face), chapel, horseback riding, crafts, and more. My camper and I spent a lot of time the dress up area, putting on fashion shows and dressing up in princess gowns and tiaras for hours. One of the things ...

As I watched the yellow buses scuttle away for this last time this school year, I tried to pinpoint exactly what emotions I was feeling as my thoughts clouded together, gently blurring. While packing up my classroom, I sorted through piles of math games, books, and writing materials. So much growth and learning had occurred throughout the school year from multiplication and division to writing a full length essay. I had covered all of the standards and all assessments had been completed. These packed boxes, brimming with papers and books, however, did not present a whole, complete picture of what had been gained. Although I (hopefully!) taught my students many things, nothing in these boxes reflected what I, the teacher, had learned from a group of 24 third-graders. 1). Kindness I entered my classroom with the expectation to focus on cultivating a culture of kindness within the classroom. However, little did I realize that I myself would be learning so much about being kind from...