Yesterday, we took a group of 6th grade girls to a "ropes" course in the woods of Pell City, Alabama, at Camp Winnataska. It was a fabulous experience that (hopefully) served to build the girls' confidence and their relationships with us and each other.
Surprisely, one of the most difficult exercises for them was the first: the trust fall. In the gym before we hit the woods, we practiced falling and catching. One person trustingly falls backward, and the other person catches them and stands them back up. The students had REMARKABLE difficulty falling. They have a hard time trusting. It was very surprising.
In the woods, we did a trust fall from a 3 ft high platform. The entire group stands below the platform facing each other with arms zippered together waiting to catch, and the "faller" did a NESTEA plunge off the platform. One girl freaked at the end and flung her arms out. I got backhanded across the nose, and the camp counselor guy got it in the eye. My nose FELT broken, but it wasn't. I am a bit bruised and swollen, but the cover-up hides it.
We did a couple more problem-solving, team building activities. The most interesting was the 12-ft wall. 4 people were at the top pulling you up, the rest were at the bottom pushing you up. With no rope, girl after girl - including both Ms. Hammond and me - went up a 12-foot wall and over the top!!! Amazing! My knees were shaking for a while. I had been the person whose thigh everyone put their foot on to get started up the wall, and it felt good to provide a solid foundation for the girls. It felt awkward to rely upon them to get me up the wall, but I guess that was the whole point, huh?
Last night I soaked in Epsom salts to soothe the muscles and calm the bruising. Today, I felt pretty good and had a fairly good teaching day.
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