Saddlerock, Teaching, & Learning

Dusty pants.
Sunburned neck.
Sore feet.
Droopy eyelids.
FULL heart.
  
An estimated 300 5th graders scampered up the Saddlerock trail in Wenatchee today. They visited stations like "landscape art," "smells of Saddlerock," "coyotes and cougars," "super sagebrush," and "mule deer and marmots," among others. About 60 to 90 of those students cycled through a station taught by ME!


Saddlerock, Wenatchee, WA --
pic from http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc33058.php

What began as a cause for nerves and lack of sleep ended as an incredible learning experience. I learned the power of visual aids (called realia) to catch the interest of the most BORED student, and I experienced teaching a subject to students who know more about the subject than I do! (HEY - YOU try teaching a lesson about deer to the son of an avid hunter!) I also learned the joys of team-teaching: if I totally space out about that canister of marmot scat I was going to pass around, my partner will remember for me!

Today was a step-up for me, teaching to REAL kids, and not just classmates pretending to be  kids. :)
Praise the Lord for small beginnings,
and Saddlerock field experiences with 5th grade students!
:)