NoCooperVille
I've got a confession to make.
Which is that everything I ever learned about teaching I learned at summer camp.
To be clear, when I first started I was not a good camp counsellor. However, things started to get better when I learned that kids really like stories - especially stories that you can start up anytime, anywhere and roll them out in instalments that can last an entire two week session.
And when I was working with ten year old boys the serial story that went over best was the 'Laughing Man' which I would alter and embellish as needed, taking off from starting points like the following:
"...Soon the Laughing Man was regularly crossing the Chinese border into Paris, France, where he enjoyed flaunting his high but modest genius in the face of Marcel Dufarge, the internationally famous detective and witty consumptive..."Did I feel bad about ripping off
J.D. Salinger?
Not really, especially given that he, too, had ripped off
Victor Hugo.
And did I ever tell the kids the story of the doomed romance of Salinger's kinda/sorta camp counsellor that surrounded all the laughter?
Of course not!
****
Littler e. starts her first job as a counsellor at a summer camp tomorrow.
Here's hoping she has as much fun, and learns even more, than I ever did.
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