Day 1 at Camp . . .

I spent the day with Dawn and two of our students in the Intergenerational Leadership session where Peter and two other presenters gave us a primer on components of system thinking.  It was review for me, but new learning for Dawn and the students.  It also once again confirmed the work that we are doing because many of those same components are influencing our journey.  I was so proud of our students for the level of engagement they had in the conversations, for sharing their thinking with about 80 adults, and for sustaining through the activities.  They were great contributors and other adults in the room were also impressed with them.  There is more to come as we have two more days of learning with Peter focused on the principals of system thinking.

Our other team members attended different sessions with the teachers working on modeling and our other two students engaged in Systems Thinking Level I.  Reports from them were positive so it was a good day for all.  The one negative theme that we all expressed was the amount of information shared over a long day without time for personal reflection and team sharing.  Tomorrow will start with a team meeting, something that we felt was needed as closure for the day.  There is so much to learn placing the presenters in a difficult situation as they make choices on how to use the time.

The multiple swimming pools make it difficult to sustain during breaks when we walk outside for a little heat because the hallways are cold and the meeting rooms only a little warmer at times.  The kids have been able to get in the pool, but I haven't as Dawn and I have much work yet to do to prepare for Monday morning's presentation.  I could have tonight as we were discussing our power point by one of the pools, but chose to come in and blog instead.  Maybe tomorrow. 

Lunch and dinner were buffets with great food.  A lot of salad choices and multiple desserts.  I was able to walk by dessert this afternoon, but not this evening.  I can already feel my pants getting tighter.