As I said, I went to COPE this last weekend. There's some school that's had the last couple weekends reserved for us at COPE. They had a grant that let all of their seniors and juniors go, in two separate trips. They have about 50 of each, and the first weekend was the seniors' weekend. I wasn't at this one since it was my first weekend working at PDRC, but that was fine because a lot of the kids didn't end up coming. So there were only 35 or so of them. (I use the term "only" loosely, because that's still a ton of kids to try to get through COPE in a weekend. But we were lucky they didn't all show up, or it would have been much more stressful.) They asked the teachers how many of the allotted 50 kids were expected to show up when the juniors came, and they predicted about the same number. Thank goodness.
I'm not entirely sure what happened next. My guess is that the seniors who went, got back to school and told all the seniors who didn't go how awesome it was, and also told all the juniors that it's awesome. Because we had something ridiculous like 22 girls come up, and 24 boys, plus 5 teachers. Making a total of 51 people to get through the program. This is easily double what we consider a big group. Lucky for us, we had scheduled extra staff to come up, because although (pre-weekend) we were only expecting 35 people, we still had to staff for 50. Unlucky for us, a good deal of the staff that was supposed to come up had major problems come up, and weren't able to make it.
This is ok with me (except that these people had major problems, which is never good) because it means that, although I have done a COPE course in just over 2 years, I got to facilitate the entire time-- I was in charge of a group of 8 or 9 kids, sending them through the low ropes courses, making the Land of the Cony come alive for them. COPE is awesome. We pretend they've entered a different world, where magic is real and they have to do certain activities while they're there. One thing we do is tell them that the giant king stole the elf king's ring, and now they have to get the ring (a tire) off the giant's finger (a tall wooden pole), without touching the finger. Sometimes without touching the ring directly. As soon as they get it off, you tell them that the elf king just came and told you that the ring was actually keeping the giant asleep, and they have to get it back on right now, before he wakes up completely!
Another one we do is tell them they have to get across an "acid river," which is just a bunch of woodchips between two beams of wood on the ground-- and one side is a little more narrow than the other. But they can't step in the river (obviously. Who would step in acid?), they can't jump over it-- they must step-- and they have to get their entire team across. Once across, you tell them they did a good job, but unfortunately, they're all now stuck on the wrong side of the river and they need to get back. They usually get over the first time on the narrower side, and if they do it too quickly, you can add a new rule that on the narrower half, the acid unfortunately just concentrated a lot, and if you even put a limb over it, you lose the limb. So getting over on that side is out of the question.
There's tons and tons more elements like these two that we have them do, and they're all challenging and require the group to think. But what makes it really fun is that we get COPE bandannas that represent different handicaps. You can tie them over someone's eyes and blind them, around their mouth so they become a mute, tie up arms or legs to represent a broken limb, whatever. We've tied someone's hand to their leg before and gave them a hunch back. With all these handicaps, they still have to get everyone over, and they have to learn to use the entire team-- handicapped or not.
Another thing that makes it really fun is the kids themselves. They get into so much trouble. I had broken one kid's leg, and he flat out hopped into the acid river with the other leg, so he ended up breaking that leg as well, becoming a bigger burden on the rest of his team. Or as I was about to hand out handicaps while we were doing the giant's ring, one girl made the comment that I was probably going to injure all of the tall people, making it harder to get the ring off. When she said that, I looked her in the eye and said, "Good idea!" then proceeded to break a lot of legs and arms of the taller boys in the group.
A general rule we have set at COPE is that after you give them the objective of their activity, you send them on their way. Any questions they ask you, then answer is no. "Can we use the tree to cross?" "No." "Can I get on the other side and pull people over?" "No." If they come up with something clever that you kinda hope they'll still use, then instead of just saying no, you change it a little. "Can I use my coat as a bridge?" "No, you cannot." Eventually, they'll have asked enough questions and put enough restrictions on themselves, that you just start to feel bad for them, because you really have no idea how they'll get out of it. "Can I stand with one foot on each side of the river and help everyone else over?" "... Are you asking me that?" The idea is to try to teach them to be more independent, and to not look to their leaders to solve all their problems. If you've found a solution, then do it and don't second guess yourself.
And there's some times where you have to throw them a bone. While we were doing the acid river, the kids kept stepping into the river, or falling into it, until enough of them had injuries and couldn't use legs/hands, that I honestly couldn't think of a way they could get out of it. And they knew it, too, because they started joking about all of them just jumping in the river and doing a mass-suicide thing, that way they could start over. Haha. I quickly offered them a better way, by picking up two pine cones and telling them that the elves are watching them, and just feel sad watching them, so they've given me the power to heal two of their handicaps. The only quirk was that they all had to talk together and agree upon which two handicaps would be healed. Once they figured that out, they were still in a challenging place, but at least they had a way to get over.
It was a ton of fun. Those kids were awesome. And, as an extra bonus to me, there was this one point where we were sitting there waiting for somewhere between 15-20 minutes for our low-ropes course to be set up. Now, if anyone has hung with me and Nicky/Alex in the past, oh, two months, you should be fully aware of the different mind games I've been playing with them. I've done "If this is a hand, and this is a hand, is this a hand?" and we've played with my friend Princess Annie (called Apple Annie up a COPE), and we've done "This is 0, this is 1, this is 2, this is 3, this is 4. How many is this?" and Johnny Woop, and a couple others. I only have two of these mind games that they have yet to figure out, and for one of them, I need at least one other person who knows the rule to do it. But generally, they already know the tricks, so I haven't been able to mess with their heads as freely as I used to be able to. But, during this 15-20 minutes while we were waiting, I had 9 fresh minds that I could play with, and it kept them distracted until the course was set up for me. Love it.
We also got to play a couple games at night, like Yee Haw-- which was actually really fun-- and Who Sir Me Sir-- one of my favorites-- and Pineapple/Banana-- which we never got all the way through because everyone was too confused-- and a couple other fun little games. Maybe next time I go up, I'll try playing Wanna Buy a Duck with a few people. They were all having a lot of fun, which makes it like ten times more exciting for us, because we're the ones helping them have fun, and then they're in good moods and want more. And, it's not just the participants I get along with so well, but also the other facilitators. It never fails to amaze me-- I go up there barely remember the name of two facilitators, and by the end of the weekend, I feel like I have 6 new really close friends. It's really cool.
Unfortunately, I had to work on Sunday at PDRC, so I couldn't stay up the entire weekend. It was fine and everything, I was there for most of it, but I just worry that since I wasn't there for the full time, I won't have made as much of an impression on their lives as they did on mine. They were all really awesome kids, all 46 of them, and I wish I could know that they'll remember something about me. Not necessarily my name, but just something so that I know I'll have made a difference to them and made them better in some way. It's times like this where I'm positive that I should be a chemistry teacher, because teachers always change lives, and that's really something I want to do. Make other's lives better.
Coming home early ended up being ok, though, because work was really awesome on Sunday. That's a story for another post though, seeing as this one is already way too long haha. But don't worry! It's a wonderful story, so it will still come. :)
To sum up, though, COPE is awesome all the time and I had a great weekend.
To sum up, though, COPE is awesome all the time and I had a great weekend.
2 comments:
COPE does sound awesome. :)
So does work on Sunday.
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