Last October I went to the Lake District with my school as a mentor to year 8 students (aged 12/13). I went because I needed work experience working with young people in order to sign up for a place at Camp America next year.
But what I got out of it was far more valuble than I could have ever imagined.
The trip consisted of 4 days, each with a different activity for each group. These were:
Orienteering at Whinlatter
Brockhole National Park Centre and boat trip
A visit to the Pencil Museum, Castle Rigg vistit and shopping
Mountain walk through the hills and around Lake Windermere.
I know some of these sound boring (e.g. the pencil museum) but these are 12 yr old kids who came to the Lakes with an open mind. Well, most of them anyway...
I went on the same trip when I was in year 8 and didn't think it could be anymore tiring than it was. Everyday was a new activity with new places to visit, new friends to talk to, new home for a week... I remember thinking that the staff had it easy. They didn't have to do the activities; just stand around making sure we all behaved.
Then I went back as a mentor.
Up every morning before the kids, then making sure they all went to breakfast, then checking their bags and making sure they had their waterproofs, the list was never ending! And all that was before we left for activities. When we came back it was check everyone puts their muddy boots and coats in the drying room, go up have a shower, then the PROPER hard work began. Between the 6 mentors and a couple of teaching assisstants, we had to prepare 350 rolls for lunches the next day. Now that may not seem too hard, but when you've been running around after kids all day without a moment to yourself, stuffing 350 rolls with tuna and cucumber is the last thing you want to be doing. After the rolls were done, it was up to staff to organise evening activities and make sure the kids went to them.
Then came the horrible (but also fun) job for us mentors: BEING ON DUTY. This involved patrolling the corridors into the late hours waiting for the kids to go to sleep. Now you'd think after such busy days they'd be tired. Well, you're wrong. YEAR 8 CHILDREN HAVE AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF ENERGY. Most of which I think they got from their secret stashes of Haribo and other sugar filled sweets. We could be up there for hours (no jokes) before they all went to sleep/we gave up because we needed sleep.
It may seem like a non-stop week, it was the week where I never stopped learning.
I learnt how to share the responsibility of looking after 40 odd kids with other teachers. I learnt how hard teaching can be from talking to some of my own teachers. I learnt how to earn the respect of 40 kids, who by the end of the week were looking up to me and wanting to follow in my footsteps of being a mentor. I learnt how to look after them when they got homesick and how to dicipline them when they did wrong. I found out I can push myself beyond my limits: I didn't lose my temper, I pushed myself physically with all the work I did and best of all, I learnt how to enjoy the outdoors again. I enjoyed walking through the hills, I enjoyed visiting places again that I hadn't really appreciated when I last went to the Lakes 5 years ago and I enjoyed having independence and being away from home.
And it's this new found independence that makes me want to go out, explore the world and make the most of life.
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