Weekend of Rejuvenation

15 people I have never met before. We are sitting in a circle, wearing fake mustaches (which also can be great uni brows) and face paint, passing an imaginary whoosh ball, dancing in place, and absolutely laughing uncontrollably. Just another day at camp.

Last weekend was my staff training at Galileo Summer Quest. This summer I am going to be the Fashion and Design instructor at Galileo, teaching little boys and girls how to dream, draw, and create clothes of their own.

Many of my friends that I met since I became a teacher were completely shocked when I told them that I will be teaching fashion. I guess my teacher gear (Hush Puppy granny shoes and conservative Quaker-esk outfits) was not up to date with the current fashion trends. Since I have become a teacher I have had to completely recreate myself and my wardrobe to look more "mature." My lacrosse shorts and workout shirts were replaced with black slacks and non-gang colored blouses (turns out gangs have claimed blue, red, green, orange, and purple). Okay, I admit I have let myself go this year, but that makes this summer even more exciting. I am going to get the chance to find the creativity that I once had for fashion and mix it with something else I love: teaching.

After working in my completely dysfunctional school (it actually continues to get worse and worse), Galileo has been a refreshing reminder of how wonderful learning organizations can be. Galileo is ORGANIZED. They had us rotating in well structured stations covering topics such as "Pleasing Parents" to "Behavior management" (which involved me singing USHER all day). Their tips and advice were excellent and very practical. The instructors were excellent and engaging. Every moment they spoke I took mental notes on how to be more like them in my classroom next year. Galileo is POSITIVE. Every person there is a positive bundle of energy. If smiles are contagious, then at Galileo there was a full blown epidemic of happiness. But the thing is it was not fake cheesy happiness. It was sincere, inner goodness that people were sharing with each other. Screw Disneyland, because I found my new happiest place on Earth.

I could talk forever about Galileo (and trust me, you will hear about it all summer long), but the most amazing thing about it is the people I will be working with. I seriously cannot remember last time I have ever laughed this hard and this consistently. Ever moment people are cracking jokes, or doing random things for entertainment. On the first day of our training we all got mustaches (I got the evil villain stash) and we decided to see what else these fuzzy little stickers could be. Turns out they make great evil eyebrows, side burns, nose hair, hand puppets, and arm pit fuzz. Yes, some may call this immature, but I call it creative and damn funny. At camp we are given permission to be kids again and to have fun. Something that not many jobs allow these days.

After 2 days of 8am-6pm training, I feel like I have already joined a new family (some would say cult) of amazing, intelligent, witty, kind-hearted, friendly, open, creative, expressive, passionate individuals. Just thinking about this summer gets me all happy inside :) The more I think about camp, the more I can imagine myself working for an organization like Galileo that combines learning and fun. I think that this summer is going to help show me what my next step after teaching is going to be. We'll see.


-Ms. Q (for only 1 more day!!)

P.S. One of my favorite games is called whoosh ball. You pass an imaginary ball around until people say random things, such as jump and cheer (then every must jump and cheer). Other whoosh ball jems are James brown (kiss yourself, jump back, thurst), Elvis (jump back and say, "Thank you very much" while gyrating your hips), and my absolute favorite, EAT and CRY (I imagine that I am eating a banana split). haha