All done!

Wow, these past 3 weeks have been a blur of 400 girls, teaching 6 hours a day, and not enough sleep. But it's been fun. I was a part of Sally Ride Science Camp, a residential camp held at Stanford. We held 3 sessions and each session, a set of girls came for one week (at the whopping price of $1100/week!) and participated in activities all day long. They had a 3 hour class within a major of their choice (I taught Deep Sea Divas), they went to 2 workshops (some science related like Cabbage Juice pHun and some non-science like hip hop dancing), and they also heard from a guest speaker. These speakers were women in differen science industries. One time, a women from ILM came to talk about her job as an effects animator, another time a Stanford professor of brain biology spoke, and once a week, Sally Ride would video-conference with the girls.

What I learned... I absolutely LOVE working in an all-girls environment. In college, this was actually a passion of mine and i studied the effects of gender on education but this was my first experience with it firsthand as a teacher. If i didn't feel strongly convicted to stay in the public school system for now, then i'd be very tempted to move to an all-girls' private school right away. Granted, i can't make equal comparisons just on the basis of gender because the girls i taught this summer were extremely priviledged financially and educationally - they had exposure to a multitude of things my kids just don't and had parents who were invested in their education. However, I'd say that even apart from that, there's something about being in an all-girls' environment that has a lot of merit. So many of the really intelligent girls i teach during the school year get completely overshadowed by the louder, more disruptive kids (mainly boys) in the class. They learn to adapt to the "rules" of school and actually drop their interest in academics for fear of being called a "school girl." That's the general trend I see. Either that, or their interest in boys becomes so time-consuming that they just don't study as well. At this camp, the girls didn't have that. If you think about it, it was kind of a nerdy camp - i mean, it's a science camp... but these girls maintained a confidence level that went beyond just the fact that they were smart. For instance, when we asked them to write an ode/memorial to their dissected squid or squished/dead brine shrimp, some of them put theirs to a melody and had absolutely no qualms about singing it in front of the whole class. I don't know if that's possible in mixed-gender classrooms.

Aside from the students, i also had such an amazing time working with the women i did. Several of the teaching staff were from Castilleja or graduate students, and the counselors (who oversaw the girls all day and night) were mostly college students. No guys. I don't know - i just loved it. It was probably had something to do with the fact that they were all extremely intelligent, energetic women who really really cared about science education but the environment of all-women was really neat. We were so readily open with each other about things that i'm just not used to being open about in the work place. It was really funny when we all got our period around the same time. That happens, of course, when a bunch of women are together (they all go in-sync) but not usually so quickly. However, b/c so many of them worked at Castilleja and were already on the same schedule, they apparently pulled the rest of us into their cycle. Okay, maybe too much information - but that's just an example of the type of bonding that occurred. Besides the few days when all of our periods overlapped and we were overly emotional, it was a lot of fun, especially since we kind of all worked through the tired-ness of camp all together, united in a common goal.

oops - this may have been a bit long, but it's hard to summarize 3 weeks into one blog. more to come on camp thoughts... but now, time to go to the pool! I had so many firsts at Stanford - living on the Row (which was nice), not having internet access (arg, i hate not having a valid SUid anymore), and also going to the pool. They have a family lane on weekends! I love that! I barely know how to swim so i was always too intimidated to go to Avery aquatic center...but it's so nice there! I wish i had known that during my time as a student... I can be content for hours and hours just playing by myself and with the random kids who swim better than me. =)