We finished our week off strong today at story power camp! We were overjoyed to interrupt our usual routine in order to fit in a skype session with Pam and the students at Red Rose School in Kenya. I sat off to the side with one student, Wayde, who had been having trouble engaging in the day’s activities. As we listened to the conversation the class was having with the Kenyan students, he started to warm up to me and to the camp in general.

We talked about everything from video games to potato chips, vegetarianism to college life. As we were walking back to the classroom, Wayde stopped and asked me why we had to leave at lunchtime. He then re-entered the classroom in a completely different headspace—ready to read, to write, and to work hard. Wayde struggles a little bit with reading, but once he felt more connected to Litworld, to me, and to the goals of the class, he warmed up, and enjoyed reading about Superman.

As the day continued, he became very involved with our playground game Cat and Mouse, which involves partnering up, running, and tagging. Watching him laugh and knowing that he felt like he belonged in our classroom community absolutely made my day!

-Emily H