NOBLEBORO, Maine — Kids from all over the country have spent many relaxing weeks at Camp Kieve on Damariscotta Lake, where they've connected with each other; their educators; and have learned more about themselves. That's the foundation for a "how-to" book released by Kieve Wavus Education: "Kindness and Respect: An Experiential Approach to Social-Emotional Learning."
Charlie Richardson has worked as a teacher and coach in various public and private schools, but a lot of Maine kids know Charlie through his work at Camp Kieve; he's the director of education there. Richardson has been dreaming about writing a book packed full of advice and lessons learned at camp, and what educators can do to get the most out of their students; something he says is even more important this year.
"When they are obviously going to get a chance to get back in the classroom it’s going to look different," says Richardson. "Schools have been experimenting with experiential learning over time, they just didn’t call it that, but they know that kids need to get out of their seat. The way we used to learn way back in the day with the teacher upfront with a chalkboard and us behind desks doesn’t work for every child anymore. For us, it’s always been 'on your feet and out of your seat' and that’s how we learn; and we’ve adopted our programming that we have a camp now to be infused into schools throughout Maine."
The book is broken into sections of learning like, "Self Awareness," "Self Management," and "Responsible Decision Making;" each one packed with activities educators can use with their students. "I’ve been here since 1983 working with the leadership school and I’ve seen so many different types of schools and educators," Richardson says.
"One common thread; you could tell almost immediately when kids got off the bus for our programming the type of school and the type of week we were going to have just based on the culture. What we found right out of the gate was that the best schools had a teacher-student relationship that was different, they were much more collegial; they cared deeply about kids, and so that was kind of the common denominator. That’s what we do at camp and it gives us an opportunity to basically meld both of those things together.”
To learn more about Kieve Wavus Education, click here.