Girl Geeks at LEAP

For the past 6 years, Trish and I have offered programs at WLU's LEAP camp in July. LEAP is Laurier's Enriched Academic Program - a pretty pretentious name for a summer camp eh? The Dean of the Faculty of Ed at WLU has a background in enrichment and was committed to providing a camp experience with unique programs offering higher level thinking challenges for bright and gifted learners. Because this was along the line of our McQuarrie enrichment program, several of us at the centre became involved in designing camps which might fit the bill. I didn't actually run a camp in the first summer, but have done so every year since. My camps have always had a technology focus - Computer Capers, Computers and Beyond, Technology Rocks, Rockin' in the Google World, Cloud Nine Computing, Techno-Zombie Fest, and for the last 2 years - Girl Geeks at LEAP.
This year, Trish and I each led our camps during the week of July 6 - 10. Trish did Computer Capers for Gr. 1 - 3 in the morning and Computers and Beyond for Gr. 4 - 6 in the afternoon, I did Girl Geeks at LEAP for Gr. 6 - 9 all day.
A special highlight this year was that our niece Clio was in Trish's afternoon camp and Alana was with me for the week! It was wonderful to spend time with them in this different environment, away from family parties :) and immersed in a world of creative projects using tech. Alana made an amazing website where she showcased her writing and photo-editing talents - you can check it out here. These pics show Alana in action creating Stop Motion and green-screen video - 2 of the girls' favorite projects! Here is a link to her group's Stop Motion Video. It's a bit of a 'mash-up' of styles, however, they had so much fun experimenting with different ways to create Stop Motion using the iPad app Lego Movie Maker. And the girls needed very little instruction from me for any of the projects they did - they just dug right in and figured everything out themselves - one of the joys of working at LEAP, and with gifted kids!

On the Wednesday evening of camp week, Alana and Clio came for dinner and a sleepover. We had a little belated birthday party for Clio, had some fun at the park, enjoyed a campfire with treats and had tons of fun!

This was my best year at LEAP for sure. I had 20 amazing young girls AND Alana. It can't get better than that! However, I expect that this was my last year. In my first couple of years, I had just started my job in IT and LEAP gave me a place to try out all kinds of new tech ideas when I didn't have my own class. Now that I'm retired, I'm not sure I have the same incentive, nor do I feel the same motivation. I love it, but I think my time has expired. What a phrase. It's time for me to move on - that's better! Thanks LEAP! You offer a unique experience in summer camps for the right kids and I've enjoyed being part of it!