1. Our JourneyGrade 9 – Week Without Walls By: Jennifer Whetter

2. Rock Climbing FUN! PERSERVERANCE! UH-OH I’M STUCK

3. Rock climbing: (Main ESLR we worked on: Complex thinking) Rock climbing is one of the only activities that did not require team work for you are not rock climbing in groups – but it really required complex thinking on the spot. If you went up one way, then you got stuck, you had to use complex thinking and either find a different route or use complex thinking to find different holds. While climbing, you also had to have the knowledge or somehow gain the knowledge on where to put your weight to conserve your energy. It was only the second time I had climbed on real rocks and other than that I had not climbed since 5th grade. I was a bit nervous at the beginning, and it took me a while to get to the top, but I finally made it to the top after many obstacles. This was my biggest accomplishment of the trip. Rock Climbing

4. Caving

5. Caving Main ESLR we worked on: Personal management, Collaboration To get anything done in our group for caving we had to work together as a group by each doing our role. On a personal level we had to have good personal management and take our role seriously in order for collaboration to work. For me, caving was not one of the best things we did because I am very paranoid about bugs yet I love to explore. This was something that me uncomfortable that I overcame. I overcame the challenge of being scared of bugs because of the fact that I was so excited to explore new things and that I was not scared of getting muddy – I just wanted to have a good time. The pros of the experience outweighed the cons.

6. School Service

7. Main ESLR we worked on: Global citizenship, Collaboration The preparation for school service and the actual pursuing of the teaching tested many of our ESLR’s. The preparation forced us to have good personal management in order to get everything done. It especially tested Madyson and I because we took the leadership roles and had to make sure everyone was on task and knew what to do. Preparing and actually teaching tested our tolerance for each other and collaboration because we had to work together to create a lesson and we had to work together actually teaching. For example, if Roy was teaching, but the kids were not as engaged as they should be, everyone else should take the initiative to jump in and help him. Global citizenship is the most obvious ESLR, of course, because we were putting ourselves out there and helping those in need. As for a personal reflection, this was definitely something that made me the most uncomfortable, especially taking the leadership role. My personality is not loud and out there which made it hard to get people to listen to me, and made it uncomfortable to be strict. I slowly started to overcome this as the morning went on by realizing that we were not getting anything done and that I had to take control. Overall, the teaching experience was definitely worth it and I definitely got new respect for my teachers. At the end of the morning SIS presented a computer and other supplies to the school. Although my group did not get to do our fundraising activity, this showed me how much SIS as a whole had really helped the local Qing Yuan school. School Service

8. Biking

9. Biking Main ESLR’s we worked on: Communicating effectively Biking was very painful! But, the scenery was definitely worth it. It was absolutely beautiful! One of the thinking I noticed we worked on was yelling out to the person behind us that there was a ditch or a huge puddle. I think I did a pretty good job on this accept one time when there was a huge ditch, but it was way out of the way. I thought that Madyson would notice it, but I looked back a few seconds later and she was lying in the ditch with her bike over top of her struggling to get up. It was actually really funny, but I decided to go help her up then we laughed about it together later.

10. Team Building

11. Team Building Main ESLR we worked on: Working Collaboratively One of the main team building activities we did was building a catapult. Of course, hence the name, we worked on working collaboratively. I believe my group worked extremely well together, when one person gave an idea, all people considered it. Although we did not come up with an amazing design, the way we worked together made it effective.

12. Pan Family House

13. Main ESLR we worked on: Personal management The scenery at the Pan family home was breath taking. We stopped at the top lookout of the house and did a sketch and a sound scape. Although getting there was not the best, and I would have definitely loved to do something else instead, the scenery of the fields, village and caste towers were amazing. This tested our personal management because it required us to be respectful of the Chinese culture no matter our opinion. Pan Family House

14. Camping

15. Main ESLR we worked on: working collaboratively The main activity we did while camping was building a tent. This tested my group’s collaboration to the extreme. I got extremely frustrated, and through the actions and what others said I could tell the others were to. No one was listening to others ideas and the gods were just not on our side. The rough journey made it a lot more pleasing when the tent was done because I was happy that we at least had a shelter. Camping