"I'm a STAR!"

One of the first rules of classroom management is that you should save your "loud voice. At camp, when we want to get the kid's attention, it does no good to yell. Instead of yelling, one of the leaders or I will stand up front and put our finger on our nose. The children know that once they see a leader with their finger on their nose that they need to stop what they're doing, face front, and not be the last one to do it. The last child to be quiet and have his finger on his nose has to come up front, face his classmates, and do a star jump (crouch down and then jump up and explode, yelling, "I'm a STAR!").

Most of the children in latin america are what we call penosos or bashful and for this reason, a star jump is enough motivation to get the children to quiet quickly when they see a leader with his finger on his nose. However, this week, there was a group of children who enjoyed coming up front to do the star jumps. Some would wait and purposely be the last to put their finger on their nose and others would come up front to do the star jump even if they weren't the last.

The last day of Pilot II, I think the youth leaders felt they needed a better task for the last child with his finger on his nose and they started making them do push-ups! I had been on the side taking care of something and walked over and saw little Manuel doing push-ups along side Alexis, one of the leaders for the week. This continued for the rest of the day and was actually very effective.