Tomorrow begins retreat week for with our middle schoolers. 7th graders hang out and do some day camp activities in the local area and go off for a hike and overnight at a camp in Malibu, the 8th graders get to choose between a cabin camping trip near Big Bear Lake or a backpacking trip in Joshua Tree, and the Frosh do a 40 mile canoe trip down the Colorado River. For a lot of faculty, retreat week is an ordeal. Planning and orientation meetings for the faculty most often involve a lot of eye rolling and sighing, but I have to say that I'm one of the freakish people for whom retreat week is kind of a highlight during the year. I guess since I like to camp retreat is a week out of my humdrum life when I get paid to hang out with teenagers and not do paperwork. In my view, on balance, it's not such a bad deal at all. The additional payoff is that we get back on Thursday afternoon and the school gives us Friday off. This year I'm heading off to Joshua Tree with my group of nine eighth graders. I don't know my group of kids particularly well, but then, that's why we go on retreat … I'm hoping that a good time will be had by all. In all the years that I've been going off on these retreats I've only really had one year when the dynamics of the group made the week a living hell so the odds that we'll have a great time are greatly in our favor, but you just can never tell until you are in the thick of things …
Wish us luck!
Ambookgeek's Blog 
YAY! This sounds like SO much fun! I guess I'd be one of the crazy one's who'd look forward to this too! Who wants to sit back and do paperwork? I'd like the 40 mile canoe trip though:)
don't jinx us!