In my first years of teaching, I was seeking to find myself as a teacher, and as new teachers do, working to develop my own style in the classroom. I turned to mentors I had within my school and from my student teaching experience for advice and coaching. I also spent time revisiting the lessons of my ‘secondary education’ degree. I went through old notes, revisited my favorite teaching textbooks seeking any tips they might have to help me bring my classroom to life. When these outlets did not work, I found myself going to an unusual outlet for inspiration: summer camp.

Having been a summer camp employee for some time, I began wondering if the style of teaching that summer camp employs could work in the classroom. Although the format is different, the goal of most summer camps is no different than schools: to educate kids and have them grow during their time with us. The lessons and curriculum are less rigid than the content one might see in a World History or English class but learning still occurs.  Also, through my years of observation of camp, it was easy to see that those experiences and learning lessons were highly impactful on their participants.

I spent time thinking about my camp experiences, and about those instructors in the camp setting. What did they do that I could mimic in my classroom? Summer camp has always viewed itself as the ‘fun uncle’ of traditional school: all the same learning, but achieved in a dynamic and more engaging way. I wondered what it would be if the world of summer camp was more of a complement to school; one where the ideals of camp could play out in classrooms beyond the usual June, July and August. So, I gave it a whirl, and what I found was results. Kids responded enthusiastically to my class. Grades went up. I was recognized for my innovation in the classroom, and learning goals were achieved.

It goes without saying that the summer camp community could learn a lot from schools. But at the same time, schools could benefit from a lesson on the learning that happens at camp. After careful thought, I began preparing my lessons to feel more like camp. To do so, I used four guiding principles that seemed to be central to all great camps: create memorable moments, build to something, foster community, and embrace fun. Outlined below, consider how your classroom or school could embrace these camp principles to increase learning at your school.

Create Memorable Moments. Summer camp embraces magic. They do so because magic, and magical moments are memorable. They stick in a child’s mind and come to define a certain experience. The memorable moments that camp creates are often baked in magic. They are often unpredictable and out of the ordinary. In this way, kids will talk about them for the rest of the summer, and then well beyond this too. As I taught, I began looking for opportunities to create memorable moments within my classroom. Sometimes big, sometimes small, I sought opportunities to do things differently. I wanted moments to occur each week in class that were unpredictable. This unpredictability would drive students to be curious everyday, and want to come back for more learning. That is the essence of camp-you never know where the next learning surprise will come from. So while I would share the general outline for where we would be headed every week in my classroom, I sought to pepper in to my lesson plans creative, and impactful memorable moments. How can you create memorable moments in your class or in your school? What will be your lessons that will be talked about at the dinner table, or be excitedly texted about amongst the students eager to come to you classroom?

Build to something. Many teachers will look at this and think, ‘Yes, I build to something. It’s called a test!’ I don’t disagree, nor do I seek to take on current evaluation strategies of students. Rather, I would argue that you can get more out of your students when you build towards a common, collective goal. Camps do this effectively through building towards a rite of passage ceremony, or through a major competition, or by setting a common goal for the group. With schools focusing so much on the individual education of each child, we forget the positive impact of group goals (which also can benefit the individual learner). Consequently, in my classroom, I began setting big group goals that had less to do with grades and more to do with accomplishments of the group. What were we doing to advance ourselves up that mountain of learning? How would we know when we were on top? What are you trying to achieve with your whole class? What challenge might they buy in to that would motivate on them a daily or weekly basis?

Foster community. Camp outpaces schools in their creation of community. At camp, you have your bunk, your cabin group, your campfire-each of these settings instills a sense of community. It happens through their songs, through their activities and by allowing for deeper relationships than can be achieved in a 50-minute daily history lesson. An important part of community building at camp occurs when they offer campers activities that pose as challenges. Groups must work together to overcome those challenges, and in doing so, they feel a stronger sense of community (camps are superb at this, and why camp/school partnerships are so important). In the absence of these sorts of challenges, community can be created by giving a voice to all members of your community. In my classroom, we used to start with 5 random questions asked to a new person each day to get to know someone better. This had nothing to do with the lesson, but rather it had everything to do with building a classroom culture that felt like a campfire setting. What can you do to promote a sense of community and belonging more in your classroom?

Embrace fun. Initially when I was described by veteran teachers as the ‘fun teacher,’ I viewed this as the professional kiss-of-death. Thoughtful, hard-working, impactful-these were all words that you wanted to be used to describe you as a teacher. ‘Fun’ was nowhere near that mix. However, in camping, what I found was the best teachers were the most fun. Camp fully embraces fun in a way that can seem foreign to many traditional educators. Camp has realized that some of the stickiest learning a child can do is baked in something that is fun. Kids are attracted to fun more than they are things that aren’t fun. So, I got more confident in my teaching abilities, and embraced the fact that I was known as the ‘fun’ teacher. Do you offer moments of fun and enjoyment in your classroom? Do kids smile in your class? What can you do to add fun back into learning?

There are many more ways that camps can make schools better, and vice versa. But, if you find yourself stuck on how to bring your classroom or school to life, campify your classroom and give these summer camp learning principles a try.