Helping Asians Help Themselves
English World Cup Summer Camp – Skills night
Life for students at the Goducate 2010 English Summer Camp has not consisted merely of classroom lessons, English corners, and team games. On skills night students were able to choose one of a variety of skills ranging from self-defence to cake baking, while of course practising their English at the same time (even during the skills class on learning Spanish!)
Team flags, team cheers, team shirts. It was impossible to miss evidence of team spirit at the Goducate LifePegs (www.lifepegs.com) 2010 English Essentials Summer camp, especially at the daily pep rallies and at sports time. But on Team Spirit Day (Wed, Aug 4) it was even more evident as students and coaches turned up in their most eyecatching, creative, even outlandish, gear.
At sports time every afternoon what was evident was not only team spirit but also keen healthy competition for points that each of the leagues (Storm Alliance and Blaze United) would accumulate throughout the camp for the English World Cup. The highlight of the sports activities was an Amazing Race type of relay held at Nanhu Park on Sat morning (Aug 7), with students having to perform a specified task at each of the checkpoints.
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Lifepegs 2010 English Essentials Summer Camp kicks off – Some 200 students registered for this year’s English Essentials Summer Camp, which kicked off on Aug 1, in Changchun, in northeast China. The camp is run by Lifepegs (www.lifepegs.com), which is a Goducate lifeskills activity organization in China. The students will spend 2 weeks immersed in English morning, noon, and night for 11 days at the camp, through regular classes, English corners, and meals with teachers, followed by 2-3 days on a trip out of town with the teachers.
The theme for this year’s camp is English World Cup, so there is a soccer feel to the whole camp. On arrival the students underwent an assessment test before being assigned to one of 8 teams (classes)—Voltage, Dynamite, Torpedo, Blaze (which make up the Blast United league), or Avalanche, Cyclone, Surge, Lightning (which make up Storm Alliance league). The two leagues will be competing with each other day by day for the English World Cup, through games of skills and other special activities. Five to six volunteer coaches (teachers) who come from the USA, the Philippines, Singapore, and Australia, have been assigned to teach team, and the camp is administered by a team of referees.
Special activities for the first couple of days have been the decoration of classrooms and the creation of team flags.
– Vi, a volunteer from Singapore