like a bird in the wilderness

Just back from Dorset, England where I was with 75 students from Laar en Berg. It was a workweek for the English-language MYP (Middle Years Program). Beautiful place, on the Southern English coast. For those who have read novels by Thomas Hardy, you will know exactly where I am coming from. I was on a very long hike one evening, up to my knees in mud and water, travelling in hidden corners of the English countryside, mixing with wild horses, cows, and warthogs and feeling like a bird in the wilderness. I now have a bad cold and destroyed pants and shoes as a souveneir. But for the students it was an introduction to the true English soul.
Notable from this trip: there were daily classes given at The Old Malthouse in Swanage, where we stayed (used to be a boarding school for 250 students and evidently will be again soon). The 75 students were divided up into five groups, who had to devise an Olympic bid for an imaginary country. Therefore, issues such as planning, logistics, design, utilization of resources, security, marketing and promotion, etc. were discussed in the development of the bids. On the final day, each group made a presentation, after which an "Olympic Committee" awarded on of the countries the Games. I observed the five different groups over the course of three days, and I liked the way each of the teachers (all British teachers from the staff there) had a different didactic strategy--there was a lot of diversity. Different seating/table designs were employed, which led to varying degrees of inter-group collaboration. Some groups were clearly more inclined towards abstract thinking, others were "doers." Some groups were more involved with making a beautiful visual presentation, others were more preoccupied with a well-worked out idea.