Ropes Course builds leadership skills

By Angie Vital Torres

Currently at Waldo there is a class called Leadership, and every year they go on a field trip to the Ropes Course. This is in Salem, only 20 minutes away from our school. Some of you might be wondering what the Ropes Course is. I interviewed two students from the Leadership Class and the teacher, who is Ms. Swinnnerton.

These are the questions that I had asked Ms. Swinerton:
Q: What is the ropes course?
A: "The ropes course is somewhere we go to interact with each other and to learn how to work with each other."
Q: When are you all going to leave and come back?
A: "We are going to leave around 8:00-9:00 a.m. and come back at 2:00 p.m."
Q: What kind of activities are the students going to do?
A: "Some of the activities that we’re going to do are the ropes course, Flying Squirrel, and the Zip Line."
Q: What is the Flying Squirrel?
A: "The jumping squirrel is when you’re attached to a harness and everyone is hanging on to a rope and they shoot you up 42 ft. up in the air."
Q: What about the Zip Line? What do you do there?
A: "The zip line is really fun! Again you’re strapped to the harness and you climb to the top of the tree and they have to attach you to a wire. Then you jump off the tree and slide down. It's super fun !"

After interviewing Ms. Swinnnerton I interviewed two students from that class. They were Diego Rodriguez and Monica Ochoa. These were the questions that were asked of them both:
Q: What do you expect to do in the ropes course?
A: "We think that we're going to be jumping in the air and climbing a lot of trees and building our leadership skills."
Q: Do any of you know what kind of activities you will be doing?
A: "Both of the teachers were talking about all of us getting to go on the Zip Line and on a Big Swing"
Q: Are you guys scared to go on those rides?
A: "Yup, were kind of scared to be going up in the air but we’re excited at the same time. I know that we’re going to have fun."
Q: I heard that you all will be learning how to work in teams and with one another. What do you think that will be like?
A: "I think that it’ll be a good chance to interact with people and to work together since we’re going to be in this class for the whole year."

That was the information that we got from interviewing Ms. Swinnnerton, Diego, and Monica. From what I heard the teachers and students are very enthusiastic about going to the ropes course. They’re also very excited to be going as a group and to be learning how to work together to build their leadership skills. I hope that they have a good time and that some of the other students from Waldo will go to the ropes course as well.