#3 MS Team Building Trip

On Monday, October 19, our Middle School took a trip to Norval Outdoor Education Centre. The trip was the worst thing that has happened in grade seven this year. I went to Norval last year and it was pretty much the same, but this year we had a drum circle. There was a guy who led the circle who didn't talk very much so it seemed like he couldn't talk. He also got really excited, and started to sweat a lot. The drum circle was really pointless, but I'm not sure if it was because I wasn't feeling well or if it was really just pointless. In the morning we had to do low ropes. It was really boring because it was like the exact same thing that we did last year. Although the challenges were boring, our team seemed to not have any trouble solving them.


Our team was great at the challenge where you had to get a tire off of a twelve foot pole. Many ideas were presented and the one that worked was when Hannah stood on my shoulders and pushed the tire off. Our team was great at coming up with ideas to try. We also would always listen to each other when someone had an idea or something to contribute. Respect was shown most of the time in our group. Everybody would contribute anything that they thought would help the group. Our group always stayed positive and would encourage each other and cheer everyone on. But sometimes our group forgot that there is no "I" in team.

In the second challenge we had to get all of our team members across a wire that was about 30 feet long. We were unable to complete the challenge because we weren't letting people say their ideas, and if we were, we wouldn't try them. Also there were two people in our group, including me, who didn't get to even try when some people had already gone up to six times. Our team had stopped thinking about each other and started putting themselves first. Our team didn't ever start to put others first again, so we didn't complete the second challenge.


Norval was the worst thing that I have had to do this year in grade seven. Many people do not enjoy Norval and would prefer if it were not part of the Middle School trips. If you are planning to go out for a day to do fun and exciting things, I would suggest that you do not go to Norval. Instead of going to Norval I would have rather spent the day at school doing school work. For an exciting day out go to somewhere like Canada's Wonderland or another kind of place you enjoy. If I had the choice, I would not attend the trip to Norval again.