Dear Mom, Dad, and sissies,

This week at camp was really busy! I was assigned to Bunkhouse number 3. We are working on picking out a name for the bunkhouse. The campers and counselors in my bunkhouse all seem pretty cool. I am now following them all on Twitter, so I can see their updates. I have also bookmarked their blogging websites. I think most of them have done the same with mine!

I made sure my Minecraft account was up and running. I logged in Multiplayer and saw a little bit of the campgrounds, though I was pretty confused! I am looking forward to having our campfire there. Hopefully it will happen next week!

I set up my WordPress account, Marcey’s Blog. This is where I will be posting my reactions to videos as well as my weekly letters home to you! I personalized the site a little bit! I posted my first blog posts, ones that I wrote last week but just got around to posting this week, since it took a bit to get the accounts set up. They include my response to the Michael Wesch video and my first weekly letter home!

This week I talked about the shape of stories based on a video by Michael Vonnegut. I retold the story of one of my favorite movies, Mean Girls! I also read a chapter from a book by my bunkhouse counselor, Bryan Alexander, called Digital Storytelling. I got to explore his website too.

This week, I had to do three Daily Create assignments. These are all really quick and fun. So far, they have been one of my favorite part about camp. I like being ability to express myself and having my expressions be appreciated by others! It’s a nice feeling! For one, I took a picture of the sky. For another, I recorded myself saying “I love DS106″ ten times. And finally, I took a picture of my messy bunkhouse (room)! I’m sure my fellow campers were shocked!

On Wednesday, I joined my first campfire. I had to install Google Chrome and it seems like a pretty sweet application! I am excited I finally branched out and got it. The Google Hangout program was awesome! I didn’t realize you could video chat with up to 10 people on the internet! What an exciting new discovery. I can’t wait to tell all my roommates about it. Now we can all watch the Bachelorette while on Google Hangout, and it will be just like we are all together at school (rather than dispersed across the country). The internet is such an amazing creation. I am able to carry and develop relationships with people without having to take a step! I met my new camp directors and some of the counselors at the campfire. I was the only student, I believe, but I felt empowered nonetheless! I talked about my involvement with children and their never-ending imaginations. It was exciting to take something that I am so passionate about, education/children, and discuss it with experts of other fields (not implying that I am an expert), internet culture/digital story-telling. I have included the recording of our campfire session. Maybe it will spark some thoughts! Although joining around the campfire was both kooky and fun, I definitely took something more from it. I am learning to put no limitations on my thoughts and ideas, and to let my imagination go wild!

I am really enjoying camp! I’ve gotten a bit behind because my new job (on the campgrounds..) started, so I have been working a lot! Hopefully next week will go a little smoother! Still transitioning! Miss you!

xoxo Marcey