Today marks our third day of continuous snow. No, you're not late in reading this; it's almost April. I grow more and more convinced that the city I live in was named "ever-spring" as a ploy to encourage more people to move here where, in fact, it isn't always spring. 
The snow is really beautiful though, and yesterday it created such a great opportunity to bond with a student. I have been making appointments with my two sophomore classes. Usually we'll go out to lunch or dinner or just eat in the school dining hall. I was having a bit of trouble connecting with these classes, so I decided eating a meal together might be a good relationship-builder and ice-breaker. Last night, I went out with four of those students. It was snowing the entire time--nice, wet, fluffy flakes. As we walked back to my dorm, I told them we should make snow angels. They were initially supportive until they realized that snow angels were nothing like snowmen. Once they learned you have to lie down in the snow in order to produce a snow angel, they thought I was crazy. Then, I became determined that we really did need to make some angels. We moved around to a secluded and pristine patch of snow; I declared my intention and proceeded to produce a snow angel. They laughed and then helped me up and they marveled at my humongous angel. Now, it was their turn. They were nervous, but finally I convinced one girl to try it and soon another followed. The first girl sat in the snow, bemoaned her fate for a second, proceeded in making the angel, got up, and then took a picture of her angel with her cell phone. 
We probably stood admiring our angels for a good ten minutes, and then proceeded towards my dorm. My student was so excited about making a snow angel for the first time she was practically skipping all the way. I walked back up to my room marveling at how an untimely snow could create such a relationship-building opportunity.
I'll be starting a student activity corner (kinda like an English corner) with "games" as the topic. Each week, I'll be teaching them some games, and we'll talk about why we would use these games, what we can learn from them, etc. Games have a remarkable way of breaking down barriers of shyness, control, and lots of other stuff.
Preparations for summer camp have also begun. We're hoping for 180 students this summer--that'd be our biggest camp ever.
Maureen