This was an interesting week, as with the impending holiday, a lot of campers were on vacation. At the most, we had 14 campers, and at the least, we had 7! It was actually refreshing to have a smaller group, since it gave us the chance to do some different activities and crafts that we couldn't do with a larger group of people. What activities worked well this week?: Since the fourth of July was the Saturday of this week, each day we did a different "America" craft for the campers to take home. These ranged from handprint flags and handprint wreaths, to red, white, and blue tie-dye! The campers were really interested in the crafts this week, mostly because they followed a theme. Another activity that was a big hit was our glow in the dark party! We were faced with a pretty rainy day, so we decided to use one of the workout rooms for a giant dance party--with glow sticks! The kids had a blast and loved using the glow sticks to make all sorts of bracelets, necklaces, and games (ring toss was one in particular). Definitely better than swimming in the indoor pool! One last fun activity this week was sidewalk chalk. We let the campers use sidewalk chalk to draw fourth of July art on the sidewalk outside of the club! Definitely an activity to use again for when we have a bigger group; it was a blast! Any room for improvement?: I definitely think that I (along with my coworkers) need to develop a better game plan for dealing with stubborn campers and chronic complainers. For instance, this week, we had two campers who refused to swim. As a summer camp, we spend a large chunk of our time swimming. I was unsure of how to deal with their lack of participation head on, and then felt irritated when they complained that there was too much swimming. In related issues, there has been a lot of complaining from the campers. If one kid begins to complain, it seeps over to the rest of the campers, and pretty soon the camp environment begins to feel negative. While we try to combat the complaining as much as we can, my coworkers and I have discussed coming up with an additional plan. We will see how it progresses throughout the summer! What did I do right, in terms of leadership? How can I further develop this?: In terms of leadership this week, I have demonstrated my flexibility. With a low number of kids, this allowed our head counselor to take some time and complete other tasks during the day, such as billing and scheduling. While she was working on those items, this left myself and the other counselor in charge of the kids. We also had some days where we had to come up with additional activities on the fly to fill extra time. These activities were sometimes not planned, and led to some quick thinking and teamwork between myself and my coworkers. Both of these examples show my flexibility as a leader, and I continue to develop this throughout the summer by picking up additional tasks and other responsibilities when they are given to me...planned or not! Any applications for student teaching?: Backup plans are essential! This was something I knew coming in this summer, but it is still something to keep in mind for both camp counselors and teachers! During bad weather, we had to have a backup plan at camp. In student teaching, you need to have backup plans for when a lesson plan goes awry. Even if you think you have a good backup plan, make two...just in case! Biggest takeaway from the week: Siblings fight like siblings...even in summer camp! This week we had our biggest number of siblings at camp, and our biggest number of sibling spats. One key lesson I learned was to make sure siblings know that we cannot make exceptions for their behavior just because they are related. For example, hitting your brother because "he's your brother" doesn't make it okay! Campers have to treat all of their fellow campers with the same amount of respect. |
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AuthorAn early childhood major blogging about how both her education and leadership skills play out in her role as a summer camp counselor. Archives
August 2015
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