It's hard to believe that we're in the second to last week of summer camp! What's even crazier is that it is the last week for one of my co-counselors. It feels like summer just started. But with our head counselor back, and all of the camper troubles figured out, it will be nice to ride out these last weeks and really enjoy the experience before heading back to campus in August.
What activities worked well this week?: One activity that the boys really enjoyed this week was the paper airplane contest. All summer, the boys had been making paper airplanes during free time with various pieces of paper. This week, I decided to have every camper make a paper airplane, using whichever design they wanted, give their plane a name and a cool design. Then at the end of the day, we had a paper airplane contest where we flew each airplane in the gym and saw which airplane traveled the longest. The boys were all over it, and it was even better to see some of the older kids help the younger kids constructing their airplanes.
Any room for improvement?: The one thing that I want to improve before our last week of summer camp can also carry over to next year, if I am a camp counselor again. I want to keep a better organizational system of our craft supplies, so we know what we have before trying to introduce a craft that morning. My co-counselors and I plan on cleaning out our crafts tomorrow in order to see how we can best use them up in our final week.
What did I do right, in terms of leadership? How can I further develop this?: This week, I did well in terms of servant leadership. Though I typically display this type of leadership every week as a camp counselor, I was hyper aware of it this week. Since these are the final weeks of camp, I was making even more of a conscious to ask the campers what they wanted to do during their last weeks at summer camp, so I could carry these plans out and allow them to have the best end to the summer as possible. Reflecting on this, I should continue being my best servant leader every day I am leading, as it helps create a positive morale amongst the community you are leading, and will allow you to better envision the goals, needs, and wants of the people around you. This is something that I can exhibit in student teaching, in my leadership position in my sorority, and in life in general.
Any applications for student teaching?: This week my application for student teaching was cleaning up the classroom, or the camp room. Boy is it exhausting! Definitely something that you need to start doing a few weeks ahead of time, so you're not rushing to get everything organized and packed up.
Biggest takeaway from the week: The most rewarding in the entire world is seeing a 5 year old girl not only go off the low dive, but the high dive after spending the entire summer in fear of both of them. It may take a while, but encouragement pays off!
What activities worked well this week?: One activity that the boys really enjoyed this week was the paper airplane contest. All summer, the boys had been making paper airplanes during free time with various pieces of paper. This week, I decided to have every camper make a paper airplane, using whichever design they wanted, give their plane a name and a cool design. Then at the end of the day, we had a paper airplane contest where we flew each airplane in the gym and saw which airplane traveled the longest. The boys were all over it, and it was even better to see some of the older kids help the younger kids constructing their airplanes.
Any room for improvement?: The one thing that I want to improve before our last week of summer camp can also carry over to next year, if I am a camp counselor again. I want to keep a better organizational system of our craft supplies, so we know what we have before trying to introduce a craft that morning. My co-counselors and I plan on cleaning out our crafts tomorrow in order to see how we can best use them up in our final week.
What did I do right, in terms of leadership? How can I further develop this?: This week, I did well in terms of servant leadership. Though I typically display this type of leadership every week as a camp counselor, I was hyper aware of it this week. Since these are the final weeks of camp, I was making even more of a conscious to ask the campers what they wanted to do during their last weeks at summer camp, so I could carry these plans out and allow them to have the best end to the summer as possible. Reflecting on this, I should continue being my best servant leader every day I am leading, as it helps create a positive morale amongst the community you are leading, and will allow you to better envision the goals, needs, and wants of the people around you. This is something that I can exhibit in student teaching, in my leadership position in my sorority, and in life in general.
Any applications for student teaching?: This week my application for student teaching was cleaning up the classroom, or the camp room. Boy is it exhausting! Definitely something that you need to start doing a few weeks ahead of time, so you're not rushing to get everything organized and packed up.
Biggest takeaway from the week: The most rewarding in the entire world is seeing a 5 year old girl not only go off the low dive, but the high dive after spending the entire summer in fear of both of them. It may take a while, but encouragement pays off!