Training 2

I can't believe I just finished the second training for camp and that I'll be working in less than 20 days!   I am glad to be back with the sophomores, the division is huge, but I think it will be interesting to see how things play out this summer.  This training was way better than the first one, it went by so quickly.  It was the usual situation where everyone played a few games, but then we walked around the camp doing a "scavenger hunt" and got to know the specialists.  Then after that we met our division and then it got real about sexual harassment and ended with us getting our shirts.  This one was cool because we actually got to know who we would be working with and not just sitting there distracted.  I am excited to see what happens for the rest of the summer now that I saw some of the people that I will be working with for the 49 days of camp!

Summer Camp Round 3

I am glad that I am returning for a 3rd summer to work at camp.  I emailed back saying I would work there not knowing what to expect, and as always there were quite a few surprises.  One of my classes was a travel course so right before I went abroad I was asked about a leadership position for a different age group at camp then got various emails that I could not keep up with.  After a bit I ended up getting moved back to the age group I worked with last summer and the group I was excited to work with again!  I am so excited to be back at camp even knowing every year is going to be different and that it's a huge learning curve.

That first training was so awkward, I was still part of this new division and ended up showing one of the games with the two guys that I would be working closer with during the summer.  Then I showed another game and this time I wasn't paying attention and when the director said, walk I was more focused on walking and thinking of a question to ask when he said "Name a c..." I was thinking color then realize he didn't ask for color and yelled out Asia to find out he said country!  SUCH an awkward moment, but hey that's camp honestly messing up is part of the job.  I was able to meet one of the girls I was working with and she seemed really sweet, young, but she seemed excited about the job.  The other girl I met in the division was nice as well and I could see myself working with them during the summer.  Pizza and salad for the first night of training, not bad!  Then it was the usual talking about 21st century and I could not focus during this since there is a skills gap and was just getting frustrated with the US education system.  Training ended and after I talked to a director, I went downstairs to turn in a form and a second after I entered there was the camp director and she pointed out how awkward it was, I just laughed because it seemed to be my theme of the night.

Then the next day I get the call from the director saying I was with the sophomores.  This was great because that meant I will have an easier summer job than having to work with a new age group.   I was a little upset learning that I wouldn't get to work with the people I had just met, but I am open minded and whatever happens, happens.  I went to the next training and they announced the change, which at that point I was cool with it and one of the division leaders was excited to have me.  I went through the night without access to the online account, but I learned a little bit. It was just interesting to see how the rest of the summer would go being at such an odd interesting point.

School Day Camp Style Games

Luckily for me, I got to experience a little practice version of camp!  The camp was hosting a few schools at the camp, and some of the counselors were able to help out and lead the kids, and I was one of them! It's been a lot of fun so far! Monday afternoon I went to the training were were learned a bunch of games we would get to play.

Games:

Pass the face- Basically silent telephone. Start in a big circle then I would make a silly face, like stick out my tounge. The person to my left would then have to copy the face, turn into the circle, and pass it to the next person. It's is so simple, it's a great time filler when you have 2 minutes at a station left. Kids will ask can we play telephone, just say this version is more fun (and there are no inappropriate words if you kids are at that age).  Also can be pass the motion, do it fast and it's like a wave.

Spot the difference- have the kids pair up. One of the campers would need to stay really still, and the other camper would have to memorize what they look like!  The memorizer would have to keep their eyes closed, while the still person changes something about them. Then the memorizer opens their eyes to 'spot the difference'. 

Steal the Cheese- Take tenis balls, or any small objects students can grab, and put them into the center of the area that you can play.  Split the students into groups, I find 4 groups work well so you can have each in a 'corner'.  Then place a hula hoop, or bucket/box, in-front of each group to be where the team deposits the 'cheese' or tennis ball.  The team sends one person at a time to go 

Gaga- The players go into a pit and the goal is to score points by using a soft ball and having it hit the other players leg, between their knee to foot.  Part of the game is bending to protect your legs but you also have to hit the gaga ball to be able to score points on others.  This game is a lot of fun and can get competitive! 

Elves, Wizards, Giants- This is a more interactive version of rocks, paper, scissors with running.  This game starts by splitting everyone into two teams then teaching the movements, for Elves which is a crouch and hands on your head as ears, Wizard which is standing up with your hands out in front like you are doing a magical spell, and Giants where you put your hands over your head and are "big".  The giant beats elves, elves beat wizards (duck under their magic), then wizards beat giants. The team determines one move and a back up and then goes up into a line across from the other team in the line.  There are boundaries for this game and then on a count of three the two teams put up their pick and if it was giants vs wizards, the giants would run across the field and try to catch the wizards who would turn around to go back to their end zone.  Anyone who was tagged joins the giants team and then the teams pick another one to continue playing until one team has everyone on their side.

Indoor foosball- This is a neat sit-down game with large beach balls that have goals and the players pass them to each other to get goals, but you have to get them past the other team.  

We also played the games I wrote about in my ice breakers post!  

Last year this blog was a fail... This year, I hope to write down the highlight experiences!

So I realize that I was all excited about keeping a blog about my camp experience last year, but I ended up being exhausted after camp and then once my class started, any free time I had I worked on homework or slept!  THIS YEAR, I want to keep a blog, just so I can remember all the crazy great camp experiences!  Maybe some of the moments from this year will remind me of the hilarious and adorable-ness actions of last year.

I'll start off by saying, I was not able to go to the first training, but the first one I went to went really well.  It was nice to see some of the returning staff members from last year!  I was just shocked that I was the only person who ended up being moved to a different group...


Gold Otters!  I'm actually excited and as always a little nervous to be with this age group.  I'm not that nervous because all the girls I worked with last year are going to be in this age group!  I am so excited to see how much some of the girls have grown over the past year... and then I'm nervous because how are they going to re-act to having the same counselor again?  I am hoping they are glad to see me back...

It was very interesting to see the few returning counselors. If I had not met some of the people I did at camp, I probably would have been looking for a different camp environment, but they really hire some awesome people. I was glad to see the other bus counselor, she is so cool, nice, and down-to-earth.  The girl that I go to college with was actually back at camp, it's great to see her walking around camp every once and a while.  Then the other counselors from last year, it was nice to see them all back and see how they were over the year and that they still really enjoy the camp job.  The ceramics specialist was back as well and that was nice!

More interesting than seeing returning staff was the new staff.  Most just graduated high school, but there were a lot of high school juniors as well.  I think my group will be pretty good, one of the other girls was a counselor before at another camp and the other counselor seems like she will get along with a group well.

Training #3

So I have gotten a little behind because I was disappointed with being switched from the older kids (still am).  I'm going to keep these ones shorter so that I can write more about games that were played.

The third training I showed up and got my name tag that now said I was part of the "gold rabbits". This is my new 2nd graders.  I ended up sitting and talking to a girl I recognized from high school -even though I never talked to her at kp- and a girl I met at CPR training, I have to admit all of the counselors I have meet are pretty awesome. We all sat for 2 hours listening to a lecture about "boys" and how they need different reactions. This was interesting, except that I have an all girl group at camp, so it doesn't apply to me now and I'm still to young to care that it may relate to me later on.

Then it was lunch time, which was good as always. After that we split into our divisions. I am now a Freshman and learned that a girl I meet at first aid is in the division. We got a tour of the camp, which is  much bigger than I expected, such a gorgeous camp! Of course during this I had to go move my car for someone... such a pain.

After the tour they did a role call, and I got the awkward "new counselor" even though I was just new to the group. Then I met the group leader and made a group sign.  I don't remember doing anything after this, maybe we sang camp songs? I don't know, but I think the day just ended and the school days started!

*Also I am no longer a "group leader" which works for me because now I'm officially a counselor and can just play with the campers without worrying about allergies and such.

Never get comfortable

I guess that I haven't dealt with enough change this year, because I just got changed from working with the green eagles (5th, 6th, 7th grade girls) to working with 2nd grade girls.  WONDERFUL. Well here we go again, awkwardness for the millionth time, times a million now.   I guess this is my wake up call (again) that even when things finally seem stable and good, well things aren't.

8am training tomorrow!  woo.  I'm exhausted already and it's supposed to be hot out, ugh... wait I'm supposed to pretend so "yay".

tRaining 2 & CPR

So I am going to do a double post this time.

Training: So this was a Saturday all day training, 10am to 4:30. Sadly it was raining so it was inside all day, but it was still enjoyable!

I got there parked and went in and started talking to a girl that went to my high school. I didn't actually know who she was but she looked familiar so I asked and she was like yeah I went to KP, but she was a year older than me so that's why I didn't actually know her! Then there is also another girl that went to KP I talked to at the end of the day, she was 2 years older, but was in my accounting class when I was a sophomore and she was a senior. I remember her name only because she was one of the teacher's favorites (and I think she was friends with one of my friends).

I also talked to some of the other eagle counselors and they were so nice! We even got to go to one of the cabins and meet some of the others in our age division. Everyone seemed so cool! I can't wait to spend the summer meeting/working/ hanging out with everyone.

Then we went over some hypothetical situations, where they went over how the rules would dictate our general response. The first one my group got was something about getting overwhelmed and locking a troublemaker camper in a garage/shed. My thought was 'whoever came up with this is pretty creative', but then every other question we used this crazy reaction to joke about the other situations. The director pointed out if we ever get overwhelmed to just ask a camper his/her age, then it'll hit you that they are young and don't really know better!  Ok enough with boring rule info.

Lunch time.. I did not really want pizza again and I was lucky since this time they had sandwiches! There were so many sandwiches (they ended up having leftovers for CPR). I sat with my co-counselor and a girl I met from first aid and two guys. I think my co- asked about our ages... I just remember she said her age, I said mine and the other girl said hers. We didn't even get to the guys. They just stopped and asked me "are you really 19?" and "you're only 19??".  I didn't know what to say, I just was like "yes I'm really 19". Luckily one of the guys ended up saying "I'm only 19 too, but I turn 20 in a month" while the other said 20. I was like great now I'm the baby at the table!  I could not believe how young I felt, but then again I've talked to a few people who have said they are in grad school so I should have figured out then that I was young, this was just a bam that I was young.

After the determination that I was young, we had to watch and list to a segment about bullying. It was really interesting. It was a good video and it's good to know it's a very inclusive camp. We are to never do the pick a captain and they chose the "best" to leave someone out (the example was Freaks and Geeks, I really want to watch this show).  Instead we should match campers up by shirt color, height, anything random, which is a cool method to having everyone work with each other.

SONGS was next up for the day. It was still raining so I think this was the time we were supposed to go on a tour, but things change. I liked learning some of the songs, some were just a little well weird. I was thinking though, having the older kids, yes we will sing but most likely the more put together songs that have a few verses.

Then came a presentation on child sex abuse. Some of these stats were crazy. I remember it saying 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are abused and that it can be adult/minor, or forced minor/minor. This was insane to me, I really hope that the stats change. This was such a shocking thing. The directors were telling us about the whole screening process that all of us had to go through, now I understand why the interviews were an hour long (we talked about this during lunch!). I was glad I got hired at a camp with such high standards, hopefully if more places were like this then stats would change!

Talent! Next up we went to the preforming area and got to find a group and get an idea for the counselor talent show! I already pretty much knew I was working with my co- in whatever we did so then I talked to the other eagle counselors and we decided we wanted to change the lyrics/dance to a song. We talked to our division leader and she thought of adding in Justin Bieber! So we came up with an idea and we're all like ready to embarrass ourselves! All we have to do now is change the lyrics to the One Direction song and bam!

After this we went back and played a game with our group, which only made me think that our group is going to be even more awesome. We're all so down to earth, but ready to make fools of ourselves for the campers enjoyment that it'll be awesome!

The next day was CPR: I am now CPR certified! (And AED? I don't know but we used a practice machine.)  Nothing happened [besides learning CPR] except that the dog was around, so cute!

Really after this jam packed weekend of camp stuff, I'm excited! Sunday is the next [ALL DAY] training so I will probably post on Monday!  Maybe one day this week while I get to relax I'll think of something to expand on! Peace for now!