Section 5: Session Content

Section 5: Session Content

Section 5:

Session Content

While a large portion of previous sections was spent discussing the importance of brainstorming training needs and relying upon the ACA standards for guidance in determining these needs, many camp directors may still wonder, “What specific issues must I address in my training sessions?”

While the list of sessions described here is meant to be neither exhaustive nor prescriptive, it will provide guidance to novice and experienced directors alike. Detail pertaining to the exact content of each session was avoided, since that content must be carefully selected based upon site specific variables such as camper population, staff experience, program type, site resources, and presenter expertise. Directors are strongly urged to consider the last variable carefully. Experienced and knowledgeable presenters should be sought outside the camp staff when needed in order to address critical issues. This will also help in documenting that effective training did take place.

Sessions

Your orientation sessions (listed in no particular order) might include:

·  Get Acquainted Games

·  Teambuilding Exercises

·  The Mission and Goals of Salvation Army Camping

·  Understanding the Urban Child

·  Understanding the Suburban Child

·  Accepting Cultural Differences (of Staff and Campers)

·  Developmentally (or Age) Appropriate Practices and Activities

·  Building Self Esteem

·  Lesson Planning

·  CPR/First Aid Training

·  Training in the Use of a Portable Defibrillator (selected staff)

·  Basic Counselor Duties

·  Conflict Mediation

·  Behavior Management

·  Messages Behind Inappropriate Behavior

·  Using Logical Consequences

·  Appropriate Consequences and Disciplines for Campers

·  Intervention Strategies for Special Circumstances

·  Leading an Effective CDA (Counselor Directed Activity)

·  Outdoor/Indoor Games for Cabin Groups

·  Getting Campers to Sleep at Night

·  Organizing Campers for Cabin Clean-Up

·  Rainy Day Procedures and Ideas for Cabin Activities

·  Confidential Camper Issues: Bed Wetting, Homesickness, Histories of Abuse, Medications, Learning Disabilities, etc.

·  Conducting Cabin Devotions

·  The Spiritual Component of Camp

·  Waterfront Orientation and Swim Level Testing

·  Outdoor Living Skills Instruction (including Identification of Naturally Occurring Hazards)

·  Sleepout Procedures and Related Skills

·  Personnel Policies and Practices

·  Overview of Staff Organizational Chart, Job Descriptions, Evaluations

·  Understanding and Responding to (Reporting) Emotional, Physical, and Sexual Abuse

·  Understanding and Responding to (Reporting) Sexual Harassment

·  Staff Relationships

·  Developing Better Communication Skills

·  Training in Staff Observation and Evaluation

·  Dining Hall Procedures and Etiquette

·  Risk Management

·  Health/Safety Concerns

·  Emergency Procedures

·  Lost Camper/Lost Swimmer Drills

·  Fire Safety/Use of Firefighting Equipment

·  Salvation Army Program Camps

·  Daily and Weekly Schedules and Rotations

·  Opening/Closing Day Procedures

·  Any Job-Specific Training and/or Preparation (not already covered above)

Because the number of sessions is overwhelming, session content must be planned carefully. Fortunately some sessions can be combined while others can be conducted simultaneously by having staff members attend only those sessions specific to their roles.

It is important to note that the demeanor of session leaders goes a long way in teaching desired attitudes and beliefs. Sessions leaders must possess enthusiasm, confidence, and high expectations for staff success. Be sure your presenters are screened carefully, and that they understand the relationship between the methods they choose for presenting their information (see Selecting Training Methods, beginning on 4:6), and the impact upon the staff learners.

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Notes on Sessions

Although details on several of these topics (such as Risk Management, Session 6) can be found elsewhere in this manual, the notes below provide a starting point for planning your sessions:

Get Acquainted Games

Most camps include an entire evening of these, but don’t forget to include one or two get acquainted activities during each of your first several sessions together (see Appendix F for ideas on these and other Teambuilding Exercises). Many directors recommend that an outside facilitator lead these so that everyone on staff gets involved. Other directors give responsibility for planning this session to leadership staff during their Orientation week.

Teambuilding Exercises

Get Acquainted and Team Building Games are often used in staff orientations, but rarely are they used well. These activities should be presented

1. as examples for similar activities which counselors can use to help campers become acquainted, and
2. as models for the way in which staff should plan ahead to maximize time, materials, personnel, and purpose.

A number of variables must be considered when planning games:

Location

Proper location is a must. A large, open room where sound, lighting, and materials can be controlled is usually best. If you do choose to move outside, these same three variables (sound, lighting, materials) can make or break your session:

·  Can all participants hear the leader, or is an amplification device needed? What signals will be used to begin and end activities?

·  If participants are expected to process the experience and to share their thoughts and feelings, how will they be heard?

·  Is the session planned for a time when adequate sunlight is still available? Or, will the sun be so strong that the group will be blinded by it, or be overly hot and uncomfortable?

·  How will materials be transported to, and stored at, the outdoor site? What will prevent materials from straying out of the site, or being used at inappropriate times? Will materials (or staff) be damaged or soiled by the ground surface or the weather?

Personnel

Too often we witness a single person leading all the games. This is fine if one of your goals is to establish that person as a leader (or if you’ve contracted with a facilitator to provide these services).

What needs to happen more often, however, is for this leadership position to rotate among qualified staff. There are several ways to do this:

·  Joint Leadership: Three to four leaders share the responsibility of facilitation, using a well-planned, sequenced program of games and debriefings. This format provides two to three staff members who are “in the know” who can model game procedures for others to see.

·  Rotating Individual Leadership: This differs slightly in that a group of six to ten staff are trained in the games beforehand, until all are experienced adequately with all games. Each team member then selects a single game that he/she will facilitate. After each game concludes, the temporary leader introduces the next leader, who then conducts his or her game. This introduces a greater number of staff members than Joint Leadership, and also empowers those staff with leadership responsibilities. Like Joint Leadership, several staff are available to model the game before others attempt it.

·  Rotating Group Leadership: In this structure, each game is mastered by a different group of staff members (chosen from the entire staff once they are onsite. Once that group has practiced the game and discussed how best to debrief it, they choose a spokesperson who will assume primary responsibility for explaining the game procedure. It is important that each group “audition” their presentation before an experienced facilitator so that problems can be worked out prior to the actual presentation before the staff as a whole. All groups are given a printed schedule listing the sequence of games in order to eliminate anxiety about who is first, last, etc. This structure provides an excellent way for staff members to “get their feet wet” as leaders of a group.

Sequence of Games

Reforming into pairs, trios, groups of five, circles, lines, etc. should be done in an organized, deliberate way. The sequence shown below is one example of how this can be done. The games listed refer to those in the Staff Training Games section (see Appendix F).

Individuals enter the room alone, in pairs, in trios, in mobs. Unfortunately, you need them in groups to begin.

1. Initial Grouping Game (Animal Sounds): As staff members enter, each is handed a card containing an animal name. Once all staff are assembled, they are instructed to make their assigned animal sound, and to find others of their kind. All the pigs, for example, begin “oinking,” and search each other out. Depending upon the number of different animals you choose, this can sort your staff into groups ranging from four to eight members.

1. Group Games: Now that they’re sorted into groups (and probably no longer with their friends), you can proceed with any number of small-group get acquainted games (such as Action Interests or Four Facts and One Lie). After two or three of these, however, your group is well enough acquainted (for now).

1. Sort the Groups Again: To make a new grouping, say the following: “When I say go, please get into a new group of six people. The only condition is that you may not be with any animal of your own kind.” No two pigs, for example, may be together in any one of these new groups.

1. More Group Games: Play two more small group games to acquaint members in these new groups.

1. Sorting Game (Hug Tag): After two more get acquainted games in this new group, you may wish to pair staff up for games requiring twos. One terrific way to do this is to use a grouping game such as Hug Tag. This game lets you create groups of any number, and can be done at any time during Orientation, once staff members know how it’s played.

1. Sorting New Pairs Game: People to People: Once Hug Tag has paired staff together, two-player games such as Toe Stepping and Mirror, Mirror can be played. Staying with their partner, all staff members can then form a large circle and play People to People to sort into new pairs. Once the new pair has been introduced through a game or two, a quick session of Hug Tag can reform staff into fours or sixes for additional games.

Simply having all staff join hands and form a circle is a great way to begin any circle game, but keep in mind that once in a circle you lose track of your groups, so circle games should usually be kept for the end of the session (unless a game such as People to People or Upset the Fruit Basket can be used in the circle to actually form people into groups.

Ongoing Use of Games

It is important after a games session that you provide all participants with a handout or “cheat sheet” of some kind that they can refer back to when using games with their own cabin groups.

How can the staff learn more games, especially those that they can use with campers? One of the best ways to teach a large number of games in as little time as possible is to Jigsaw the process (see 4:19 for additional information on this procedure). By mastering and then reteaching a game, staff are more likely to use it on their own.

The Mission and Goals of Salvation Army Camping

This session, which could also include a short history of Salvation Army camping, is often successfully conducted over coffee and snacks, and may be preceded by the camp director and selected staff members sharing their personal witnesses as to the impact of camping. Remember that many staff members are here for the first time. What vision of camping do you want to present?

If you think of vision and mission as an organization's head and heart, the values its holds are its soul.

From Making Common Sense Common Practice, by Buzzotta/ Lefton/ Cheney/Beatty (New Leaders Press)

Understanding the Urban Child

This session can be dynamic and informative if the right presenter is chosen. Consider reaching out to an inner city teacher, an articulate urban mother of campers past and present, a social worker, or an inner city corps officer for help with this session. You may also have an individual on your leadership staff who can provide expertise in this area. Staff need to know that:

·  Urban does not necessarily mean disadvantaged. Many urban families live comfortably within their means. If we were to see the huge amount of debt hanging over the heads of many suburban families, we might consider them potentially “poorer” by comparison.

·  Urban does not mean intellectually or culturally disconnected. Many excellent schools, including an increasing number of highly specialized charter school and niche magnet schools, can be found in most major cities.

·  Urban language can be very different from what we are used to hearing, and what we might consider “obscene” is only a child’s attempt to communicate his/her needs, fears, and insecurities. We can show them that here at camp we choose to communicate differently.

·  Campers will instinctively test bounds and their counselor reactions. They want to establish “who’s in charge,” and “what is allowed.” Don’t assume that they come from an environment where “anything goes.” For the most part, their schools and families do have rules and expected behaviors; they are curious to see if camp is the same.

·  Most urban families do not consist of both father and mother. Many do rely heavily, however, upon a “support system” of relatives and close friends. Not every child is a latch-key kid.

·  Dark, cricket filled evenings are just as terrifying for the urban child as their noisy neighborhood streets might be for us.

·  These children need to see “what else” life has to offer; and

·  These children are still children. They could have been born somewhere else to more affluent or suburban circumstances, but they weren’t. We need to treat them as we would want our own children to be treated at camp.

Understanding the Suburban Child

This session is best conducted immediately after the session above. Again, a school teacher, parent, or other “adult” is an excellent resource. Staff need to know that:

·  Children of suburban families, while not having to fear the violent environment of their city cousins, still live with a great deal of stress. Many suburban parents live vicariously through their children, so winning at sports, excelling at school, and “doing better than the Joneses” are pushed to extremes at times. (And, it should be noted, the violence and drug culture of the cities is beginning to make its way into suburban and rural America).