Week 14

Monday and Wednesday of this week were spent arranging final products, producing a binder for the mentor/mentee program, and meeting with supervisors.  I got to have a wonderful lunch with Irene.  We talked about the structure of the practicum and my personal struggles being a student operating in a professional environment.  I updated her on my learning plan, and we spoke of social work as a powerful arena for social change on all levels.  The meeting was insightful and fully enjoyable.  I also got to catch up with my previous field instructor from the last practicum over lunch.  It's been such a tough week outside of the agency trying to piece together final projects for classes and make some last-ditch efforts to avoid getting a cold.  Boo for winter weather.

Week 13

I only worked Wednesday of this week because of a trip to Florida.  However, I accomplished a great deal.  I met with Tim this morning to go over the last Follow-up that I missed.  The mentors were paired with mentees.  They interviewed each other in sets of twos and threes.  Some groups got along better than others.  The entire group came together for an activity I proposed that we call the "balloon activity."  This was mostly a relay race.  Participants had to run and pop a series of balloons using body parts other than their arms and feet.  Wish I could have seen it.  

I did some planning for the next time the mentors and mentees see one another.  I will be leading the group through an activity from a book called Learning Leadership by Michael Brandwein.  The activity is called Popcorn and the Infernal Kernel.  I also got a better idea about what the next follow-up will look like by talking with Tim.  

I'm still waiting to finalize the schedule for the toy drive.  We still don't know when Jameson Camp will be able to pick up the toys from downtown Indy.  But the bulk of the work for the toy drive will be copying all the data from toy drive applications onto an excel sheet to submit to a higher power.

I accomplished a great deal of work for the learning plan today.  There are only a few more products to produce before the semester is completely finalized.  I'm excited to be coming up on another 2-night follow-up in December.  Tim even offered me the opportunity to continue attending follow-ups as a paid employee.  Exciting times!

Week 11

Last week was productive.  I had a long meeting with Tim to discuss all elements of the Learning Plan.  Tim and I came up with some better ideas about what products seem most appropriate for different objectives.  He gave me a lot of great ideas to end the semester with.  

There was also a great low ropes session with the good people of Endangered Species Chocolate.  The group had 18 employees present for the challenge course.  We started with Trolleys.  Two staff members then took half the group to 2 elements of the challenge course, then we all met up in the end to see if the entire team could climb a 10 foot wall using only 2 helpers at a time.  They had some interesting approaches to apply to the wall, but the group seemed to learn fast and stay calm.  The most beneficial part of the activities this time was the adequate amount of time spent debriefing with the groups.  We had about 2 hours to spend with this group, and they got to do about 4 elements per group.  

Week 10

I haven't worked many hours this week, as the last follow-up was enough to keep me occupied.  Hanging out with the youth leaders this past weekend was a tremendous learning experience.  The challenge now is quickly processing and recording the things I learned into legitimate products.  

This week I have produced my own version of Mentor/Mentee applications, reviewed some additional information about the toy drive, estimated the amount of hours I should have by the time the practicum ends, and perused the Masters of Social Work application information.  I've been trying to organize my portfolio products to ensure that I will have a complete set of products to turn in with the final learning plan.  A lot of my products will be nearing completion soon, and I am excited to be a part of it all.  

Week 9ish- Second Follow-up

What fun!  Friday night was the start of the two-night follow-up for youth leaders returning to camp.  I felt far less stressed this weekend as there's only one more midterm to go, and since I knew most of the kids that would be coming to camp, I felt prepared.  I was paired with Ruble (a counselor my age) to go on "transport" to pick up a few youth leaders that didn't have a ride to camp.  The first youth (age 15, female) lived about 25 minutes away from camp.  Ruble and I knocked on the door at about 8:00 pm.  Both the mother and youth showed up at the door looking a little confused.  The youth recognized us and went into a conversation about how she was going to the movies tonight, and not to camp.  She said she called Tim to tell him she wouldn't be attending this particular follow-up.  Ruble and I were a bit disappointed, so we told her how we felt.  Everyone but the youth seemed contingent on the youth attending camp instead of the movies, but the youth was not packed and she had plans.  The mother invited us in to talk because it was chilly, then an argument ensued.  The mother said she would feel much better if the youth were at camp and not at the movies.  The youth was very upset and threw "a fit" as she later called it.  Ruble and I sat and talked to the mother for about an hour while the youth stormed through the house and packed her things.  The youth got a phone call in the middle of her packing, too.  One of her friends called to tell her that a few people the youth does not get along with showed up at the movie they had plans to attend.  We all decided it was fate, but the youth was still a bit grumpy.  Her mood improved as the weekend progressed.  A learning plan product examines this further.  Once we had all the kids picked up, we arrived at camp fashionably late.  Tim had started the introductory meeting where all the kids decide on rules for camp and talk about plans for the weekend.  The youth leaders also carved pumpkins while we were away.  Everyone was fairly attentive, but excited to break into activities for the weekend.  We had smores around a campfire that night and everyone exchanged their latest stories.  I slept in the boys' cabin with Ruble and two other counselors.  This was a stinky endeavor in more ways than one.  I thought the boys would be less rowdy than the girls' cabin was last weekend.  Nope.  Blaring music, video games, cell phone conversations, gameboy races, deep voices, limited sleep...  I also thought the boys would wake up later in the morning.  I was wrong there, too.  It was like pulling teeth trying to get the boys settled and keep the lights out, then we had to turn around and wake up early.  Saturday was busy, busy, busy.  We had breakfast, a morning activity, and then  my group jumped right into preparing for the haunted house.  We hung black tarp up to cover windows, bunkbeds, and doors.  We moved a ton of furniture around to suit our needs.  We spray painted some surfaces, added cobwebs, turned on some festive lighting, cranked up the music and made plans to scare people right up to lunch.  After lunch, we finalized our cabin, did a run-through of our haunted house without costumes for all youth leaders and staff to see.  We also went through the other haunted house that another group had been preparing that was supposed to be the "scarier" haunted house.  We met back in the dining hall for a quick dinner before guests started arriving at 5:30.  The Haunted Happening had games, food, pictures, costume contest, and trick-or-treating.  

I was the greeter for the first haunted house.  Families would walk my way, and I would offer to give them a tour of our "less scary" haunted house.  I had a lot of time to talk to families about costumes, their involvement with camp, and their ideas about the community because we had a bit of a line at some points in the night.  One of the youth leaders (the first one we picked up Friday night) offered to be the tour guide even though she was not part of our group originally.  She would take the group to meet "Bobo" the clown in the first room where there was a haunted circus theme.  We played Halloween music through a speaker system provided by a youth and using my iPod.  The next room was padded with mattresses.  The youth in this room was pretty scary when he jumped out behind the padding.  The next room had a doll theme.  We had the tour guide begin by saying, "There was once a lady who couldn't have kids so she became a witch and brought her dolls to life..."  Inside the "doll room" were two very alive dolls in perfect little dresses and pigtails.  The only light was a nightlight and the only movement was from the youth's mouths as they sat dressed as dolls singing creepy songs.  There was a fog machine clouding the air and stuffed animals lining the floor.  The next room had a vampire theme, a tunnel, a dead body, chains slapping wood, and a couple excellently prepared vampires.  There was a bunkbed to crawl through to escape the house.  The kids did an AWESOME job of putting on a show for about 8 large groups of families.  Each time a group went through, there was a different level of scariness.  Several screams were heard, and a few smaller kids decided to get out while they were still in the first part.  We had a lighted house when kids came through for trick-or-treating.  We were all still in costume.  I handed out candy through some arm-holes carved out of a tarp.  Creepy!  Clean-up was exhausting, and it took all my energy to keep people on-task.  I was working just as hard to get everything put away in time for the next activity.  We all met in the Peace Center for a movie (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull).  I had the chance to tell the whole group that I was incredibly proud of the work they did for the Haunted Happening.  I was especially happy with my group for being so cooperative, open to new ideas, quick to clean-up, and responsible.  I had a blast!  The movie was cut short because everyone, including vampires, was soooo tired.  We crashed out in our respective cabins, woke up for breakfast, did some more cleaning, and broke out into two groups.  One group talked about "what I want out of follow-ups" and the other group did an activity with Tim about the conduct that makes leaders "good."  Surprisingly, most of the youths would like to do more community service at follow-ups.  They ALSO want to learn foreign languages and have reading and math tutoring.  I was on transport by myself afterward.  I got to talk with one of my new favorite youth leaders for about an hour on the way to her house.  The weekend was a HUGE success.  

Week 8ish-First Follow-up

This past weekend was the first October Follow-up.  I finally got to meet some youth leaders and spend some quality time getting to know what it is they are planning for next weekend's Follow up.  On Friday night, I came to camp at about 4 to review the Learning plan and remember tasks I assigned myself for follow-up.  I began to get nervous for some unknown reason.  I met one of the head counselors from the summer and another volunteer over dinner.  Staff met in the program office afterward to discuss some of the projects that would happen.  The kids arrived at about 7:00-8:00.  Check in was a lot to keep up with.  Another intern and I were in charge of handing out information and checking off who had paid and who didn't.  Sometimes it was hard to tell who was the parent and who was the kid because some of the teens carried themselves like adults.  That night we were all truly exhausted.  I spent the night with a cabin full of 12 girls.  The next day I woke early to start breakfast for the group of about 30 people.  We made pancakes, sausage, put out oatmeal, and said the "Adam's Family Grace"... duh, nuh, nuh, nuh (snap, snap).  I supervised 3 girls as they operated the dish machine.  Others were playing a morning game to get the blood flowing for the day.  Afterward, we all met in a cramped circle to hold a planning meeting for the mentor/mentee program.  I initiated an icebreaker that didn't work so well because I had never seen it done.  We tried at it a while and decided to change the way it worked.  Everyone had a chance to get involved, and when the game was over I told the group why I was holding the meeting.  I really had no idea what the kids remembered about the program or whether they enjoyed it.  I told them that I would like to reinstitute the program and asked how many people would be interested in it.  A majority raised their hands to comply with continuation of the mentor/mentee program.  I asked the group why they thought Jameson Camp would have a program like this one, and one of the former campers (who is now a counselor or in training) gave an explanation about why having mentors is a valuable experience.  The group brainstormed about activities they could do with their mentors, and we wrote the ideas down on a large flip chart that the whole group could see.  The group was really quiet at first, but I got some really good ideas from them.  I think they are all excited to see what fun we can have.  The rest of the day Saturday centered around planning for the haunted house next Saturday, October 25 when Jameson Camp will host the Haunted Happening.  I am supervising a group of 4 kids as they morph one of the cabins into a "family-friendly" haunted house.  

Now it is Monday, and what a Monday it has been!  I arrived at 8:15 to start planning for the arrival of 40 FFA students from around the country.  Only 10 showed up.  We worked with them to transplant a bunch of "volunteers" or seedling trees to the other end of the campus.  This was really interesting because of the impact this will have on the future look and feel of Jameson Camp.  The environmental impact trees and shrubbery can have is amazing.  Good thing Chris was there today!  He was able to teach us all about the plants and wildlife involved in this "Day of Caring" brought to us by FFA.  The rest of the day was dedicated to more product-oriented things.   Tedious...

Week 7

Monday and Tuesday of this week were fun and exciting.  I got to pick out twelve pumpkins for kids to carve this weekend, have posters laminated, cut fabric for a banner project, and help facilitate the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Conference.  Every one of the activities went well for at least 3 of the 4 groups.  There were about 60 freshmen in 4 groups of 15.  The 30 seniors were spread amongst the freshmen leading in pairs or threes.  There was rumor of a "riot" in the Peace Center during the Labeling activity, but the seniors were able to recover.  The labeling activity required the group of 15 freshmen to "label" their foreheads with a sign saying "Braniac-agree with me" "Popular-pay attention to me" "Clown-laugh at me" but the kids in the riotous group were looking at their labels, so the activity was somewhat of a flop for them.  

I noticed a lot of the seniors were a little less than confident about leading groups, and some did much better than others as they were more prepared.  Discussion sessions could have been a little better.  The seniors didn't plan things to ask during debriefing time in a group I observed.  Some of the groups were unorganized and a little unenthusiastic at first, but the progression of the day brought more confidence.  Once the first activity was done, the seniors seemed to move on with the day without hesitation.  Everyone left knowing something they didn't know before whether it be about themselves, the camp, the 40 developmental assets, or the interactions between people.  

Since the leaders were only about 4 years older than the group members, the leaders were able to connect with a lot of the freshman.  Some of them ate lunch with freshmen they felt connected to, and the seniors paired up with freshmen that they plan to contact sometime between now and next year.  Overall, the program went really well.  

I had a lot of fun, plus I felt very useful to the seniors leading.  When one of the groups seemed to have a slow start, I began giving examples of questions they could ask to reflect on the purpose of the activity.  Some seniors in the staff lodge seemed to be getting frustrated because the whole group was spread out in a long building.  I had to ask them to come together a couple times as they were looking pretty segregated.  The leaders asked me a lot of great questions, and they felt good about what they were doing.  I had a lot of chances to ask them questions about how they got involved with the program and how they felt about leading freshmen.   The seniors also had some suggestions for next year.  Tim and I will follow up with the teachers, the seniors and Sh'nea who heads the AVID program sometime next week.  We also have evaluation forms that the students will fill out and return to us.