July 28th- August 8th

July 28th- August 1st

All summer there has a been a young boy in camp whose grandmother works at Smuggs. Last year we had a lot of trouble trying to get him to listen, and he has had a lot of behavioral difficulties. This year started off really well in terms of his behavior and listening, but things have slowly started to get worse for him. I was told it was because they switched his medication and dosage. He went from having a "breakdown" every couple of weeks to at least once a day. When I say breakdown I mean he would refuse to talk to anyone and he would not listen to anyone- he wanted to do what he wanted and there were very few things we could do or say to keep him from doing it. Fortunately these breakdowns only lasted 5-10 minutes, but when they did happen it would be very difficult for his counselors to take care of him and the rest of the kids in their group. This is when Jess would have to step in and take him away from the group for a few minutes until he was able to regain his composure. We started doing a reward system with him. If he behaved then he would get a ticket, and once he got six tickets he would be able to go on a golf cart ride with Jess. This could have been really successful except for the fact that he was being given 5-6 tickets a day. He would be given a ticket as soon as he started listening to the counselor after a breakdown. To me it looked like he was being given a ticket stopping his bad behavior, so I noticed that he would have more and more tantrums and he would be given more tickets for having them. I talked to Jess about this and told her that it was not helpful. I suggested giving him 2 tickets a day, one for the morning and one for the afternoon, and if he had at least 7 (out of 10) by the end of the week he could go on a golf cart ride. We did this for a little while, and it worked, then after a few weeks his medications were all figured out and we went back to giving him the same treatment as the rest of the kids, which has been working great.

August 4th- August 8th

There is a huge problem at camp this week! 3 employee kids in camp have lice. They were all sisters, but now we are checking all of the employee kids' heads for lice. We ended up having to send more kids home with lice. The camp director told all supervisors and staff to only tell guest kids about it if they have had an employee kid with lice in their group. At that point only a few more kids had been found with lice and we were doing everything we could to keep it from spreading. The camp director went to the drug store and bought out all of the tea tree oil and lice repellent shampoo and spray. She had the floors shampooed, the chairs all sprayed, and all of the furniture wiped down. She also told all of the staff to get check, and everyone with long hair to wear their hair up. I believe that she did a really good job keeping her head straight in a very stressful situation, and I commend the way that she handled the situation.

July 14th- July 25th (Mid-season Evaluation)

     At this point camp is about midway through the summer. All of the new counselors are starting to get the hang of how camp is run, and they are starting to become more confident with their groups. Our supervisor also did mid-summer evaluations, and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed with mine. They way the evaluations are set up is by a numeric scale. We are rated on a scale of 1-5; 1 being possible probation to termination of the job, 2 means that the counselor needs to work on their skills, 3 means that the counselor has met the expectations, 4 means that the counselor has exceeded the expectations, and 5 means that the counselor has gone well above and beyond any expectation that has been set. Supervisors very rarely give out 1's or 5's. In the four years of working at Smuggs I have never heard of anyone getting either one of those numbers. We are also evaluated based on two main categories that are broken up into 6 subcategories.  
        The first is Job Performance- which includes Teamwork, Versatility, Group Management/ Engagement, Communication, and Safety. I got a 3 in Teamwork and Versatility. The 3 in Versatility was because I only worked for the 5/6 year old group instead of volunteering to do any other age group. But I have since then, worked for the 3/4 year olds, and the 11-15 year olds. I surprisingly really enjoyed working with the older kids. They go at a much faster pace then the younger kids, and they are far more independent. I did not have to play as supportive of a role as I usually do with the younger kids. I was able to participate more in games, rather than facilitating the games. I really enjoyed working with that age group. As for Group Management/ Engagement, Communication, and Safety I scored a 4 in all of those categories. My goal for the end of the summer is to get at least one 5 in any of the categories.
      The second main category is Professionalism. Within that the 6 subcategories are Appearance, Reliability, Flexibility, Customer Service, and Attidude/ Enthusiasm. With the exception of Appearance I got a 4 in all of the categories. I got a 3 in Appearance because I came in every day with my uniform and name tag on, which is what would be meeting the expectations. There aren't a whole lot of ways to rise above the expectations of wearing a uniform. The one thing that my supervisor said that I could improve on was being more confident in my decisions. Her direct quote was "Do not be afraid of saying no. You know what to do! Own it! I appreciate being asked questions, but you got this!"  After reading her evaluation for me, and talking to her I definitely gained confidence in myself and my leadership skills.