Camp Berea - End of The Activity Reflection

My plan for this activity can be summed up by the three goals I mentioned before.

I planned to experiment with the provided materials and try new things to make art. I hoped that this would help me become more creative. I wanted to learn how to use more materials so that by widening my experience, I would have more options when creating art in the future. And this is what I did. I experimented with string, hemp and marbles while making a monkey's fist. I used duct tape to make shoes, "memory wire" to make bracelets, and painted on slate. I also leaned gimp and rediscovered pipe cleaner animals. After using all these materials at camp, I will remember how they work and be able to use them in new projects. I think it will help me be more creative.

Another part of this goal was to think up three new projects. I ended up making (again) the pipe cleaner animals and also a bandanna hair thing. I didn't meet my goal of three crafts, but I don't feel bad about it. I think this goal was set a little bit high. I also discovered that I learned more about art and new materials by interacting with others. I learned that the campers and sometimes councilors had just as many ideas as I did. We worked together to create duct tape wallets, shoes, and flowers, paintings, a flag, sunglasses and beaded bracelets. By working with them, I was able to help them and also to learn from them. The activities we did were valuable to all of us. It benefited the campers, they ended up with creations they were proud of, and it benefited me, because I learned from them and became for experienced with art.

Because of all of this, I will be open to other people's ideas about art in the future. I will try to continue to learn from them because I learned so much from the kids at camp.

My second goal was to exercise leadership to become a better leader. I was definitely put in a leadership position. During quest, the girl I worked with and I would teach different tables, so it was just me and a bunch of campers. During free time I also had to teach kids how to do projects one on one. I was nervous at first, but it wasn't as hard as I had thought. I interacted with them as an authority figure I guess. They assumed that I was in charge, and I acted like it. They followed instructions and their projects came out well for the most part. I think that this shows that I exercised good leadership; they campers were able to follow my instructions to successfully complete the crafts. This was a valuable learning experience for me. Each quest, I gave better instructions and was a better leader because I strove to prevent mistake I'd made before.

Again, I think this goal was a little bit too high. The monkey's fists were extremely difficult. Many of the campers were unsuccessful not because I gave bad instructions or was a bad leader, but because the project was so difficult. Even so, I kept experimenting and practicing with the monkey's fists and each week, more and more kids were successfully completing them.

Another difficulty was the fact that I often had to teach kids that were the same age as me or older. This was a big "leadership challenge." I overcame this difficulty by treating the Sr. High campers the same way I treated the Jr. High ones. Not belittling them, but I continued to act like an authority, I didn't let them tell me what to do. I also acted confident and in charge. They were very respectful and I enjoyed having them at camp.

This activity taught me that I can be a leader and a teacher. I will use this knowledge to hopefully do more activities like this in the future.

My last and biggest goal was to make a difference in kid's lives. This was really the reason behind everything I did. My plan included acting cheerful even when I was extremely tired, working really hard with kids to complete projects I wasn't told how to do, continuing to practice with the monkey's fists even when they seemed impossible. I wanted to make kid's feel accomplished and confident and I wanted to teach them more about art. This is what I tried to do and I think I was successful. A lot of the time, if a kid came to the craft shop once, he would come again. The campers at the craft shop seemed happy too. I hope that this sense of accomplishment will carry over into the kids' everyday lives. I think that this was a really good goal. It taught me that sometimes, a goal can be difficult, but often the most difficult goals can be the best ones, the ones that have the most impact and make the most difference. I think changing someone's life for the better is worth any amount of effort it takes.

I felt good about this activity. It was a lot of work, but it was also very satisfying. I think I did well. I met most of my goals, even though they were very high. I got to interact with the campers as a teacher and leader, but I also learned a lot from them; they ended up teaching me. I thought the activity was great. It meant a lot to me and was worth all the work because I learned a lot about art and people and life. I think it benefited the campers by giving them a positive experience. I hope that this experience might effect their lives, that it would make them artists and make them feel confident and accomplished. Some of my goals were set too high, but I still think I did a good job with them. I would rather set goals too high than too low. I overcame difficulties in leadership and with craft projects. For example, I was put in charge of high schoolers and I had to teach monkey's fists. I learned a lot from this activity about art. I watched people use different materials such as duct tape, marbles and pipe cleaners and became more experienced in using these materials. This will help me do art in the future and gives me more opportunity for creativity. I learned about people, to take suggestions, that I can learn from the people I'm trying to teach, that I can be a leader and that appearance and organization are important (display case). I also learned about life, that it is so important to stay organized, to set goals high, and that sometimes the hardest things are the most worth it. I also met my learning outcomes. This activity was a new challenge and during it, I undertook many more challenges. Teaching crafts by myself, duct tape shoes and monkey's fists are some examples. I also planned two new crafts, the animals and bandanna hair things, and initiated quests every morning.

This activity not only met my two learning outcomes, but some of the others as well. In this activity, I often had to work together with others, especially the other girl who worked in the craft shop. This was a little bit hard for me, sometimes I just wanted to do everything myself, just to make sure it was done right. This experience reminded me that I really can't do everything myself, there is too much to do, I have to trust others to make good decisions and do a good job. I realized this, and everything went really well. The other craft shop girl and I got along great. We divided up the work, and together I think we did a really good job. I will remember this for the future.

July 24, Duct Tape Shoes

Today was my last day at camp, so I was trying to use the different lessons I have learned to make it the best day.
At the beginning of free time, a boy came up to me and told me he wanted to make shoes out of duct tape. Like the girl who wanted to paint a picture, this was a new idea. Because the painting had worked out so well, I went along with it. The craft shop was well organized, so I was easily able to find duct tape and some scrap pieces of cardboard. This again reinforced the importance of organization for me. I wasn't sure, but I thought the kid was in Sr. High and so were many other kids sitting at the table with us. Because everything went so well during Sr. High week, i wasn't bothered by being in charge of kids older than me. I was still confident and could keep control of the situation. I was able to help the boy making duct tape shoes, teaching him what I knew. Another boy at the table, who had made duct tape shoes before, kept giving us suggestions. Because listening to other people had helped me so much while I was making monkey's fists, I took his suggestions and he usually turned out to be right- it helped me a lot. Like with the pipe cleaner animals, I was working with new materials to create something different. Because the pipe cleaner animals had turned out well, I was confident that the shoes would also. I was also reminded of how important it is for the crafts to be useful. Just like the girls who enjoyed making bracelets during quest because they could wear them, I think the boy who wanted to make duct tape shoes liked the shoes because he could wear them. This is a really important lesson when choosing crafts for kids to do, and I will try to apply it again in the future. Lastly, after we had completed the shoes, I made sure to clean up well and put everything back where it belonged. Organization had proved to be very important again and again.
The shoes also helped me complete my goals and one of my learning objectives. I experimented with new materials, which I hope made me more creative. I think I did a good job leading the camper through the activity, showing him what I knew. The project was very successful; the shoes turned out great. The camper even came back later to thank me and show them to me again he like them so much. I think this also helped the camper feel accomplished and confident and learn more about art. I hope this confidence and knowledge will help him in his everyday life. The shoes were a new challenge, testing me in creativity and leadership. I'd never made duct tape shoes before, and I had to figure it out and teach the craft while being in charge of someone about the same age as me.
I think this whole experience will be very useful to me in the future. Today I discovered that each of the lessons I have learned are really good to know and will continue to help me if I continue to apply them. So, this experience not only reinforced the lesson I had learned before, and completed my goals, but taught me a new lesson: that I should always apply what I learn. In the future I will try to do this.

July 13, High School Kids

This week I have a new challenge while initiating activities at quest, exercising leadership and trying to provide a good setting. This week is Sr. High camp. I mean, yeah, there were high schoolers last week, but not very many, it was mostly Jr. high. This week the majority of the campers will be the same age as me or older. This is a big challenge, especially because the other girl working at the craft shop with me is also 16. Today I was really nervous for quest, and also for free time (when the campers can come back to the craft shop and make anything from the display case if they want). I decided to respond to this new challenge by not telling anyone my age, and just acting confident and in charge. It worked. I discovered that the kids were very well behaved anyway and just assumed that I was their authority. They didn't try to take advantage of my age and did what I told them to do. Maybe they were just a good group of kids, but I was really surprised at how well everything went. Through this experience, I was able to exercise leadership in a new way. I think this will help me to become a better leader. Next time I am teaching a group of high schoolers, next quest I guess, I will continue to act confident and in charge. I think the campers also liked their projects. They seemed to feel confident and accomplished while learning more about art because their projects turned out well. I think this shows that I did a good job of leading the campers in their projects and I hope that that these positive effects will carry over into their everyday lives.

July 7, The Display Case

Last week was Jr. High camp. It didn't take to much to entertain the kids and it was raining all week, so craft shop was one of their only options. We had tons of kids everyday. This week though, the kids are a little older (Jr. and Sr. High) and the weather is better, so we have to try harder to get the kids interested in making crafts. I figured one improvement we could make was on the display case. It was messy and crowded and hard to tell what crafts we had. To fix this, I repainted it, which made it and the crafts look better, and wrote an organized list of the crafts available. I think this made a difference. The campers started asking for crafts no one had bought before. This showed me again how important organization is. When the campers could read through an organized list of crafts, they were able to see their options better and were more inclined to try new things. I think repainting the display case also made the crafts more attractive. When the crafts looked good, more campers wanted to make them. I think this whole experience helped me with my learning objective to undertake a new challenge. I had never had to sell stuff like that before. The challenge was to get kids to want to make crafts at the craft shop. I responded by organizing a list of the crafts and it helped. This was a good learning experience for me and I will try to stay organized in the future.

July 1, "Art Lessons"

During quests one day, I was talking to one of the girls (campers) about art and she told me she wanted to learn more about painting. I offered to show her what I knew and help her make something. Today, we started painting a picture on a piece of slate. She's very talented and it's coming out really well.
This taught me that sometimes, something spontaneous can work out just as well as something you planned. I had just spent a week trying to make samples of all the crafts I could think of. A camper had something completely new in mind and it was perfect. I discovered that I should be open to new ideas. One of my goals at the craft shop is to create a setting where kids can feel accomplished and confident and learn more about art. Painting the picture definitely did that. I think it also helped me become a better leader. It was good practice, I had to teach her how to paint the picture. I even experimented with new materials; we did the painting on a piece of slate I found in the shop. This even turned into a new project, soon more campers wanted to paint on slate.
This was a new challenge but I didn't plan or initiate the activity. But this experience taught me that I don't always have to. It's good to be flexible. I'm at the craft shop to support the campers in their creative projects, not just to tell them what to do.

June 24, Pipe Cleaner Animals

Today I worked on learning different crafts by making them. After looking at the supplies on Monday, I had come up with some ideas for new crafts. Last night, I researched them online and found instructions for some of them. One of the things I came up with were pipe cleaner animals. I had seen a bunch of big pipe cleaners while I was cleaning, and it reminded me of a craft book I had had when I was little. It gave instructions for how to make animals out of pipe cleaners. I remember that I loved making them and they came out really cute. So, I made some. They came out pretty well, not perfect but okay. My boss and a lot of the staff like them, I hope the campers will too. This helped me complete some of my first goal, I created a new project. I also planed a new activity, which helps me with my learing objectives.

June 23, Monkey's Fists

Next week, when camp starts, I will have to teach a craft every morning to a couple of cabins. (this is called a quest, the kids do two different activities each morning) Today, the boy's craft arrived. It's called a monkey's fist and it's basically a knot tied around a marble. For about an hour, the girl I work with tried to follow the provided instructions to make a sample. She when she couldn't make one, I started to try. I thought it couldn't be that hard...but it was. This craft was definitely a new challenge and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to "initiate this activity." If the craft is this hard to make, I have no idea how I'm going to teach it. I've never worked with monkey's fists before, they are made of different kinds of materials than I am used to using (rope and marbles). Maybe by experimenting with these new materials I will become more creative. I will know how to use more materials and will be able to create more things with them. So, as I and most of the other Camp Berea staff try to figure out this craft, I'm learning that working together and sharing ideas gets things done faster. Different people are giving their suggestions and it really helps. Also, practice makes perfect. Each time I try to make a monkey's fist I get a little closer to accomplishing it.

July 15
The monkey's fists are so hard to make, and the kids are not doing well with them. I feel so bad, they try really hard and usually fail. This is not helping me with my goal to make kids feel accomplished. I'm wondering if I'm not teaching it well, because they are coming out badly, but I think it's just a really hard craft. Today, we tried a new craft. Our boss gave us some origami to try, but it didn't look very fun and when we tried it, we finished the craft really fast. The origami won't take enough time to fill the whole quest. Instead, we decided to make duct tape wallets. This was very successful. The campers were really excited to make them, they were easy to teach, and turned out really well. This experience taught me that sometimes if something isn't working, you should take a break from it and try something else.

July 20
So today, I tried something different. I've still been working with the monkey's fists, trying to find a better way to make them and teach them. I tried using hemp instead of string, and it worked really well. The hemp stayed in place better, making it easier to tighten the knot around the marble. I was also able to cut the hemp into longer strips, allowing me to make the knot bigger and also making the string easier to work with. From this I learned that although it can be good to take a break from something that isn't working, you shouldn't give up on it all together. It is good to have perseverance and stay committed to the projects that you start.

July 24
Now for the boy's quest, we let the boys choose to make either the monkey's fists or the wallets. I think this works really well. The kids are more likely to be excited, better behaved and more successful on a project they choose to do, rather than one they have to do. The monkey's fists are working a lot better with the hemp, and the boys who are having trouble can switch crafts to make a wallet instead. I am accomplishing my goal to make kids feel successful. The quests are going well, and the projects are turning out great.

June 22, Cleaning the Craft Shop

Due to limited computer access, I'm posting this after it happened.

Today we cleaned out the craft shop. I don't think it had been cleaned out since last summer and it had gotten really messy over time. I was surprised that cleaning and organizing the shop was part of my job. Although it took up some of the time we had for learning the crafts, it was worth it. Now I know where all the supplies are and what supplies we have. Looking at the supplies also gave me ideas for new crafts. This taught me that although it might be time consuming, cleaning and organizing pays off because it will help me find supplies in the future. It also showed me all the supplies we have, and now I know which crafts have worked in the past, before I try to think up new ones. So, in the future I will try to be more organized.

Camp Berea - Planning

(Volunteering in a New Creative Activity)

Learning Outcomes

Undertake New Challenges: This activity will be a new experience; I've never worked at a campe before. It will challenge me in creativity and leadership.

Plan and Initiate Activities: I hope to plan craft projects by experimenting with the camp's craft supplies. I will also be initiating activities with crafts already planned by the camp, giving demonstrations, and leading groups in projects.

Goals

I hope to become more creative by experimenting with different types of materials and trying new things. I will measure my progress by the number of new projects I come up with. I'll know i've reached this goal after creating at least three new projects.

I also hope to become a better leader by excerising leadership, teaching the campers how to complete projects and leading them through the activities. I will determine the success or failure of this goal by the success of the projects (how well the kids are able to complete them according to my directions.) I know I've reached this goal if the projects turn out well.

Lastly, I hope to make a difference in kid's lives. I want to provide a setting where they can feel accomplished and confident and learn more about art. I hope this confidence and knowledge will help them in their everyday lives. Although I can guess, it will be difficult to determine the success or failure of this goal.