CULTURE
Today we really explored and gained some insight into the different cultures of California, West Sacramento, and the individuals within our city. I think that this is really helpful and important when creating something for the community. We want to be able to bring something to our community that we feel represents our community and can benefit it. Being aware of the different cultures and the practices and values of said cultures is necessary to create a successful product. We want to make sure that we can reach a variety of people within our community and be a safe space for all these different people. Knowing the culture of our community will help guide us in our work and create a goal.
Eleni - 6 years ago
VISION
I think that coming up with a vision statement for our program was really helpful and necessary to setting a course for the future of our program and planning it. It's important that we know what we want to see in the program and what we want to come of it. It was a little difficult at times just because of the format we're using and not being able to talk in person. What was really helpful though was each of us writing our own ideas and talking about them and then looking at that as a group and deciding what parts we liked and how we could move forward. By creating this vision/mission I think we're going to make our program into something special and less surface-level than other summer camps.
Eleni - 6 years ago
MISSION / VALUES
Today we really settled on our mission statement(s) and our values. This is good because it will help guide us when planning so we know what we want everyone to get out of our program. Then we can make sure that our activities are in line with these goals.
I think some trouble we had was thinking too specific before we really planned the broader aspects. I think once we set some baselines, it'll make it a lot easier to figure out the nitty-gritty stuff. We also have to keep in mind that we can change some of our big-picture stuff if we need to once we get further down the road; not every decision we're making has to be concrete. I think that this will be less of a problem moving forward though because now we have a plan for our planning lol.
I really like the thoroughness of the process we're using to create our program and I think it will result in a really solid end product. I'm excited to move forward!!
Eleni - 6 years ago
Today we settled on the name for our program: CAMP YAMPA !! (it's an acronym, just didn't wanna do the dots) Creative Arts in Motion Project for Young Aspiring Musicians, Performers & Artists.
I'm really happy with this name, because I think it sums up who we are and it's fun to say. I like both parts of it, because the word Camp has multiple meanings, as well as Yampa which is a flower and can have significance to our camp. I like the teamwork as well as the star symbolism; it seems theme-appropriate. I think we also got pretty far with the logo design and its almost perfect.
Our next step was signing up for the different planning tasks and coming up with a time plan. I think that we'll be able to work well together in small groups while still communicating with the whole. So far our collaboration has been very effective, and I feel like I'm learning a lot when it comes to developing something as a group. I'm excited to keep working!!
Eleni - 6 years ago
I feel like now, we're really starting to dig in to the planning, and this part of the process is in some ways more difficult than the previous. It's a little hard for me to work independently because I like having second opinions on my work and getting having someone else agree with it. I know that we'll still share what we're doing though, so I'm not too worried. My focus for the Individual Activity Planning is Art which isn't really my focus in life, but I feel I have a pretty good grasp on it and I've studied art a little bit before. I'm struggling though with knowing what kind of activities are appropriate both age-wise and purpose-wise. For now, I've been looking up some art lessons/activities and icebreakers, as well as brainstorming the different aspects of art that I can focus on. Because I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the whole chart, I decided to just make a list of my ideas and then start filling the activity template for the activities I know I want to do. I think when I see the kinds of things everyone else is doing and when we talk again it'll help me gauge what my activities should look like. I just want to make sure that I do my focus justice and that the kids will benefit from it too.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Specialized and Individual work!!
At 12:30 I had an hour-long meeting with Yuki to begin the Camp Administration Calendar. We started with discussing all the events we knew we needed dates for and then began determining those dates. Once that was figured out, we had Hanks join us to answer some questions and give us direction on making the actual calendar. For now, our calendar is really more of a timeline since it cover a large amount of time that would have many blank dates. I'm kind of impressed with what we've done so far, I guess just because I thought it'd take longer to complete and we've already done so much. Most of what's left to do is clean up the formatting, finalize some dates, and get input from the rest of the group. Mine & Yuki's next meeting is Thursday.
After our meeting, I continued working on the individual activity planning. I'm still kind of in the same spot of not knowing what type of activities I should be doing for each category, so I definitely need to ask about that/talk with the group. I continued researching and compiling a list of possible ideas though and tried to make note of where I thought they could fit, or I tried to come up with types of activities for a category. I also continued filling out templates for ideas I was sure could be included even if I wasn't sure on where. For now, I think the basic team-building activities are what I'm finding, but I'm not sure if the same kind of activities are also appropriate for the other categories if we just talked about them more (?)
Eleni - 6 years ago
We started today by having a group meeting to plan the Final Performance. I think that a lot of valuable points were brought up regarding number of campers, time and effort requirements, and types of performances. We seemed to settle on a lot of the more important points of the final performance and I think that will help us when moving forward. One thing that I think we still need to cover is our goals for the final performance, or rather how it will tie in to our already established camp mission/goals. I want us to discuss what we want the campers to get out of the final performance because I think that will help guide what we have to do leading up to it and the "lesson" plans we'll make for it.
We're getting more information on our end of the summer board presentation and I sent our correspondent the information the board required from us.
I then continued working on the individual activity plans. I think today ended up being very productive for me and now I feel a lot more confident with what I'm supposed to be doing regarding the Activity Chart as I was confused before. I filled out a couple more templates and began coming up with other possible ideas for activities for other categories. I was struggling with determining what the purpose of the activities should be and if they should be more fun or more teachy but now I know that I should create activities that can help all campers explore the basics of my focus subject. So now I'm doing research and coming up with a mix of fun activities, art basics, and art things that can apply elsewhere. It's the categories near the end of the list that seem a little more tricky for me at this time, but I'm starting to get a few ideas.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Today I led our group check-in meeting, which was an experience. I'm being dramatic, it wasn't that bad; I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, but now I know for future reference. I was also have technical difficulties which didn't help. I think having the check-in meetings are good because it gave us the chance to review what we did together yesterday and discuss where it needs to go in the future. We also get to share what we worked on individually or in pairs which is goo to keep everyone in the loop. I found it very useful to get opinions on my individual activity planning since it's something I've been unsure about. I got also got some more ideas from everyone which was nice. Hearing everyone else's plans also helped me gauge what my plans can look like. I also understand now that my activities can be different because I have a different art form that necessitates different things. We also discussed the possibility of overlap between focuses which I think will open up a lot more possibilities. A lot of my activities require discussion and I want to add more that are active and more game-like. So, I took note of some of the ideas given to me and brainstormed some more. For now I'm trying to think of a lot of activities that I know fit into at least one of the categories and create a write-up for it, because I'm struggling on committing any one activity to a category yet since most of them have multiple applications. I think it's better if I just start doing things and then go back and edit instead of waiting until I'm certain on all the details of an activity.
Eleni - 6 years ago
In our group meeting today we had some good discussions about the individual activity plans and I think that was really helpful to me. Getting some ideas from other people was also nice and helped me get a sense of the kind of things we want to see as a group. I think when we have a review of activities that'll be really good. I came up with and researched a lot more ideas today and I was able to make several outlines. There are a few activities though that I'm not sure how to create the outline for and I may need to spend more time thinking about them or just get someone's help to make it make sense. I'm feeling better about how the different categories can be represented in the activities in different ways. I think now I want to try to get other mediums worked into the activities. For now, most of my activities are just traditional drawing or painting. I'm wondering if I should try to do some 3D design activities though, or just leave those for the specific focus activities. I also need to come up with ideas for culture/diversity, but I'm not sure how to go about that.
Eleni - 6 years ago
We had a good review and week planning session in our meeting this morning. I feel like we all kind of know where we're going this week and what tasks we're moving on to.
As for the activity planning... I kind of feel like I'm falling into a rut again. I've sorted out the categories a bit for the activities I have written up already, and I finished up some activities that weren't completed. I have some ideas on what I can do for the equality/diversity/intro parts but I'm not really sure about any of them. I either don't know how to write it up (or what would be the best way to go about the activity) or I'm unsure if the activity itself is engaging or the right vibe. I just realized though that we're going to go over each other's activities and review, so I guess I could just try writing them up and then it can be changed if we decide it's not what we want. I still want to ask the group or someone though about the ones I'm just not sure how to write. My other trouble is I want to do some more 3D art things, but I'm less familiar with that and its harder to find actual games or activities that involve them. I want it to be at least slightly structured in some way so that the kids who don't have an art focus can gain from the activity still. It might be better to work from an angle of "what do I want the kids to gain/learn/think about" and then try to build an activity around that.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Stella and I worked together on the art portion of the Final Performance today. I think we had some good points to make about the performance as a whole and were pretty much on the same page regarding the art kids. We didn't want for the art kids to just have their work hung up and that's it; we thought they should get the same value and recognition that the other kids were getting. So, their work should be showcased but with the artist standing beside it and presenting their work to those looking at it. That way, they can explain why they did what they did.
We finished our discussion before the end of our meeting time, so I stayed on the call with Stella while I was working on the activity planning. I think that it was actually really helpful because I got to get a second opinion on my ideas and even just talking through something helped me figure it out myself. I think now I know if I feel stuck, I should just talk to someone that way I can move forward with the ideas instead of just stewing. She was able to help me figure out how to incorporate activities that I wasn't sure what to do with, and I read out some of my plans that I was unsure of and she confirmed that they were good or gave me advice on how to adjust it. I feel a lot more confident with the activity planning and I don't think I'll be stuck the same way as I continue working on them.
Eleni - 6 years ago
A good day! (Time flew by haha) I had a meeting with Lauren about our information meetings/orientation. We came up with a list of topics we thought should be covered in each and then placed them into blank powerpoints. We started writing up some of the actual content of the slides, but it's pretty rough for now as more information is needed for some parts. I also thought we should wait to do the design aspect of it until we have our logo ready so that it can look cohesive with the logo and our website. It also brought to our attention the mission statement and whether we should have all three parts on a little infographic the way our examples were. That way, it'd be easy to print out and put on flyers or slides. We finished the basic outline of both presentations and want to get confirmation on the information were using and maybe an opinion on what/how much we should include.
I worked on the activity planning and though I still believe it will be easier now, I didn't really have a chance to find out because I was focused on one activity. Stella suggested yesterday that I follow Reilly's route and make a powerpoint for one of my activities. So I finished that powerpoint today and I think it was the best format for what I wanted to do because the campers can see a bunch of visual examples and I don't have to just write out a script for the counselor to read off if I want to do more of a lesson-type activity. Now it's all there on the powerpoint for everyone to see. I'm happy with the powerpoint I finished, and I may do another for a different activity. Another thing is I wrote the plan up in a way that allows for powerpoints in the same vein to be made so that there's variety in the future. Like the activity is about women in art so I made a pwrpnt on a specific artist, but more could be made so that there's a selection to choose from.
Eleni - 6 years ago
No pair meetings today! So, after our group meeting I worked on the activity plans. I decided it was time to start adding to the actual activity chart since I had many of my activities completed. I went through my activities and finished up the ones that just missing the objective. My only issue is I'm indecisive on where certain activities should go in the chart. I'm going to wait until I finish up all the ideas I have though, because if the activities already exist it doesn't really matter where they are. This is also okay because my problem isn't with missing certain categories, it's that the activities can fit into multiple ones.
I also began on activity charts that I only had the ideas for and hadn't started yet. I did the career pantomime activity and created a doc with all the jobs/descriptions that can be printed and cut out for the activity. Another thing I did was create a list of drawing prompts. My thought behind this was that for the activities that just require you to draw anything, campers may not know what to draw and so these prompts can be printed and cut up to make a prompt jar. That way, campers don't waste time or feel discouraged because they're uninspired; they can just pull a prompt for jumping-off point. I also think campers may be more inclined to draw a prompt they pick rather than an idea provided by someone else.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I think we discussed some important things during our group meeting today. We did a good job of making sure everybody was on the same page which I think is really important with a project that's so involved. I think that it's good to have the campers all doing activities together in the beginning of the day for a number of reasons, but mainly because it'll build that feeling of community that we're going for.
I met with Reilly to go over marketing plans. We came up with a list of potential marketing approaches like flyers, posters, presentations, etc. We also listed out the kind of information that should be on the flyers. For now, our plans are pretty rough because we're waiting until we have more details settled on. Also, once other tasks are complete, there will be elements that we can pull from them to use, like the information meeting presentation or the mission statement graphic. We also went over materials that I needed for my activities so I could add them to the chart.
I did more on activity planning afterwards. I made another presentation so that the campers could have some visual examples and inspiration for the activity. I really like the premise of this one, so I'm just going to talk about it a little bit. So the activity is called Life Themes and the presentation just talks about how artists use different themes in their art and what that looks like. The campers are then prompted to think about themes in their own life: what's important to them, what are activities or things they enjoy, their culture. The idea is that by identifying these themes in their own lives, they can use them when creating art (in any focus). Hopefully this will help guide them when thinking of what they want their mid/final to be and just throughout the camp. And this way they'll be able to make art representative of themselves.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Backwards day today! I started right in on the individual activity planning this noontime. Mr. Hanks sent me some really great activity ideas, so I looked into those to see if I could fit them in anywhere. I really liked the Zentangles one because it's a really low-pressure introduction to drawing and I think it can open the way to creative freedom and confidence for the campers. It also fits really well into the Line element of art category. I really liked the wording on the website because it talked about the calmness and such of the activity, so I mostly copy/pasted the activity. I want the counselors to at least read the activity this way so that they know the mood/energy of the activity and how to guide the campers. I wasn't sure how long the activity would take, so I did my own version of it to get a frame of reference. I think depending on size and time needed for instruction, there's wiggle room for how long it can take. So I finished writing that one up and moved on to other activities. I liked the mixing animal one, I'm not sure where it will fit in. I have a lot of fun ideas and I don't really need to worry about that, so I want to focus more on the culture/interpersonal activities for now. I still want to get more of the other mediums in there too before I do more paper pencil activities. Since I'm more stuck in these areas, I decided to just keep finishing up the activities I had already started.
I led our group meeting today haha. I think the meeting was fine at the end of the day because we got to talk about what we were working on today and ask questions before we get the chance to forget. We're also going to start reading each other's activity plans which I think is good at this point because I have most of mine written up and I think having a review of what I have will be useful moving forward. I also think looking at someone else's activities could be helpful too.
Eleni - 6 years ago
(We discussed this in the group meeting, but I had already started typing it so) I think a common theme among the interns is going to be making sure everything we're doing now, all the activities and documents, will be understood by people who aren't us. We have to make sure that if we want something said or done or understood about a specific activity, then it needs to be said somewhere. So that's just something we'll need to keep in mind as we're creating & reviewing.
I went over some of Stella's activities today and left her comments. That also just made me think more on the point of clarity because even though I knew what she wanted the campers to get out of the activity, it wasn't always explained, and those kinds of explanations needed to be added to some of them.
I continued on my activities and came up with something that might be a solution to some of my problems? I have a lot of ideas for kinds of art the kids can do, but I'm having trouble fitting it into a category or making it more of a learning experience. As Hanks was saying, making the activity just learning about the basics of the artform is a way to do that, and that's a way I can probably fit more mediums into my planning. This doesn't really apply to the issue of creating activities for culture/diversity though. What I did do though was make a culture/diversity variation for some of the activities. I was having difficulties coming up with an artistic way to do this, so I made it so that it can work with a number of mediums that can be chosen at the time of camp. That way the activities that more basic can be added on to or repeated with this variation. I think coming up with variations of activities might be good for me moving forward because it takes some of the pressure off of outlining all the details of an activity that can go many ways. So, instead of making just one thing, I can make more of a concept that can then be applied to any of the different art activities it fits with. (This is mostly me being indecisive on things, but in the long run it may be beneficial for counselors to be able to choose what versions to do based off of materials and previous activities.) I may ask for input though to see if this makes sense or is too convoluted (I explained way more complexly and vaguely than what it actually is though). ((Hanks, I'm so sorry you have to read this. I don't know why I made all those sentences so confusing.)) So yeah. I feel like I'm constantly in a state of being stuck, but then I'm always moving forward or doing something so I guess I'm actually fine haha.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Today wasn't the most productive, but I feel like I figured things out so that I know better what to do tomorrow. I think I'm just going to stop worrying about the categories as much and start making activities for art basics of different mediums. That way the kids will be more prepared if we do other activities involving the medium too. Group meeting was very helpful today, and I think I know what I'm going to do now. Also had surprise guest speaker Billy Porter which was super cool and very inspirational.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I had a lot of meetings today, so I didn't spend as much time on the individual activities. I think I know where I'm going with the activities now though. I'm just going to do more learning the basics. All of my meetings had a similar theme. I met with Lauren first to work on the info/orientation presentations. I think we're mostly settled on the writing and we're waiting to get the color scheme stuff figured out so we can start adding backgrounds and arranging things better on the slides. Then we met for the website and started a doc to outline everything we wanted to include. We then started actually typing out the information under some of the sections. We had our group meeting and talked about a lot of things, so I'm just gonna make a kind of to-do list before I forget it all haha. Reilly and I need to create the color template for our documents/website so it's all cohesive. We settled on the fonts. We're changing the activity template heading/title part (Yuki is going to change it, but I'll need to put in the categories after). I need to write up the art focus summary for the website. Yuki & I have to had more info regarding marketing to the admin calendar. I feel like there's more that I'm just not thinking of, so I'm going to check in with my interns about what we need to do.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Just the one meeting, so I had more time to work on my activity planning. Things are going pretty much how I expected now. I think I only have 5 more activities to do, but I have at least an idea for each of them. I also went back and filled in my focus summary for the website. I haven't gotten any feedback on my activities yet though, so I'll just have to ask Reilly about that. Stella also has more activities for me to look at and she wants to talk over things with me. I also think that could be helpful for me, so I'll make sure to get that in there next week.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Marketing-heavy today. We had our group meeting back at noon today and we discussed marketing/website. We were already pretty set on the website information, so there wasn't much to go over there. We moved on to discuss marketing, but we weren't entirely sure what needed to be covered. We talked some about the color palette and Reilly and I told them what we were doing, but at that point we were still pretty in the works for marketing. We had a meeting after though and finished up our flyer handout and full page poster. (They may need some editing after review though, and it would be good to get another set of eyes on them.) Lauren and I also met and worked on the info meeting/orientation presentations. The info meeting one is complete with backgrounds and everything, and the orientation one is almost there. There is still information for that presentation that needs clarification. I still have to finish my activities. I was doing some research for them, but it was stressing me out so I worked on the presentations instead. I really don't have much to do for the activities and I pretty much know what I want to do for them, but for some reason I'm struggling with the specifics and how to write them up. I think I may just give someone a call tomorrow so I can try talking it out first.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I started today's group meeting with one of my focus activities. I chose to do Simon Says, Draw! which is exactly what it sounds like. The activity actually went over really well and everyone had fun doing it. We also saw some really interesting results. When discussing it afterwards, it seemed like they were getting what I wanted the campers to get out of the activity when they did it which was good to know. Next on our agenda was the job responsibilities flo-chart. We had some good points of discussion about the different jobs and tasks, but I'm not entirely sure it's flushed out enough. I feel like we need to discuss it again with Hanks, because there are some things that I think need clarification. I also don't think we made an actual flow chart, we more talked over it and typed up the job descriptions only. So that's definitely something that should be revisited. After that, we scheduled committee meetings. I scheduled a meeting with Stella for tomorrow so that we could work together on the individual activities.
Speaking of which, that's what I worked on next. Yuki went through and updated the formatting, so I went in after and changed what was the title row to the categories. This was nice because I noticed that there was an activity that I'd thought I'd finished, but was actually missing an element. I'm feeling better about the activities now, I was just stressed out for some reason yesterday. Only have one spot left on the chart now and a couple activities that just cleaned/finished up. I forgot, I also went through Stella's activities again because she added new ones, and I checked the changes she made to the other ones. I think looking at hers also helped me out because it let me take a step back from all my art activities and just get a broader idea of what the activities could look like. (It also brought to my attention I didn't plan for a guest speaker, so I did that.)
Eleni - 6 years ago
I'm a little wary of what's been going on. I think we've had some good group discussions but I also think there's a lot of confusion and issues that need clarifying. It's kind of hard for me working in this format too because I want to talk/try to explain more but it's just difficult to have a discussion in this format sometimes. I think it'll be good to go over the week with Hanks tomorrow so that we can revisit the topics there was confusion around and get another explanation of what we're being expected to do exactly for each task. I think some of our issues are just coming from everyone needing to be on the same page, which in the past was easy enough to clear up. We talked about the Focus Overviews, but I don't think nearly enough. Most of our discussion was just about what that means exactly/what it should look like and what the purpose of it is, which is really important, but I think there was some confusion there that I'm not sure is totally cleared up. And we didn't really get much deeper into it than that, which we definitely need to. We ended the topic though with a plan to work on our own focus and then meet again to share/discuss commonalities, and this may be better for us than the reverse. I also tried to take notes of all the questions we had for tomorrow.
Afterwards, I worked on the activity planning. I tried to just fill out the ones I wasn't sure how to word so that I'd have them to go over with with Stella or for Reilly to read and give feedback on, because they may just be fine as is. I also started creating a list of things for my focus overview.
Eleni - 6 years ago
(This first part is going to be less about my workday and more a reflection/about the review stuff.) I feel like this whole internship has been a learning experience, but today was very enlightening in a way that was totally unexpected on my part. I think the advice I got was really valuable and I agreed with a lot of what was being said. I think the turning point though was how everything got recontextualized in my mind. I hadn’t realized until now how important these points of self-growth are. A lot of what we talked about were things I was aware of, but I wasn’t aware of how present these issues were and how much they were affecting all these different areas of my life. I have these qualities that are useful and make me who I am, but I’ve built up some bad habits surrounding them that I need to relearn. (I won’t go too much into specifics, because then it’ll probably be really long, and I’ve already done that on my own but… I know that as a former GATE kid and as a woman, I have really bad impostor syndrome, so it’s impossible for me to do something and not feel like I’m slacking or that I’m not putting forth my best work. So, it was really nice to hear that praise and acknowledgement of what I do ((thank you)). And this is probably where a lot of that self-undermining comes from… ) I feel like this is a very valuable realization to have had, especially with my goals for the future & my career. As a performer, you’re selling yourself; who I am and how I hold myself is going to be really important. So overall, I’m very glad this came to light, and it’s definitely something I’m going to be thinking about, probably for a long time. I have a lot of room for reflection and even more room for growth.
(Okay, on to less personal but still valuable learning experiences.) I think our group meeting went very well today. We did a lot of recapping and we got a lot of the questions we had during the week either answered or brought forward as points of discussion. Note to self: taking notes is very useful and you should keep doing that. My big takeaway was that with what we’re doing, it’s sometimes necessary to make executive decisions so that we can move forward. And with that, keep in mind that we can always revise later if we have to. (This kind of ties in with all my other stuff too haha) I think that having this mindset is what’s really going to be helpful to me. So when I worked on my activity planning today, I tried to make some decisions and get ideas onto the paper, knowing that it’s not the be-all end-all and that I can go back and change things if need be (and I can only do this if I have something to start with). I think that there’s been some running themes and repetitiveness in my blogs, but I’m glad that I’m getting sort of the same lessons again and again, because hopefully that will help it stick.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I'm feeling really good today! And this was definitely due in part to yesterday, but I also think our group meeting today was pretty helpful. We checked up on where everyone was with their tasks & what was completed. We also started to plan out our next stage of tasks and what was still needed for our other ones. I feel like now I have a pretty good grasp of what needs to be done and where I'll be going with my work these next couple of weeks. Overall I'm feeling a lot better and a lot more excited about work now.
After our meeting I worked on my activities. I was worried for a time about them because I thought I was really behind, but I think I'm actually pretty good now and we were just all kind of ahead on them so that's why. I had a really good idea last night for an activity so I wrote that one up. I only have one (maybe 1.5) activity left to finish now. It was one that I was kind of putting on the back-burner for a while because I just had no idea how to move forward with it, so I finally asked Hanks and we had a really helpful discussion/brainstorm about it. I think now I have a lot more to work with and I'll have an easier time creating the activity. I really just needed another brain to give me another perspective and different ideas. I think at this point the work is challenging more in an interesting way than in the stressful/frustrating way I was bordering on before haha. In summary: :D.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Marketing! To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan. That may not be true though, it's just something I obviously have little experience in so it can be challenging sometimes. I think I'd be better at the publicity & relations side than the actual designing part. I'm an artistic person, but I don't have a particular fondness for this type of design I'm finding. But I think objectively I shouldn't be bad at it, so I'm not gonna straight up rule it out. (I'm also just feeling weird today, so I may be being over dramatic...)
"Graphic design is hard"
Wise words. This will also be my motto now, so thank you for that.
Moving on from that, I am still excited to work and I'm still feeling inspired. I'm just really tired today, but I'm pretty sure it's all for reasons out of my control so I'll make of it what I can. I was working on the activities again earlier. I had started by just making comments on the doc to basically put all the ideas down and make an outline. Then I went back through and started making it into the full ideas in the actual doc. I think this method actually worked really well for me and I'll have to keep it mind for future reference. Doing it this way made it a lot less overwhelming. (Even though what I wrote as notes was pretty much the exact same as what I wrote in doc, it made it feel less like I was coming up with the final version in one go.) So today I kept adding to the notes and writing things up in the doc. I also did a little research into the chalk pastel techniques. I'm not quite done with the activities yet, but I think I know where each one is going now. So that's where I'm at now, and hopefully tomorrow I'm able to give a little more energy to all the excitement that's there.
And once more for good measure:
"Graphic design is hard" - Hanks 2020
Eleni - 6 years ago
Yuki & I met today to talk counselor training. We came up with a basic list scheduling out the topics we want covered during the orientation week. I think we made a pretty good start. I have two concerns/thoughts though. One is if we're hitting all the technical points regarding legal stuff and health/safety, so that may just be some research we have to do. The other is more vague. I wanted to be a part of the training planning because I go to a summer camp every year that's amazing and the reason it's amazing is because of the counselors. I think the counselors are vital to setting the tone of the camp and creating the open and creative space we want. So my concern is how we train the counselors to run the camp in a way that creates the atmosphere we want. One thing we're doing in that vein is planning for the staff to take part in some of the teambuilding activities we created (and/or other ones that are appropriate).
I've pretty much completed my activities at this point I think. I think I just want someone to look over my last two because they may still need some cleaning up. I'm pretty solid on my other activities, but I would still like them to be reviewed in case they could benefit from feedback.
Our group meeting was alright. We went over the things we did today and what were going to be doing this week. We also talked about the things we need to go over in the meeting tomorrow.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Good stuff today. It's interesting seeing how work is going now that we're somewhat moving on from just the individual activities planning. I think I got all the information I needed today to finish up my final two activities.
I met with Reilly again to work on our marketing posters/flyers. So far we have the community-board-type poster and a smaller handout. I think that just leaves us to do more of a year-round Camp Yampa poster (Mission Vision Values, etc.). I think we have a better grasp of what our marketing can look like now after we talked about it so much on Monday.
Our group meeting today went really well. We discussed the issue of pronouns when playing a name game, and I'm really glad that came up because it may not have been something we were all cognizant of. We also went over the counselor training week in our meeting and I think that was really helpful. It reaffirmed that Yuki and I had a strong starting point and helped guide us where to go from there. I think I'm getting a better idea of what it should all look like. Throughout the camp, there's a balance between making sure our ideas transcend this time we're creating them and leaving this open-ended enough for the camp to grow and change with it's people and time. :)
Eleni - 6 years ago
Interesting day...
I think I'm finally all done with my activities!! (At least unless someone gives feedback on smth I should change.) So I kept adding to my focus overview outline before we shared them today. I think the sharing was good because we saw the kinds of things we were aiming for the campers to learn. I think I'm going to keep mine in more of the bullet format instead of the weekly outline. Because my focus topics are less about skills and more about overarching ideas, I just want them to be kept in mind as the teachers/counselors create their plans. The teachers should just be teaching technique in a way that makes sense during the camp and then embed these ideas into their plans.
I also started gathering activities that could be used during the info meetings (and/or sent to teachers).
Talking about our focus topics was also useful because it gave us an idea of what our board presentation is going to look like. We talked more about the presentation and how Stella and I are going to organize it. I think that was a useful discussion and I took some notes on what we talked about.
I met up with Stella after our meeting too and helped her with some activities. We also talked over some of the other tasks and stuff.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Only two weeks left!? That sounds crazy, but we really are wrapping up on everything. I'm pretty impressed with all that we've done this summer. It's interesting working now that the activities are done too. For one, I have less to do (but I'm sure that's about to change once we start prepping for our board presentation). And it's nice having a change in the kind of work I'm doing.
I met with Yuki today to work more on the camp training week. We reordered the week a little more and moved the parent orientation day to Thursday, so I think our outline is pretty set now. We created the slideshow with the Monday outline together to get an idea of what we wanted and then divided up the rest of the week. I started working on my assigned days after our call. I was surprised by how easily the training week info was coming together. I thought that'd there would be a lot for us to do, but because we created so many parts of the camp as separate tasks we really just have to copy and paste the information at this point. Most of mine and Yuki's work is explaining for the future camp manager how to run the orientation/use the info on the slides. I think once we're done with our slides, we should have the group look over them to see if there are parts that could do with a little more explanation or if we left something out.
Our group meeting today was fun. We also discussed some plans for our school year/thespians and Hanks shared his plans for the theatre/film programs. It was nice to see our options/possibilities for the school year and I'm very interested to hear what the others have to say. I think Hanks' plans for the future will also bring a lot to RCHS Productions and help the students get the most out of the program.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Wow, we're really coming to a close pretty soon here! We talked over the plans for this and next week, and it really just made me realize how close we are to being done. I'm excited to see everything put together and to be able to present what we've done in the end.
Today I was just working on the camp staff training slides. I ran into a few questions I had though, so I wrote them down to discuss with Yuki/the group before I went further on those parts. Speaking of questions, I've discovered that keeping a notebook is really helpful. (I may have already talked about this before, but) It really useful to write down questions that way I don't forget what I want to talk about in our group meetings. It's also helpful to take down notes so I don't forget what we talk about in the meetings or if I get some good advice. It's also a good frame of reference when I start my day because I can look to see what I wrote down under the different tasks I'm doing to remind myself what questions I had and what ideas I had. I'm not sure what else there is to say, today was pretty lowkey. One nice thing about this job is that I don't hate having to work again on Mondays :)
Eleni - 6 years ago
Not necessarily camp related, but we had our Thespian brainstorm meeting today. We talked over our options for the school year and we got a lot of input and ideas from our peers. And although this situation sucks, I think one benefit is that now our theatre program is going to be more in our hands. We're going to be doing a lot more of the producing and the writing etc, and I think that an opportunity for growth and new experiences we may not have otherwise had. I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about what the year holds and hopefully we end up with results we can be proud of. (I'm really just excited to get to do theatre in any capacity again.)
More on the camp side: I met with Reilly today to work marketing. Really just finishing up some poster stuff, Mission/Vision/Values.
Our group meeting was good. We played a really fun improv game and we were able to improve on it some. We also discussed some important points regarding our final presentation (I knew what you were doing there Hanks -_-). But there were valid points that were made so I'm not mad about it haha. And we finally came to a decision about Camp Yampa (which tbh does look better, I just liked the caps better in theory). The caps probably could've worked if it was a different font... or a legal document.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Having to flex our creative muscles again lol. I think landing on Camp Yampa so quickly was a fluke for us haha. We did settle on Arts in Motion for the final performance name and I think that that fits really well. We did another improv game to start our meeting which was really fun. It's nice to see how many activities we're still able to do over call, and it gives us some possibilities for the school year.
I worked on the camp training slides today. I had some questions before so I emailed Yuki, but I think we're going to be able to figure things out better when we meet tomorrow. Then we can make our final touch-ups on Friday. We may also want to try to get Hanks in on our call since the training is such an important part of the camp.
I met with Stella today for our Guests Wishlist. We brainstormed a lot of different types of guests, projects, and fieldtrips we could do. Not sure if we should try adding some specific people if we know of any potential ones that way the idea is there and the contact info could be added so it's readily available when the time comes. Otherwise, there's not much more to do for that task other than add new ideas we come up with.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I forgot to say this but as I was working on the camp training, I was revisiting the camper-parent orientation slides to add on more specific information that came up since then. I feel like it may be necessary to add more to the parent orientation regarding actual protocol stuff.
Eleni - 6 years ago
So much information in my brain today. I'm just hoping that I have enough notes to look back on and that other people are also remembering things.
We had a good discussion about the 2020-21 school year for theatre, and we started organizing our ideas.
Yuki and I met to review our camp training plans and we called Hanks in to go over them with us. I think he had a lot of useful input. We're pretty much finished on those, but I think I need to go in and add some info to the speaker's notes for a few slides.
We played another fun improv game in our group meeting, but I think that this one doesn't work as well over the call format. It was just hard because the people with the messages would talk over each other so I couldn't always tell what was being said. We talked about some budgeting regarding field trips. Then, we started planning out the board presentation. We wrote out what information would be included and what would be on the slides vs what we'd being saying. There was a lot to unpack and I absorbed what was being said but I don't think I have the mental capacity to verbalize my reflections on it right now. Just know that I got what was being said and I am thinking about it.
Eleni - 6 years ago
Today I was mostly doing clean-up/finish-up. I went back to the camp training slides and added the bits of info the were missing in the speaker's notes. I also just went over them and made some little edits for spelling and stuff. I looked back over at the presentation outline and I created a slideshow for it. I just added the slide titles so that we could move them around easily to decide on the order. I also went to the website and started taking screenshots of the forms & other things we planned to have pics of in the presentation.
We played a fun game in our group meeting that I think worked pretty well over the call format. We settled on the name for our midway showcase so now I can go and edit where we talk about the performances in the slideshows. We went over some things on the website that could be edited. Then we talked more about the final presentation. I think it'll be good when we talk about it more in our group meeting on Monday. Right now I'm just trying not to get anxious about it. I think once we kind of figure out the order, it'll be more straightforward and we'll be collaborating on the script. And like what Hanks was saying, we already have a lot of the statements about the different elements in other documents and on the website and stuff, so we'll be able to copy and paste a lot of it. So yeah, just trying to stay level-headed :)
Eleni - 6 years ago
The final presentation is lowkey stressing me out. It doesn't seem like it's actually that hard though, I just wish we had started working on it sooner so that we could have more time for it. Stella and I were working on it today and I think we made a good start, but there's still a lot to do. It's just hard because there's no clear way to go about it; it's all just kind of up in the air and that's making it kind of a lot for me. This makes it sound really bad, I don't think I'm actually struggling that much, I'm just an anxious person by nature so I feel this way about everything. Hanks gave good ideas on how to fit the script into the presentation and transitions etc. I think it's the actual content of the slides (mostly just the later ones) that have me at a loss. But Stella is going to work on it more tonight and I think once I have more time to think about it it'll be easier when we work on it again. (I don't want this to seem like I'm completely lost and I have no idea what to do or anything. I just have no gauge of what is enough for right now and what is okay as-is. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say T.T)
Eleni - 6 years ago
I think today was a lot easier working on the presentation. I just needed some kind of structure or outline in place to have something to work off of, so having a lot of the basics from yesterday helped. Stella and I also got Lauren on call so I think that made decision-making easier. I've gotten a pretty good start on the script too I think and Lauren & Stella are going to work on it more later. The presentation itself is mostly done. We still need to add some more screenshots from the website, but I want to try to wait on that until some things get edited first. My goal with the script is just try to have everything written out so that the group can look at it and make edits if things sound weird or need a different transition.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I think today went pretty well. We were able to clean up a lot of the script and I think seeing it gave everybody a better idea of what we wanted the presentation to sound like. I'm not sure if I'm done working yet, but I decided to just take the time now to write my journal post. I think that the presentation slides themselves are pretty much done. I sent out an email asking the interns to check over the slides for inaccuracies or other mistakes, so if anyone has something that probably all there's left to change. The script is filled out now, there are just some rough spots that still need editing. I looked over it a couple times to make edits when needed in the beginning for grammar/wording things. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to just run it through and cut down if necessary.
Eleni - 6 years ago
I can't believe it's (almost) over!!! I feel like it was only a couple weeks ago we were laughing at how fun calling the campers Yampers would be when we were choosing our name. I'm really proud of what we've accomplished. I think our presentation looks great and hopefully it's enough to to convince the board how valuable our camp can be. I think it'll be clear that we put a lot of heart into it.
Eleni - 5 years ago
CAMP YAMPA PT2 !!!
We're back! Yay!!
Our first official days of Camp Yampa seemed to have gone pretty well! I'm really excited for what we have in store. I think most of what we've been doing has been working for the camp so far. I think the most important things we keep in mind is that it should all be fun, so if something isn't working with the kids we can just let it go. And the other important thing is just keeping the counselors organized and comfortable. I think making sure we're communicating well and that we're really checking in with each other will help keep things running smoothly and keep everyone happy. Overall though I think the week went well and that we've set up a pretty solid system/foundation for our camp.
Eleni - 5 years ago
Camp Week 2!!
I think that overall, things are going well in our camp. There are always some activities that don’t land and some kids who do t want to participate, but for the most part things seem to be fun and engaging.
Imani was gone for a few days so I had to fill in for the art focus group. That stressed me out a little because I had to come up with plans for what to do. It wasn’t that bad though, I’m just not sure if some of the activities were a little boring.
I think now I e at least learned how to better manage the kids. I was worried before, but I think now that we all know each other more I’m more comfortable with them. I find that just interacting with them and talking to them is so helpful because usually they want to talk and share with you, so by just listening you’re forming a connection with them. And then when things do get more focused, it’s easier to keep them on track because they know they can talk later. I feel like a lot of this is just a learning experience and a big part is just learning to take opportunities as they present themselves. Like if a kid is struggling with something, there’s an opportunity to try to help them up before they get down on themselves. (And just other stuff like that.)
Eleni - 5 years ago
WEEK 3!!
This week seemed to go by so quickly! I think things in the camp have been going really well. I think our days have been moving a lot faster and we've been doing a lot of activities and having guest speakers, which has made things more interesting and engaging (I hope). It also seems like a lot of the campers have become friends which is so fun to see. I think it's nice that we're trying to teach the campers artistic skills, but I also think just having a place where they can have fun and make friends is enough to make it worth it. And they really end up being creative in their own ways anyway haha. (We seem to have several mascots and cults(clubs?).)
I'm a little sad we only have four more days, but I'm really excited to see everyone's final performance pieces. I'm a bit nervous for collab groups because Imani will be gone most of next week, but I think if I can just keep them focused and make sure everyone has something to do then I'll be fine. :-)
Eleni - 5 years ago
CAMP IS OVER!!
Man, it feels like it went by so fast!! The last few days were a little stressful preparing for the final performance, but we got everything together by the end. I think that overall, the camp was a big success. Having everyone together talking and signing shirts on the last day really showed how much fun and how many friends people made during the camp. I hope Camp Yampa sticks around.
Internship Reflections
Daily recaps of work accomplished and acknowledgement of skills gained.
Today we really explored and gained some insight into the different cultures of California, West Sacramento, and the individuals within our city. I think that this is really helpful and important when creating something for the community. We want to be able to bring something to our community that we feel represents our community and can benefit it. Being aware of the different cultures and the practices and values of said cultures is necessary to create a successful product. We want to make sure that we can reach a variety of people within our community and be a safe space for all these different people. Knowing the culture of our community will help guide us in our work and create a goal.
I think that coming up with a vision statement for our program was really helpful and necessary to setting a course for the future of our program and planning it. It's important that we know what we want to see in the program and what we want to come of it. It was a little difficult at times just because of the format we're using and not being able to talk in person. What was really helpful though was each of us writing our own ideas and talking about them and then looking at that as a group and deciding what parts we liked and how we could move forward. By creating this vision/mission I think we're going to make our program into something special and less surface-level than other summer camps.
Today we really settled on our mission statement(s) and our values. This is good because it will help guide us when planning so we know what we want everyone to get out of our program. Then we can make sure that our activities are in line with these goals.
I think some trouble we had was thinking too specific before we really planned the broader aspects. I think once we set some baselines, it'll make it a lot easier to figure out the nitty-gritty stuff. We also have to keep in mind that we can change some of our big-picture stuff if we need to once we get further down the road; not every decision we're making has to be concrete. I think that this will be less of a problem moving forward though because now we have a plan for our planning lol.
I really like the thoroughness of the process we're using to create our program and I think it will result in a really solid end product. I'm excited to move forward!!
I'm really happy with this name, because I think it sums up who we are and it's fun to say. I like both parts of it, because the word Camp has multiple meanings, as well as Yampa which is a flower and can have significance to our camp. I like the teamwork as well as the star symbolism; it seems theme-appropriate. I think we also got pretty far with the logo design and its almost perfect.
Our next step was signing up for the different planning tasks and coming up with a time plan. I think that we'll be able to work well together in small groups while still communicating with the whole. So far our collaboration has been very effective, and I feel like I'm learning a lot when it comes to developing something as a group. I'm excited to keep working!!
At 12:30 I had an hour-long meeting with Yuki to begin the Camp Administration Calendar. We started with discussing all the events we knew we needed dates for and then began determining those dates. Once that was figured out, we had Hanks join us to answer some questions and give us direction on making the actual calendar. For now, our calendar is really more of a timeline since it cover a large amount of time that would have many blank dates. I'm kind of impressed with what we've done so far, I guess just because I thought it'd take longer to complete and we've already done so much. Most of what's left to do is clean up the formatting, finalize some dates, and get input from the rest of the group. Mine & Yuki's next meeting is Thursday.
After our meeting, I continued working on the individual activity planning. I'm still kind of in the same spot of not knowing what type of activities I should be doing for each category, so I definitely need to ask about that/talk with the group. I continued researching and compiling a list of possible ideas though and tried to make note of where I thought they could fit, or I tried to come up with types of activities for a category. I also continued filling out templates for ideas I was sure could be included even if I wasn't sure on where. For now, I think the basic team-building activities are what I'm finding, but I'm not sure if the same kind of activities are also appropriate for the other categories if we just talked about them more (?)
We're getting more information on our end of the summer board presentation and I sent our correspondent the information the board required from us.
I then continued working on the individual activity plans. I think today ended up being very productive for me and now I feel a lot more confident with what I'm supposed to be doing regarding the Activity Chart as I was confused before. I filled out a couple more templates and began coming up with other possible ideas for activities for other categories. I was struggling with determining what the purpose of the activities should be and if they should be more fun or more teachy but now I know that I should create activities that can help all campers explore the basics of my focus subject. So now I'm doing research and coming up with a mix of fun activities, art basics, and art things that can apply elsewhere. It's the categories near the end of the list that seem a little more tricky for me at this time, but I'm starting to get a few ideas.
As for the activity planning... I kind of feel like I'm falling into a rut again. I've sorted out the categories a bit for the activities I have written up already, and I finished up some activities that weren't completed. I have some ideas on what I can do for the equality/diversity/intro parts but I'm not really sure about any of them. I either don't know how to write it up (or what would be the best way to go about the activity) or I'm unsure if the activity itself is engaging or the right vibe. I just realized though that we're going to go over each other's activities and review, so I guess I could just try writing them up and then it can be changed if we decide it's not what we want. I still want to ask the group or someone though about the ones I'm just not sure how to write. My other trouble is I want to do some more 3D art things, but I'm less familiar with that and its harder to find actual games or activities that involve them. I want it to be at least slightly structured in some way so that the kids who don't have an art focus can gain from the activity still. It might be better to work from an angle of "what do I want the kids to gain/learn/think about" and then try to build an activity around that.
We finished our discussion before the end of our meeting time, so I stayed on the call with Stella while I was working on the activity planning. I think that it was actually really helpful because I got to get a second opinion on my ideas and even just talking through something helped me figure it out myself. I think now I know if I feel stuck, I should just talk to someone that way I can move forward with the ideas instead of just stewing. She was able to help me figure out how to incorporate activities that I wasn't sure what to do with, and I read out some of my plans that I was unsure of and she confirmed that they were good or gave me advice on how to adjust it. I feel a lot more confident with the activity planning and I don't think I'll be stuck the same way as I continue working on them.
I worked on the activity planning and though I still believe it will be easier now, I didn't really have a chance to find out because I was focused on one activity. Stella suggested yesterday that I follow Reilly's route and make a powerpoint for one of my activities. So I finished that powerpoint today and I think it was the best format for what I wanted to do because the campers can see a bunch of visual examples and I don't have to just write out a script for the counselor to read off if I want to do more of a lesson-type activity. Now it's all there on the powerpoint for everyone to see. I'm happy with the powerpoint I finished, and I may do another for a different activity. Another thing is I wrote the plan up in a way that allows for powerpoints in the same vein to be made so that there's variety in the future. Like the activity is about women in art so I made a pwrpnt on a specific artist, but more could be made so that there's a selection to choose from.
I also began on activity charts that I only had the ideas for and hadn't started yet. I did the career pantomime activity and created a doc with all the jobs/descriptions that can be printed and cut out for the activity. Another thing I did was create a list of drawing prompts. My thought behind this was that for the activities that just require you to draw anything, campers may not know what to draw and so these prompts can be printed and cut up to make a prompt jar. That way, campers don't waste time or feel discouraged because they're uninspired; they can just pull a prompt for jumping-off point. I also think campers may be more inclined to draw a prompt they pick rather than an idea provided by someone else.
I met with Reilly to go over marketing plans. We came up with a list of potential marketing approaches like flyers, posters, presentations, etc. We also listed out the kind of information that should be on the flyers. For now, our plans are pretty rough because we're waiting until we have more details settled on. Also, once other tasks are complete, there will be elements that we can pull from them to use, like the information meeting presentation or the mission statement graphic. We also went over materials that I needed for my activities so I could add them to the chart.
I did more on activity planning afterwards. I made another presentation so that the campers could have some visual examples and inspiration for the activity. I really like the premise of this one, so I'm just going to talk about it a little bit. So the activity is called Life Themes and the presentation just talks about how artists use different themes in their art and what that looks like. The campers are then prompted to think about themes in their own life: what's important to them, what are activities or things they enjoy, their culture. The idea is that by identifying these themes in their own lives, they can use them when creating art (in any focus). Hopefully this will help guide them when thinking of what they want their mid/final to be and just throughout the camp. And this way they'll be able to make art representative of themselves.
I led our group meeting today haha. I think the meeting was fine at the end of the day because we got to talk about what we were working on today and ask questions before we get the chance to forget. We're also going to start reading each other's activity plans which I think is good at this point because I have most of mine written up and I think having a review of what I have will be useful moving forward. I also think looking at someone else's activities could be helpful too.
I went over some of Stella's activities today and left her comments. That also just made me think more on the point of clarity because even though I knew what she wanted the campers to get out of the activity, it wasn't always explained, and those kinds of explanations needed to be added to some of them.
I continued on my activities and came up with something that might be a solution to some of my problems? I have a lot of ideas for kinds of art the kids can do, but I'm having trouble fitting it into a category or making it more of a learning experience. As Hanks was saying, making the activity just learning about the basics of the artform is a way to do that, and that's a way I can probably fit more mediums into my planning. This doesn't really apply to the issue of creating activities for culture/diversity though. What I did do though was make a culture/diversity variation for some of the activities. I was having difficulties coming up with an artistic way to do this, so I made it so that it can work with a number of mediums that can be chosen at the time of camp. That way the activities that more basic can be added on to or repeated with this variation. I think coming up with variations of activities might be good for me moving forward because it takes some of the pressure off of outlining all the details of an activity that can go many ways. So, instead of making just one thing, I can make more of a concept that can then be applied to any of the different art activities it fits with. (This is mostly me being indecisive on things, but in the long run it may be beneficial for counselors to be able to choose what versions to do based off of materials and previous activities.) I may ask for input though to see if this makes sense or is too convoluted (I explained way more complexly and vaguely than what it actually is though). ((Hanks, I'm so sorry you have to read this. I don't know why I made all those sentences so confusing.)) So yeah. I feel like I'm constantly in a state of being stuck, but then I'm always moving forward or doing something so I guess I'm actually fine haha.
Speaking of which, that's what I worked on next. Yuki went through and updated the formatting, so I went in after and changed what was the title row to the categories. This was nice because I noticed that there was an activity that I'd thought I'd finished, but was actually missing an element. I'm feeling better about the activities now, I was just stressed out for some reason yesterday. Only have one spot left on the chart now and a couple activities that just cleaned/finished up. I forgot, I also went through Stella's activities again because she added new ones, and I checked the changes she made to the other ones. I think looking at hers also helped me out because it let me take a step back from all my art activities and just get a broader idea of what the activities could look like. (It also brought to my attention I didn't plan for a guest speaker, so I did that.)
Afterwards, I worked on the activity planning. I tried to just fill out the ones I wasn't sure how to word so that I'd have them to go over with with Stella or for Reilly to read and give feedback on, because they may just be fine as is. I also started creating a list of things for my focus overview.
(Okay, on to less personal but still valuable learning experiences.) I think our group meeting went very well today. We did a lot of recapping and we got a lot of the questions we had during the week either answered or brought forward as points of discussion. Note to self: taking notes is very useful and you should keep doing that. My big takeaway was that with what we’re doing, it’s sometimes necessary to make executive decisions so that we can move forward. And with that, keep in mind that we can always revise later if we have to. (This kind of ties in with all my other stuff too haha) I think that having this mindset is what’s really going to be helpful to me. So when I worked on my activity planning today, I tried to make some decisions and get ideas onto the paper, knowing that it’s not the be-all end-all and that I can go back and change things if need be (and I can only do this if I have something to start with). I think that there’s been some running themes and repetitiveness in my blogs, but I’m glad that I’m getting sort of the same lessons again and again, because hopefully that will help it stick.
After our meeting I worked on my activities. I was worried for a time about them because I thought I was really behind, but I think I'm actually pretty good now and we were just all kind of ahead on them so that's why. I had a really good idea last night for an activity so I wrote that one up. I only have one (maybe 1.5) activity left to finish now. It was one that I was kind of putting on the back-burner for a while because I just had no idea how to move forward with it, so I finally asked Hanks and we had a really helpful discussion/brainstorm about it. I think now I have a lot more to work with and I'll have an easier time creating the activity. I really just needed another brain to give me another perspective and different ideas. I think at this point the work is challenging more in an interesting way than in the stressful/frustrating way I was bordering on before haha. In summary: :D.
"Graphic design is hard"
Wise words. This will also be my motto now, so thank you for that.
Moving on from that, I am still excited to work and I'm still feeling inspired. I'm just really tired today, but I'm pretty sure it's all for reasons out of my control so I'll make of it what I can. I was working on the activities again earlier. I had started by just making comments on the doc to basically put all the ideas down and make an outline. Then I went back through and started making it into the full ideas in the actual doc. I think this method actually worked really well for me and I'll have to keep it mind for future reference. Doing it this way made it a lot less overwhelming. (Even though what I wrote as notes was pretty much the exact same as what I wrote in doc, it made it feel less like I was coming up with the final version in one go.) So today I kept adding to the notes and writing things up in the doc. I also did a little research into the chalk pastel techniques. I'm not quite done with the activities yet, but I think I know where each one is going now. So that's where I'm at now, and hopefully tomorrow I'm able to give a little more energy to all the excitement that's there.
And once more for good measure:
"Graphic design is hard" - Hanks 2020
I've pretty much completed my activities at this point I think. I think I just want someone to look over my last two because they may still need some cleaning up. I'm pretty solid on my other activities, but I would still like them to be reviewed in case they could benefit from feedback.
Our group meeting was alright. We went over the things we did today and what were going to be doing this week. We also talked about the things we need to go over in the meeting tomorrow.
I met with Reilly again to work on our marketing posters/flyers. So far we have the community-board-type poster and a smaller handout. I think that just leaves us to do more of a year-round Camp Yampa poster (Mission Vision Values, etc.). I think we have a better grasp of what our marketing can look like now after we talked about it so much on Monday.
Our group meeting today went really well. We discussed the issue of pronouns when playing a name game, and I'm really glad that came up because it may not have been something we were all cognizant of. We also went over the counselor training week in our meeting and I think that was really helpful. It reaffirmed that Yuki and I had a strong starting point and helped guide us where to go from there. I think I'm getting a better idea of what it should all look like. Throughout the camp, there's a balance between making sure our ideas transcend this time we're creating them and leaving this open-ended enough for the camp to grow and change with it's people and time. :)
I think I'm finally all done with my activities!! (At least unless someone gives feedback on smth I should change.) So I kept adding to my focus overview outline before we shared them today. I think the sharing was good because we saw the kinds of things we were aiming for the campers to learn. I think I'm going to keep mine in more of the bullet format instead of the weekly outline. Because my focus topics are less about skills and more about overarching ideas, I just want them to be kept in mind as the teachers/counselors create their plans. The teachers should just be teaching technique in a way that makes sense during the camp and then embed these ideas into their plans.
I also started gathering activities that could be used during the info meetings (and/or sent to teachers).
Talking about our focus topics was also useful because it gave us an idea of what our board presentation is going to look like. We talked more about the presentation and how Stella and I are going to organize it. I think that was a useful discussion and I took some notes on what we talked about.
I met up with Stella after our meeting too and helped her with some activities. We also talked over some of the other tasks and stuff.
I met with Yuki today to work more on the camp training week. We reordered the week a little more and moved the parent orientation day to Thursday, so I think our outline is pretty set now. We created the slideshow with the Monday outline together to get an idea of what we wanted and then divided up the rest of the week. I started working on my assigned days after our call. I was surprised by how easily the training week info was coming together. I thought that'd there would be a lot for us to do, but because we created so many parts of the camp as separate tasks we really just have to copy and paste the information at this point. Most of mine and Yuki's work is explaining for the future camp manager how to run the orientation/use the info on the slides. I think once we're done with our slides, we should have the group look over them to see if there are parts that could do with a little more explanation or if we left something out.
Our group meeting today was fun. We also discussed some plans for our school year/thespians and Hanks shared his plans for the theatre/film programs. It was nice to see our options/possibilities for the school year and I'm very interested to hear what the others have to say. I think Hanks' plans for the future will also bring a lot to RCHS Productions and help the students get the most out of the program.
Today I was just working on the camp staff training slides. I ran into a few questions I had though, so I wrote them down to discuss with Yuki/the group before I went further on those parts. Speaking of questions, I've discovered that keeping a notebook is really helpful. (I may have already talked about this before, but) It really useful to write down questions that way I don't forget what I want to talk about in our group meetings. It's also helpful to take down notes so I don't forget what we talk about in the meetings or if I get some good advice. It's also a good frame of reference when I start my day because I can look to see what I wrote down under the different tasks I'm doing to remind myself what questions I had and what ideas I had. I'm not sure what else there is to say, today was pretty lowkey. One nice thing about this job is that I don't hate having to work again on Mondays :)
More on the camp side: I met with Reilly today to work marketing. Really just finishing up some poster stuff, Mission/Vision/Values.
Our group meeting was good. We played a really fun improv game and we were able to improve on it some. We also discussed some important points regarding our final presentation (I knew what you were doing there Hanks -_-). But there were valid points that were made so I'm not mad about it haha. And we finally came to a decision about Camp Yampa (which tbh does look better, I just liked the caps better in theory). The caps probably could've worked if it was a different font... or a legal document.
I worked on the camp training slides today. I had some questions before so I emailed Yuki, but I think we're going to be able to figure things out better when we meet tomorrow. Then we can make our final touch-ups on Friday. We may also want to try to get Hanks in on our call since the training is such an important part of the camp.
I met with Stella today for our Guests Wishlist. We brainstormed a lot of different types of guests, projects, and fieldtrips we could do. Not sure if we should try adding some specific people if we know of any potential ones that way the idea is there and the contact info could be added so it's readily available when the time comes. Otherwise, there's not much more to do for that task other than add new ideas we come up with.
We had a good discussion about the 2020-21 school year for theatre, and we started organizing our ideas.
Yuki and I met to review our camp training plans and we called Hanks in to go over them with us. I think he had a lot of useful input. We're pretty much finished on those, but I think I need to go in and add some info to the speaker's notes for a few slides.
We played another fun improv game in our group meeting, but I think that this one doesn't work as well over the call format. It was just hard because the people with the messages would talk over each other so I couldn't always tell what was being said. We talked about some budgeting regarding field trips. Then, we started planning out the board presentation. We wrote out what information would be included and what would be on the slides vs what we'd being saying. There was a lot to unpack and I absorbed what was being said but I don't think I have the mental capacity to verbalize my reflections on it right now. Just know that I got what was being said and I am thinking about it.
We played a fun game in our group meeting that I think worked pretty well over the call format. We settled on the name for our midway showcase so now I can go and edit where we talk about the performances in the slideshows. We went over some things on the website that could be edited. Then we talked more about the final presentation. I think it'll be good when we talk about it more in our group meeting on Monday. Right now I'm just trying not to get anxious about it. I think once we kind of figure out the order, it'll be more straightforward and we'll be collaborating on the script. And like what Hanks was saying, we already have a lot of the statements about the different elements in other documents and on the website and stuff, so we'll be able to copy and paste a lot of it. So yeah, just trying to stay level-headed :)
We're back! Yay!!
Our first official days of Camp Yampa seemed to have gone pretty well! I'm really excited for what we have in store. I think most of what we've been doing has been working for the camp so far. I think the most important things we keep in mind is that it should all be fun, so if something isn't working with the kids we can just let it go. And the other important thing is just keeping the counselors organized and comfortable. I think making sure we're communicating well and that we're really checking in with each other will help keep things running smoothly and keep everyone happy. Overall though I think the week went well and that we've set up a pretty solid system/foundation for our camp.
I think that overall, things are going well in our camp. There are always some activities that don’t land and some kids who do t want to participate, but for the most part things seem to be fun and engaging.
Imani was gone for a few days so I had to fill in for the art focus group. That stressed me out a little because I had to come up with plans for what to do. It wasn’t that bad though, I’m just not sure if some of the activities were a little boring.
I think now I e at least learned how to better manage the kids. I was worried before, but I think now that we all know each other more I’m more comfortable with them. I find that just interacting with them and talking to them is so helpful because usually they want to talk and share with you, so by just listening you’re forming a connection with them. And then when things do get more focused, it’s easier to keep them on track because they know they can talk later. I feel like a lot of this is just a learning experience and a big part is just learning to take opportunities as they present themselves. Like if a kid is struggling with something, there’s an opportunity to try to help them up before they get down on themselves. (And just other stuff like that.)
This week seemed to go by so quickly! I think things in the camp have been going really well. I think our days have been moving a lot faster and we've been doing a lot of activities and having guest speakers, which has made things more interesting and engaging (I hope). It also seems like a lot of the campers have become friends which is so fun to see. I think it's nice that we're trying to teach the campers artistic skills, but I also think just having a place where they can have fun and make friends is enough to make it worth it. And they really end up being creative in their own ways anyway haha. (We seem to have several mascots and cults(clubs?).)
I'm a little sad we only have four more days, but I'm really excited to see everyone's final performance pieces. I'm a bit nervous for collab groups because Imani will be gone most of next week, but I think if I can just keep them focused and make sure everyone has something to do then I'll be fine. :-)
Man, it feels like it went by so fast!! The last few days were a little stressful preparing for the final performance, but we got everything together by the end. I think that overall, the camp was a big success. Having everyone together talking and signing shirts on the last day really showed how much fun and how many friends people made during the camp. I hope Camp Yampa sticks around.