URJ Crane Lake Ropes Course Instructor Experiece
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•243 views
My work placement at URJ Crane Lake Camp situated in Weststockbridge, Massachusetts. The business is a summer camp for Jewish families to send their children to. The camp environment allows children to embrace the challenge of learning new skills in athletics, aquatics, the arts, and adventure and nature programs. Campers also get the chance to engage in Jewish educational pursuits and creative spiritual experiences.
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (9)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (16)
URJ Crane Lake Ropes Course Instructor Experiece
- 1. WORK BASED LEARNING IN ADVENTURE SPORTS Crane Lake ropes team, (Ashton,2013)
- 2. CONTENTS Type of Organisation/size of employees and turnover Mission Statement Customer Profile Activities Offered Roles and Responsibilities Why did I go to camp How did I achieve success Methods used to achieve my success Learning Experiences
- 3. CRANE LAKE CAMP (CLC) Jewish organisation that is profit making. Around 300 children 100 members of staff Turnover of $3,000,000 every summer Crane Lake Camp logo, (My summer camps, 2013).
- 4. MISSION STATEMENT Hineini – Here I am … I am here to strengthen my own self-esteem and that of everyone in the camp community. … I am here to strengthen my own Jewish identity and spirituality and that of everyone in the camp community. … I am here to strengthen my connection to the Crane Lake Camp community and the Jewish community and to help everyone around me to do the same. … I am here to do as much as I can, in the time that I have, in the place that I am, and to inspire others to join me in this holy work. For it is written: “Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor, v’lo ata ben horin, l’heebatel mimena.” “You are not required to complete the work, nor are you free to ignore it.” Pirke Avot 2:16, (URJ,2013).
- 5. CUSTOMER PROFILE High class families Jewish background Parents that want a break Children with disabilities
- 7. MY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES To supervise campers at any time while not running the ropes course. Inspect and record equipment daily. Set up ropes course. Brief bunks on safety, equipment, climbing/transfer routine. Ensure safety to all participants at all times. Role model at all times on safety and leadership. Facilitate team bonding amongst campers or staff members by providing challenge by choice tasks. After facilitating make a report on the bunks achievements and concerns.
- 8. WHY DID I GO TO CAMP? New Culture Children Ropes course Money Travel CV Ropes course sign, (Ashton,2013).
- 9. H0W DID I ACHIEVE SUCCESSES 100% effort everyday Trying new things Losing my voice Being adaptable and flexible Learning a new language Removing bee hives, (Ashton,2013)
- 10. METHOD TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS (Kolb, 1983)
- 11. ACHIEVEMENTS/ LEARNING EXPERIENCES Dealing with difficult campers Encouraging a camper to do some or the whole of the ropes course New skills (Communication and confidence especially) Making ropes become the most popular activity on camp Sticking out 10 weeks of HARD WORK! Ropes instructor Jessica Ashton, (Biran, 2013).
- 12. Seventh staff video, (Pajor, 2013).
- 14. REFERENCES Ashton,J. 2013. Crane Lake ropes team.[Photograph]. England: Jessica Ashton. Ashton, J. 2013. Independence day. [Photograph]. England: Jessica Ashton. Ashton,J. 2013. Removing bee hives. [Photograph]. England: Jessica Ashton. Ashton, J. 2013. Ropes course sign. [Photograph]. England: Jessica Ashton. Biran, N. 2013. Ropes course instructor Jessica Ashton. [Photograph]. Israel: Nitsan Biran. Kolb, D. 1983. Experiential Learning; Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Mysummercamps. 2013. Crane Lake Camp logo. [Photograph]. El Segundo:Internet brands. Pajor, K. 2013. Seventh staff video. [Video]. Massachusetts: Kristof Pajor. URJ, 2013. Crane Lake Camp. [Online] Available at: http://cranelake.urjcamps.org/ [Accessed 20th October 2013].
Editor's Notes
- http://www.mysummercamps.com/camps/Detailed/Crane_Lake_Camp__L28650.html Type of organisation; CLC is a Jewish community run by an organisation called Union for Reformed Judaism. CLC is a profit making organisation, according to (URJ,2013), the cost of one child for a whole summer is just under $9,300. The camp takes around 300 children every summer this would calculate to a turnover three million dollars. The camp hires around 100 members of staff that are hired from around the world. The most common countries staff came from are; America, England, Czech Republic, Israel, Hungary, Scotland, Ireland, Poland and New Zealand.
- High class families- Children have their own maids because one girl did not know how to make her own bed. One of my campers lived on the same street as Jay-Z! After camp finishes for the summer there is a disability camp for one week.
- I wanted to go and do my work experience at a camp in America because I wanted to experience a new culture and see what all the fuss was about of American people going to camp every summer and seeing them gain new skills. I wanted to gain knowledge and experience in working with children for my future career as I am thinking of becoming a teacher. I chose to do the ropes course at camp because climbing is one of my interests and I wanted to be confident in doing different knots, speaking to groups and setting up a ropes course. I also went to camp because they offered me a salary, it wasn’t very well paid but it got me there and back so it was pretty much free, however I was there for the experience. To go back the following year you can get double the pay. I also went because with the visa you apply for you have up to a month of travelling after. Unfortunately I did not get to go travelling I decided to go home and attend my friends wedding.
- Working from 7 a.m. till 10 p.m. 6 days a week for 10 weeks becomes very exhausting therefore you need to keep putting effort in otherwise the kids will not enjoy it. New language: Hebrew Losing my voice: Giving it my all in colour war and singing my heart out to show the kids that it is a fun experience.
- Concrete experience (doing the experience)- trying out facilitating the way I think it is done and the way I have been taught at college. Reflective Observation (Reflecting and reviewing)- Looking at how I can change the way I am facilitating by taking observation on how campers are reacting to the activities I set them and how I control the task. Abstract Conceptualisation (concluding and learning)- What have I learnt during the session? Making a report and reflecting. Active Experimentation (planning, trying out what I have learned)- Making changes and plan for another group and to see if it more successful.
- At camp I had this one girl in my bunk who did not get on with anyone or any of the staff. She disobeyed every rule from bullying kids to bullying the counsellors and even getting the director of the whole camp out at 12 midnight screaming for a whole hour. According to the camp policy she should have been sent home, however her mum worked at the camp and the director knew she had problems. I was stuck with this kid for the whole summer, shouting at me, calling me names and crying constantly. Eventually I learnt her routine and how to communicate with her, without rocking the boat and she started being nice to me, this happened in the last two weeks of the summer. One of the most rewarding experiences is to see a child smiling as they go down the zip line after crying and shaking the whole way through the ropes course. This showed me how I can pretty much encourage anyone to complete the course and have an amazing learning experience. I definitely learnt so many new skills from communication, time management, leadership and inter-personal skills. The third week of camp I was asked to facilitate a group of 16 kids all on my own on the low ropes course, this seemed very daunting and I was nervous. I had little experience from doing a few low ropes session at college. The first few sessions went OK, but I saw myself lose my patience easily because kids do not listen especially at such a young age. I eventually learnt how to communicate differently with all different ages. After four weeks, the ropes team made a new rota for leading second session and I took more sessions than anybody because I felt confident and nobody wanted to seem to take them. Also, campers did not like ropes last year this was due to staff not being enthusiastic enough however, this year we managed to turn that around and this was down to an excellent ropes team.