How To Be A Good Camp Counselor

Every bit a military camp director, I really capeesh students & potential staff who are truly passionate near working with children. The person who wants to be an inspiration to others. The person who wants to brand a difference. The person who is happy with his/her job at camp at all times. The person who every kid (and counselor) in the camp would honey to take. The counselor kids remember for the rest of their lives. The advisor that makes a camper come dorsum year after year.  Are yous that counselor? Hither are my 12 characteristics of an effective army camp counselor, and ones that I try and place in our interview process.

1. ENJOYS/PASSIONATE Well-nigh WORKING AT Camp

Being a army camp counselor is meant to exist a very enjoyable and rewarding summer task (although enervating and exhausting). You should but look to work at camp if you dearest children and intend on caring for them with your heart and believe in the 'yous go out what you put in' philosophy. Yous cannot expect the kids to have fun if yous are not having fun with them! If y'all merely read the instructions out of your campsite'due south orientation handbook, it's ineffective. Instead, make your camper'south mean solar day come alive by making information technology as interactive and engaging as possible, regardless of their age. Permit your passion for children and army camp shine through each and every activeness, each and every day. Enjoy every summer to its fullest.

2. MAKES A Departure

There is a proverb from our STARFISH values plan, "To That One, I Made A Difference". Every bit a counselor, you need to be aware and remember that although information technology may seem daunting and feel like you are fighting a loosing battle at times, your aim should always exist to make a deviation. Brand a difference in their lives, even if a pocket-sized 1.  Later on all, why be a counselor if you do not wish to have a positive impact on children'southward lives? How? Make them feel special, safe and secure when they are at camp. Make their summer the best ever and make them desire to come back daily/weekly/yearly to be with you.  Be the positive influence in their lives. Why? You never know what your campers went through before coming to campsite and what weather condition they are going home to after the day/calendar week/summer has ended. Then, simply in case they are non getting enough back up from home, at to the lowest degree y'all will make a difference and provide that to them.

3. SPREADS POSITIVITY.

Bring positive free energy to everyday at camp, every unmarried day. You lot have a cute smile so don't forget to wink information technology as much as possible throughout the twenty-four hours. I know that you face battles of your own in your personal life (as we all do), and once you are on that military camp property, you should leave all of it behind you. Your campers deserve more than for you to take your frustration out on them. No thing how you lot are feeling, how much sleep you lot've gotten or how frustrated y'all are with your co-advisor, never let that prove. Go along 'backstage, backstage'. Even if yous are having a bad twenty-four hours, learn to put on a mask in front end of the campers and let them think of you as a superhero (information technology will make your day too)! Be someone who is always positive, happy and smiling. Always remember that positive energy is contagious and information technology is up to you to spread it. Don't let other people's negativity bring you lot down with them

4. GETS PERSONAL

This is the fun part and absolutely important for being an effective counselor.  Get to know your camper and their interests so that you tin can observe means to connect with them. Don't forget to besides tell them about your life (inside reason!) In addition, make an effort to go to know their parents besides to gain their trust and appreciation. Speaking to the parents should non be looked at as an obligation but rather, an honor. In the beginning of the summertime, brand information technology known that they can come to y'all nigh annihilation at anytime of their time at camp. Endeavour to go to know your co-counselors on a personal level as well. You will be much happier if you can discover a strong support network in and exterior of your campsite setting.

v. GIVES 100%

Whether you lot are delivering a tennis lesson, writing a swim report card, offering back up to a camper at the lunch table – give 100%. Practise your job for the dearest of army camp and children and non because you feel obligated to practice information technology. Do it for cocky-growth. Do information technology to inspire others & brand a divergence. Do it and then that your campers will get the most out of what yous are teaching them. Give 100% for yourself, campers, parents and everyone who believes in you lot. Never surrender and try your best – that's all that you tin can exercise. (That's what I tell the kids anyway!)

6. STAYS ORGANIZED

Never forget the time, to get a camper to a nurses appointment on time, or forgetting to brand your hair 'Wacky' on 'Wacky Hair Day'. Be on top of it all.  Organize your summer, make notes on what you have to exercise and when. Purchase a scout, print off the camp's special effect calendar, and brand a annotation of specific times and places that campers need to.  The likelihood of final minute prep for wacky hair day being effective is slim. Set an case to the campers, and never forget to plan your day.

7. IS Open up-MINDED

As a counselor, at that place are going to be times where you will be evaluated formally or informally (that's also why you should give 100% at all times). You are concurrently being evaluated past your supervisor, co-counselors, managing director, parents and even your campers (albeit differently). Instead of feeling bitter when somebody has something to say about how you are doing things, be open-minded when receiving constructive criticism, listen and learn from it. Testify that you are the effective counselor that you want to be. Nobody is perfect and at that place is e'er room for improvement. Division heads are there not but to make sure the campers have a practiced summer, that yous practise to and that y'all abound equally a person and counselor.  You tin't abound without learning, and you don't learn if everything you do is always right.  Sometimes, others see what yous fail to run across.

8. HAS STANDARDS

Create standards for your campers and for yourself. From the get-go, make sure that they know what is acceptable versus what isn't. Remind the campers how y'all would like them to conduct themselves at the lunch tabular array.  Remind them how to share.  Remind them how to be sportsman-like, tolerant, appreciative and respectful.  Show them how to make & keep friends, to show integrity, to be sensitive to others and to be helpful.  Aid them grow as humans rather than just instruction the skills of kicking a Soccer ball. Are you the advisor that puts in the endeavor and actively teaches campers right from wrong, or are you the counselor that sits dorsum and lets the other staff do this?  Now remember, you tin only await a lot if you give a lot. As the saying goes, "Practice what you lot preach" and "Yous get our what you put in".

9. FINDS INSPIRATION

An effective advisor is one who is creative and sees the glass as half full. Discover inventiveness and inspiration from the 4 hours you lot are stuck inside on a rainy day, rather than see it as a death sentence  and i that yous count downwardly the minutes again until the lord's day comes out. Be the counselor the campers take the most fun with. Be the counselor that has fun with your kids.

ten. EMBRACES Alter

In life, things don't always go according to programme. This is particularly true when it comes to working with children. Be flexible and go with the menses when change occurs. An effective counselor does not mutter almost changes when a new partitioning head or director arrives. They do non feel the need to mention how skilful they had it at their last camp or with their last group of campers with a different division head compared to their current circumstances. Instead of stressing near alter, embrace information technology with both hands and testify that yous are capable of hitting every curve ball that comes your way! The more adaptable you are, the more than valuable you lot will become to camp.

xi. CREATES REFLECTIONS

An effective advisor reflects on their twenty-four hours/calendar week/summer with their campers to evolve as a counselor and youth worker. Call back about what went well and what you would practise differently side by side fourth dimension. You need to retrieve that we all have "failed" from fourth dimension to time, including myself (more time than I tin count).  Instead of looking at it as a failure, think nearly it as a lesson and larn from information technology. Equally counselors, your teaching and learning is ongoing. There is e'er more than to learn and know near in order to strengthen your skills. Continue reflecting on how y'all performed and educating yourself on what you detect are your "weaknesses" as we all have them! The most of import part is recognizing them and being able to work on them to improve your didactics skills, and your partitioning head will help.

12. MAKES Good DECISIONS

Probably the most important of the 12 in my opinion, especially when yous are responsible for a number of children.  Effective counselors can be defined as those that make proficient decisions when faced with choices.  You will brand hundreds of choices every twenty-four hour period, and thousands over the course of the summer – make certain they are the right ones.  Whether it be deciding whether to put a camper on your shoulders in the 3ft department of the pool, checking the back of a snack to double cheque the ingredients because you take a camper with food allergies, to being out on a dark off and knowing when to pass up that 'last' drink ten minutes before curfew, or whether to cheque the lyrics of a vocal before playing information technology out loud, the physical and mental well-being of your campers (and yourself of course) is #one priority.  Parents have entrusted you lot (and the camp)  with their nearly prized possessions, their children.  Acquire to take a stride back, think almost the possible consequences, then execute a determination, the correct decision.

There are, indeed, several other characteristics and traits that make an effective camp counselor, and these are the ones I value when looking for staff.

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Thomas Coffey is the Managing director of Southampton Camp & Gild and has been with the TLC Family unit of Camps since 206.

Source: https://www.southamptoncc.com/blog/12-characteristics-effective-counselors/

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