Trial by Fire, or, Experiential Education at Its Finest

Two days ago I felt put on the spot in being responsible for teaching figure 8 with follow through, water knots, double fisherman knots, bomber figure 8 (double figure 8) and butterfly knots to summer staff, the way we like to see them on our high ropes elements. I had never learned the butterfly knot my own self, seeing as how there is only onbe group belay element on our adventure course.

Yesterday, we stayed inside all morning doing belaying on the ground, where I checked off returning staff. In the afternoon, we all headed out to the climbing wall where we would put into practice the hard skills and individuals would be able to choose their challenges.

I've got to say that besides being a blur, the afternoon went extremely well, and I wonder if after I was stressed out the day before by being put on the spot, I wasn't as stressed as I may have felt yesterday otherwise. Trial by fire for me is not the best way I perform, however it did put me in a position, I feel, to be successful the next day.

Everyone stayed safe and is beginning to get those hard skills down, today is more facilitation/goal-setting/transference-creation added to the mix, something I am very excited about. And then this afternoon I am getting rescue-trained on our elements, so that's awesome, too.

Summer Staff versus Full-Time Staff

As of June 7th, 2009, I have been in my current position for one year. Now that I am the one that is doing the training, I have learned many things that I'd like to apply for next years' summer staff training:

Delta first:

1. Trial by fire may not be the most comfortable thing in the world, however it is also one of the times that I experience being outside of my comfort zone on property, and as such is important since it allows me to better empathize with participants.
2. Knowing a skill--like setting up a Marrison-Haul system for bear-bagging or tying a bowline knot-- is one thing. Knowing how to teach summer staff to do it is a whole other set of skills.
   
3. Also, being able to teach how to do something is different from instructing people how to teach participants those same skills.
4. Getting gardening done prior to arrival of summer staff will be crucial in having a more productive growing season next year. That means starting plants earlier inside (this goes under my work-life balance thing.)
5. If you don't use it, you lose it (this refers mostly to swimming my 550, which I could not do two weeks ago at the Y. Yesterday I finished 550 in Lake Mohican and feel confident that I will be prepared come qualifying test day on the 29th of June.
6. Use planning time more wisely before arrival of summer staff to make campsite training easier. Who will teach what skills? How will I teach those skills which are most challenging for me? I feel like when I failed to take initiative on planning, my co-facilitator didn't push me to sit down and plan, and I found myself taking it out on him.
7. Set up a Restoration schedule earlier with my summer staff crew at the beginning of training so there is no question as to who is responsible for leading what meals. Remind facilitators that each time they brief a meal or do a restoration they should be doing it as if it's a first meal, so that they gain the ability to teach their students how to restore or bus their tables from lunch.
8. Remind facilitators that each time they brief a meal or do a restoration they should be doing it as if it's a first meal, so that they gain the ability to teach their students how to restore or bus their tables from lunch.
9. De-issue note: start more people off on tents and then have people peel off since spraying out tents takes the longest.
   
10. Drink lots of water. I got sick while out camping and it definitely effected (affected?) my ability to facilitate our new summer staff.
    

Positive side?

1. I also let my supervisors know what was going on and what needs I had in order to be able to do the training I was responsible for. This was something I did well.
2. Set up a Restoration schedule with my summer staff crew so there is no question as to who is responsible for leading what meals (this was a good thing I did, I just need to do it earlier).
   
3. I totally got thrown under the bus at different points in staff training. Being the person I am, I can't hide that that totally stresses me out. I also know that I should feel proud for being flexible and doing the best I could given the circumstances.
4. Getting summer staff to help finish out the de-issue when things weren't dry from camping out on site.
   
5. Super-organized de-issue and finishing-up de-issue. Seriously, there were cones and laminated signs involved, and then a to-do list on a whiteboard.
   
6. Learned how to straighten tent stakes.
   

Peer Leaders Spring Trip

I'm going to try a new format for processing my programs since the prior one is a great way to take notes for myself during debriefs but not so great a way to make the process easy in terms of getting pertinent info on the 'blog.

Now that I've worked at our Experiential Education center for 361 days, I am starting to see students more than once (since we work with a lot of the same primary service populations pretty often). This two-day program was one of those ones, being the Peer Leaders from a high school off Route 1.

The Peer Leaders (Juniors and Seniors) came in the fall to find out who their co-facilitators were for presenting to the freshmen classes and to come together as a group.

One way their teachers/"coaches" impress is the way they utilize their time at our facility.

Meals become team-building activities, with students having hands tied together, being blindfolded or unable to use their hands during the meal (at random). They also give new seating guidelines for each meal "Birth months: January through June over there, July through December at this table." One student commented when we ate Family Style at dinner that they'd never had that experience before, and this group really seems like a big family from what I see.

The coaches sit back and let us brief and facilitate activities (we co-facilitate since there are 16-18 Peer Leaders and our group limit is usually 12), and either front-load with us or are crucial in creating transference through the debriefs.

It doesn't hurt that the Peer Leaders are able to see the bigger picture and draw deeper meaning for themselves already.

After spending the year together, the PL look like a well-run Residence Hall staff in April: friendly, lots of love, know the importance of getting mad then getting over it, no obvious cliques, and starting to mourn the end of their time together. They have been trained to be largely independent of their coaches at this point.

This was my third time co-facilitating with T, and we are really starting to hit a sweet spot.

I really rocked at

• using students' names,
  
• not micromanaging older students (i.e. letting them figure out how to get the wash-house fully restored),
  
• flowing with and relying on T (he's really allowing me to grow as a co-facilitator and I find myself being pushed whenever we facilitate in a way that is not stressful,
  
• being clear with directions and instructions (even on some Benadryl!)
• for me working my rapport with these students is never a challenge because I do adore them.
  
• Also, I actively recruited for summer staff next year and will e-mail links to this years' application and notify when next years' is up online. I even got cell numbers to call and follow-up after I e-mail in February. One thing that might really benefit my organization is more non-white summer staff members, especially former participants.

My deltas were

• to work on how much information I share with students, finding that fine tuning of just enough to establish rapport and keeping the program about them (maybe I can ask questions back to students that they ask me, i.e. where do you live? what do you do around here for fun?)
• be more aware of when I am choosing to wear sunglasses when facilitating.
• consciously think ahead to debriefs as I'm leading activities.