by Théo Gosselin

tannertan36
wallacepolsom
KIROKAZE

JBB: An Artblog!

Love Begins

blake kathryn

titsay

Kaledo Art
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
RMH
trying on a metaphor
Jules of Nature
Stranger Things
Peter Solarz
ojovivo
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Show & Tell
No title available
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
dirt enthusiast
seen from United States
seen from Mauritius

seen from Germany

seen from United States

seen from Spain

seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom
seen from Guatemala

seen from Guatemala

seen from Singapore
seen from Indonesia

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Germany
@counselor-life
by Théo Gosselin
Swiss Fire Log.
The Night Sky.
Camping in Colorado.
When staff are applying, what kind of stuff would you see on the application/during the interview that would make them not get the job?
So, disclaimer, most of my experience with this comes from a) CIT interviews/applications and b) long discussions with my camp director. But here are some red flags/things we don’t want to see:
Lacking a way to manage stress. Your stress management could be literally any healthy coping skill, you just need to have one although more is preferred.
Being very under confident. We expect some nervousness, but if you seem like you have very little to no confidence in yourself neither do we. I had a former CIT once who interviewed with our old camp director and he was ready to not hire her because of how quiet and under confident she was in the interview. I did talk him into hiring her though.
Making inappropriate jokes or comments. This is kind of a no-duh, so keep your humor in check.
Weak recommendations (or lack of them). Pick your recommenders wisely by asking if they are comfortable being a reference for you. And make sure that they are a person who a) knows you reasonably well and b) are going to actually respond to the request. Usually there is a minimum number of references needed and lacking too many of those you put down will significantly slow down or stop your application.
Not admitting to flaws or when something went wrong. A pretty standard line of questions for a job interview is things going wrong: what you did when something went wrong, what are your weaknesses
Not having done at least some amount of prior knowledge about the position, including about what a counselor/staff position does and things about what the overall organization does.
Missing or being late to your interview.
Usually it takes a couple or more of these to not get a job, so if you have some of the more minor flaws it’s ok, but work on confidence for sure. There are some other minor things that go with every job application, which you can read about in various business websites. Good luck with everything!
reblog so your followers won’t forget to drink water
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed life for many of us, and nearly everyone is experiencing some form of loss this summer — loss that may continue into the foreseeable future. We recently sat down for a frank discussion about kids and grieving and how camps can offer support and compassion during this difficult time. Discussion Participants Vicki Jay, CEO of the National Alliance for Grieving Children
“How should we be preparing our camp staff to deal with others’ grief and grief of their own during the camp season?
Jay: Make sure they’re comfortable in their own reactions to grief topics. Whether it’s losses related to COVID-19 or something else, grief is a part of life. Kids are always going to be experiencing changes and losses. When grief strikes a family, it usually strikes the whole family. It often takes an outside, neutral person to provide the support children need, and camp personnel have the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time being that for children and teens.“
Camp might be canceled but thankful that hammocking is considered a social distance activity.
bonfire
How to be a camp counselor with today’s politics
With the new political climate, you may be wondering what you can do. There are things that you can do as a camp counselor to
1. Treat all your campers and co-camp staff with respect. You should be doing this anyway.
2. Show your camper’s you care. Camper’s from groups that are especially at risk from Trump’s policies, such as those who are Muslim, non-White, transgender, or disabled, may not be feeling the love and caring that they deserve in the world outside of camp. So show them that they are cared for and that they deserve love.
3. Make camp a safe place for kids to express themselves, however they want to. Things like allowing them to use whichever bathroom they feel comfortable using, making sure they feel safe wearing their religious attire, and supporting your kids’ needs really make them feel camp is a place that is safe and that they have a place they belong.
4. Prevent bullying. Again, you should be doing this anyway.
5. Be educated on issues that may affect you and your campers. For example, if your camp takes international trips, understand you and your camper’s rights when crossing the border.
6. Check what language you’re using and stop using any stigmatizing or discriminatory language. Same goes for your actions. They speak louder than words.
Even if your camp is a politics-free zone, you can still take action to make a difference in this difficult time.
So, as I assume you have heard, Trump has officially been impeached. While this is not the end (and I truly, deeply hope he is removed from office), we are faced with the high possibility of having a “President Pence” in a few months. So here is a reminder of how to help make the camp environment safer during these times of political…mess.
Camp counselor asks 7,8,9 please!! Thanks :)
7. My favorite camp game it CTF (Capture the Flag) because we all dress in funny costumes, came up with team chants and interact with all the kids that are at camp that week! My favorite circle game is “Lazer Cats” where you have everyone stand in the circle and when you look up you look at someone else in the circle. If they’re also looking at you, you’re both out and you scream (so you don’t want to make eye contact with anyone and want to be the last person in the circle)
8. Crafts. Otherwise I loved leading programs (specifically the more adventurous/outdoor ones).
9. I worked at a Lutheran Bible Camp (I grew up going to Girl Scout Day Camp and did one Bible Camp in high school). I worked 2013 - 2016, but Camp is still one of the most important things to me.
people i met at summer camp that would not be out of place in a lumberjanes-esque world
the australian exchange counselor who said “i’m washing my hands of all this weirdness. i’m going to chipotle.”
ma girl savannah who stole a 2lb gallon bag of chocolate chips
the female counselor who sighed very deeply and said, “if you must steal cougar’s socks, please don’t get me involved”
ppl named spooney and glitch and harrumph and jpeg
the CIT whose name was sebastian but who everyone unquestioningly called seabass
the group of girls who helped me bury a dead mouse in the woods
the girl who said “we should say some words for it at least, poor thing” and then whipped off the hood of her sweatshirt in respect
counselors who start crying in the mess hall because tonight’s dessert is pudding
counselors wearing absolutely ridiculous outfits because they’ve been here all summer and nothing is clean and their last laundry day they got into a bet of who could sneak up and glitterbomb the junior camp director first
the handful of australian counselors would always get into increasingly ridiculous rivalries
^(usually involving stealing forks from the others’ tables in the mess hall, ‘you told me i got out too many beverage cups & that i could never use that many so i guess i’m having orange juice, apple juice, water, tea, and coffee with my breakfast’, feinting each other out, sometimes over cliffs, purposefully playing taylor swift whenever the other walks into the art barn to make her angry, retaliating with bribing the sherwood units to sing frozen songs under her window, etc)
the female rugby-player counselor who sings while cheerfully annihilating logs with her favorite axe
this one girl who told us, while carving a block of soap, that every night when she is at home she sits down and watches fantastic mr. fox and carves soap
seriously
she had her full name and the entire alphabet two times over
very small child with painted-on sideburns
that one male counselor who never used a flashlight and was the fastest and most silent thing walking barefoot on two legs in the middle of the night who would just kind of appear out of the darkness when you were least expecting him
the order of the spoons
the elusive ginny who the med bay is named after who no one remembers but also no one questions that the med bay is called ginny’s
the guy counselor who lived on the ropes courses in the middle of the woods who was literally shaped like a bullet and had a voice like dr. nefario’s from despicable me but his name was buttercup
“i forgot cars exist but then again i’m 75% sure that i saw a ghost last night”
counselors who were glitterbombed on the first week of camp and have given up trying to wash it all off so they just shimmer gently where ever they go
i also want to point out that everyone is literally always like “wow!!! so many of the lumberjanes characters have dyed hair is there like a secret hair dye mission in camp!?” but literally the longer you stay at summer camp the bluer your hair gets
or some counselors grow green streaks and others go kind of purple
it just happens you get used to it
on a similar note about 85% of the counselors have at least one tattoo or piercing
counselors who climb up cliffs as shortcuts
the counselors who have literally been at camp for the past eight years and are as much a fixture as the moss that grows on the trees or the fact that ranch literally breaks some vital part of their camp every year
End of the summer feet 🙌🏽
indie
Hang in there. Weekend is comin