Teamwork

March 25, 2018 by Camp Mason

Teacher In-Service Day Training Programs

By Sally Wright, Outdoor Center Program Director – Groups and Retreats

Gather the faculty and staff at your school and come to Camp Mason for a teacher in-service day. Spend the day outdoors participating in a variety of activities that promote group collaboration and hands on learning. The group will leave at the end of the day with new teaching techniques and activities, as well as a better understanding of one another.

If you choose a teambuilding session your group will be lead through a number of teambuilding exercises by our professional staff. The exercises are designed to highlight the various aspects of teambuilding such as communication, leadership, and trust. After each exercise the group will have a chance to reflect on how they worked as a team, and discuss how they might improve upon any weaknesses. The group can also relate the discussion to how they work with one another throughout the school year. The teambuilding experience can continue by choosing to add a session of high ropes to the schedule.

To build upon the teambuilding experience, groups can participate in a session where they learn how to run teambuilding exercises with their students. The exercises require few to no props, and can be done within the space of a classroom. The group will also learn how to facilitate a debrief session to promote teamwork among the students.

We also offer academic focused sessions, in which our professional staff share interactive techniques to teach information in the content areas. Sessions may include questioning techniques, development of student’s observations skills, games that get students thinking about specific topics, and much more. The information in these sessions is best suited for teachers who teach 4^th – 7^th grade.

Scheduling is flexible and can be created based on the interest of the group. We are able to offer both full and half day sessions. If you have any questions or would like to book a teacher in-service day please call us on 908-362-8217.

November 3, 2016 by Camp Mason

Teamwork and Communication

By Nikki Reiff, Outdoor Center Program Director

Greetings from me, Nikki, Camp Mason’s new Outdoor Center Program Director!

One year ago I drove up to Camp Mason for the first time. I was fresh out of Rutgers and couldn’t have predicted that I would find my passion here—that I would fall in love with everything that Camp Mason has to offer, that this place would become home.

Neither a degree in ecology and natural resources, nor New York City ‘street smarts’ could prepare me for what I would learn in the following year at Camp Mason.

I learned how to belay…
I learned how to tie a double figure eight knot on a bite…
I learned how to use the learning cycle to engage children in their surroundings…
I learned how to teach an hour long astronomy hike, indoors in the rain…
I learned how to use field initiatives to evaluate a groups’ dynamics…
I learned that a simple word of encouragement can go a long way…
I learned that the sounds of cicadas were far more comforting than those of a busy road…
I learned how to push past my comfort zone…
I learned never to wear nice clothes at a campfire…
I learned to ask questions even if I was self-conscious…
I learned that the smell of the woods never gets old…
I learned that the smell of bear cans gets old really, really fast…
I learned how to work with people that I am not friends with…
I learned how to work with people that I love…
I learned how to love the people that I work with…
I learned the difference between rules and guidelines…
I learned to appreciate the diversity and background that every single person; staff, student, camper, chaperone, visitor that’s passed through here…
I learned that life is all about the interactions we have—with each other and our environment…

I still have not learned the summer camp hand stomp.

One year later, all this experience and camp wisdom has taught me what I think to be the key to being a successful outdoor center program director here at Mason; teamwork and communication.

May 28, 2015November 20, 2015 by Camp Mason

The Importance of Sleeping Under the Stars

By Anna Bilton, Summer Camp Program Director

For one night every two weeks, each cabin group adventures out into the woods with their sleeping bags and food in hand to spend a night in the great outdoors. As a camp counselor, I loved nothing more than putting my backpack on and leading my campers along the trail knowing that soon we would be cooking over an open fire, telling stories, and finally falling asleep under the stars. Today as a Summer Camp Program Director, my most cherished moments are welcoming cabins back to camp after an overnight. I delight in hearing campers’ stories of their experiences, the challenges they overcame and most of all, their excitement and pride about the adventure they had. The power of this traditional summer camp activity should not be underestimated. Perhaps spending a night outdoors is something we should all do more often.

Reconnect: Getting away from the grips of technology and getting outside, even for one night, can make all the difference. Campers and staff share stories of becoming closer over the course of an overnight. Taking the time to talk, share and listen to one another without the usual distractions helps groups connect and bond tightly together. That these meaningful interactions take place in beautiful, natural surroundings serves to make them even more powerful.

Marvel: Campers often tell me about the deer they saw or the sound of a babbling creek that they fell asleep listening to. Think back to the first time you saw a frog, bird or other critter. Try to remember the excitement and intrigue you felt. If the kind of feeling I’m talking about could be bottled up, it would be labeled wonder. Spending more time outside in nature creates opportunities for us to rediscover our sense of wonder. We are lucky to live in a world with such beauty.

Accomplish: For an overnight to be a success groups need to work together to carry supplies, collect firewood, clear out a sleeping area, build a fire and cook meals. Teamwork is paramount and achieving your group goal is a fantastic feeling. For many campers and staff spending the night in the woods without electricity and other comforts is an enormous achievement. I cannot begin to count the number of campers whose overnight experience has given them the courage to try other new things.

Where will you go on your next outdoor adventure? What will you discover?

This post was originally written for the Y’s “This Week in Young Leaders” blog. You can see it by clicking on the link below.

http://www.ymca.net/blogs/week-young-leaders/importance-sleeping-under-stars