Journal #4: 30 hours, 6 per Day for 5 Days

Camp Galileo Week 3

Since my first week at work I have worked as the lunch person for the majority of my day and only had specific times were I would interact with others. This week, however, I moved into another position and worked as a “breaker”. A breaker, as the name implies, is someone who goes around and gives people breaks. I broke for team leaders for 10 minutes each for 2 rotations (3 rotations in a day). It gave me the perfect opportunity to participate in activities that the kids were in and also for me to get to know some off them. Being a staff member almost feels like they look up to me as they crowd around us to ask questions and joke around. A lot of the kids scream “Allen” whenever I come in and start breaking for the team leaders which is heartwarming, but I know I’m not as great or knowledgeable as they think me to be. This week I also had the chance to lead the camp song in the opening ceremony and it was way more nerve racking than any other public event I have ever done. I had to prepare something to get the campers be ready and hyped for the day as well as all my co-workers being there and critiquing how much I can motivate. Honestly, I don’t think I did too good of a job getting the campers pumped with my song/chant. The campers seemed confused with my weird unknown language chant but my friends/co-workers fortunately didn’t say anything negative towards me. They kind of just dismissed and I’m glad. I forgot to prepare something for an audience and instead did something people my age would consider hype. So this week reminded me that audience appropriation is important and should not be forgotten. As far as work environment goes, I am comfortable and am still learning new things about child care.