COCAcademy 2019 with Scott Arizala and Sarah Kurtz McKinnon
COCAcademy WORKSHOPS
WARNING COCAcademy workshops will not be your typical sit, listen, & repeat environment. Be prepared to leave ridiculously excited, blown away by the innovative new methods you learn, and have your campers and staff find you annoyingly creative and quite possibly inspirational. |
Leadership, Supervision, & Management: Positive Management Principles
Let’s face it: Our staff members and volunteers can sometimes really irritate us. It is easy to get annoyed when things go wrong—sometimes, it seems like our staff just aren’t listening, or that they are even messing up on purpose! In this session, we will workshop what it takes to build a positive camp culture, where directors are guides and not police officers; where staff and volunteers ask the right questions (but not too many!); and where a foundation of mutual respect between supervisors and supervisees is built so that everyone at camp can learn and grow together.
Can I talk to you for a minute? Difficult Management Conversations
The most sought after leadership training topic is working through difficult management conversations. This session covers the essential skills and characteristics that leaders and managers need to have effective and successful conversations. We will cover the six steps in every conversation, practical techniques and tips for each step, strategic language, and approach & response suggestions. We will broaden the framework of how we think about corrective conversations, by including ideas about building a culture of feedback at your camp and organization.
Staff Training: Teach Staff How to Think, Not What to Do
Training your staff and volunteers an seem like an impossible task. You have a limited amount of time (in some cases, just a few hours!) and you have staff at all different levels of experience. Most of us end up relying on the default: the efficient (albeit boring) lecture. However, staff training doesn’t have to go this way. In this workshop, we will show you how to teach your staff how to think instead of what to do. No two kids or no two days at camp are ever exactly the same—it is most important to teach camp staff how to handle ambiguity.
The Behavior Session: Why do they do what they do?!?
Unfortunately, most discussions about camper behavior are about dealing with the negative stuff. However, there is a direct correlation between getting support, guidance, and creating the right environment for positive behavior and a decrease in negative behavior. So we are missing a big part of the conversation! This session will strike a balance by digging into the best techniques for supporting positive behavior as well as working through challenging behavior, including ideas and strategies for supporting campers with special needs. You’ll leave this session with the best ideas in behavior management and ways to support and sustain these behaviors as the culture of your camp.
Syllabus
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FRIDAY , November 15th |
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10:15--11:15 Leadership development |
Leadership, Supervision, & Management Part 1 of 2: Positive Management Principles (Attendance at both sessions is recommended.) Let’s face it: Our staff members and volunteers can sometimes really irritate us. It is easy to get annoyed when things go wrong—sometimes, it seems like our staff just aren’t listening, or that they are even messing up on purpose! In this session, we will workshop what it takes to build a positive camp culture, where directors are guides and not police officers; where staff and volunteers ask the right questions (but not too many!); and where a foundation of mutual respect between supervisors and supervisees is built so that everyone at camp can learn and grow together. Learning Outcomes:
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11:30--12:30 Leadership development |
Leadership, Supervision, & Management Part 2 of 2
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2:00--3:00 Leadership development |
Can I talk to you for a minute? Difficult Management Conversations Part 1 of 2 (Attendance at both sessions is recommended.) The most sought after leadership training topic is working through difficult management conversations. This session covers the essential skills and characteristics that leaders and managers need to have effective and successful conversations. We will cover the six steps in every conversation, practical techniques and tips for each step, strategic language, and approach & response suggestions. We will broaden the framework of how we think about corrective conversations, by including ideas about building a culture of feedback at your camp and organization. Learning Outcomes: 1. Participants will learn the outline of difficult management conversations 2. Participants will learn and discuss techniques for each step of the outline 3. We will workshop several leadership ideas and skills that create the foundation for more successful conversations. |
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3:15--4:15 Leadership development |
Difficult Management Conversations Role Plays Part 2 of 2 We will put it all into action in this interactive session. We will practice, debrief, and continue the conversation about meaningful and effective difficult conversations.
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SATURDAY , November 16th |
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11:00--12:00 Staff development |
Staff Training Part 1 of 2: Teach Staff How to Think, Not What to Do (Attendance at both sessions is recommended.) Training your staff and volunteers an seem like an impossible task. You have a limited amount of time (in some cases, just a few hours!) and you have staff at all different levels of experience. Most of us end up relying on the default: the efficient (albeit boring) lecture. However, staff training doesn’t have to go this way. In this workshop, we will show you how to teach your staff how to think instead of what to do. No two kids or no two days at camp are ever exactly the same—it is most important to teach camp staff how to handle ambiguity. Learning Outcomes:
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1:30--2:30 Staff development |
Staff Training Part 2 of 2
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2:45--3:45 Youth Development |
The Behavior Session: Why do they do what they do?!? Part 1 of 2 (Attendance at both sessions is recommended.) Unfortunately, most discussions about camper behavior are about dealing with the negative stuff. However, there is a direct correlation between getting support, guidance, and creating the right environment for positive behavior and a decrease in negative behavior. So we are missing a big part of the conversation! This session will strike a balance by digging into the best techniques for supporting positive behavior as well as working through challenging behavior, including ideas and strategies for supporting campers with special needs. You’ll leave this session with the best ideas in behavior management and ways to support and sustain these behaviors as the culture of your camp.
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4:00--5:00 Youth Development |
The Behavior Session: Why do they do what they do?!? Part 2 of 2
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More About Your COCAcademy Facilitators
Scott grew up at Camp Al-Gon-Quian in Northern Michigan where he spent 18 summers going from the youngest camper to the director. He went on to direct traditional resident camps, day camps, single gender camps, and camps for kids with special needs.
He is currently the Founder & Chairman of Chasing Summer, an organization dedicated to creating access for people with autism in summer camp, recreation, and education, Founder of Camp Stomping Ground a camp focusing on radical empathy and child freedom, and the National Consultant for Camp Kesem, a student-run, national organization delivering camp to over 8000 kids who have been affected by a parents' cancer. He is the proud partner of Bioverativ, delivering the Camp Academy staff training program to camps for kids with bleeding disorders and has trained with other major associations including the American Camp Association, YMCA, Girl Scouts, Campfire, the International Association of Burn Camps, the Children’s Oncology Camp Association International, the Diabetes Education & Camp Association, Western Alliance for Independent Camps, and many more.
He is an internationally recognized professional speaker, educator, and trainer, and has given keynotes, workshops, seminars and educational sessions at hundreds of professional conferences, training events, and with organizations. He is currently the CEO of The Camp Counselor, and one of the most sought-after consultants and trainers working with hundreds of camps and thousands of staff & administrators across the world.
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He has had articles published in trade journals and on various industry websites and is a pioneering faculty member of Expert Online Training, the world's leader in online training for camp staff. He is an award-winning author of the best-selling book on summer camp and youth development, S'more Than Camp and contributing editor of Happiness, Diversity & Autism: Practical Strategies for Inclusion.
Scott lives in Michigan with his wife, Karin and their three kids, Linnea, Desmond, and Griffin. They both grew up at Camp Al-Gon-Quian and got married in the assembly ring at Camp in 2007. Karin has her PhD in counseling psychology and has worked as a staff psychologist at the University of Michigan, the National Mental Health Consultant for Camp Kesem, the Mental Health Coordinator for Dragonfly Forest, and currently has a private practice in Ann Arbor.
Scott@TheCampCounselor.com
(734)657-005
Sarah Kurtz McKinnon graduated cum laude from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2008, earning her degree in political science and journalism.
Although she had a passion for writing, she had another passion, and that was changing lives through the power of summer camp. In 2009, she earned the opportunity to become one of the youngest YMCA camp executives in the country, taking the helm of Ann Arbor YMCA Camp Al-Gon-Quian at the age of 23. Sarah served as the director of Camp AGQ for nearly six years. During that time the camp saw incredible growth with a 40 percent increase in positive annual net for the program and nearly $1 million in capital construction improvements.
Her dynamic and creative leadership approach took an already great camp to another level of excellence, receiving recognition at the national level for the camp's success.
Sarah lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her husband, Robert (a licensed builder and carpenter), and their Brittany Spaniels, Ranger and Marley. Robert worked at Camp AGQ in the years before Sarah arrived, and they met via mutual camp friends. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys tennis, reading and art. Sarah is also a volunteer board member for the Washtenaw Camp Placement Association (a local non-profit that sends kids to camp who otherwise would never have the opportunity), Recycle Ann Arbor, and serves as the director of the Siblings Program at Camp Tall Tree.
Kurtz McKinnon Creative LLC
Sarah Kurtz McKinnon
www.kurtzmckinnoncreative.com
sarah@kurtzmckinnoncreative.com
1149 Sullivan Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(313) 506-2891
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