Winnie's Reflection
Now that summer camp is coming to a close, explain 3 key takeaways from the experience? How will you apply it in the future?
1. Communication. My role during summer camp was high school co-op supervisor, I think the most important skill takeaway during camp would be communication. Communication with high school students can be very different from similar age or adult colleagues and younger children.
2. Pre-planning. Planning and setting up tasks and projects for the high school co-ops and estimating the expected work that should be or could be done during a specific amount of time.
3. Leadership. Leading the high school co-op groups and ensuring that they are on task; instructing and acknowledging correct behaviour and policy.
I am looking into intermediate and senior teaching in the future, and this role gave me a brief view and perspective of working with high school students.
Describe one of the biggest challenges you faced, how you overcame it, and what you learned from it.
I was overseeing 19 co-ops across 4 different locations, as well as 2 fully remote co-ops, so it was hard to keep track of everyone. I had to communicate with the site leaders and assistant site leaders supervising at the location to get a perspective of their in person work and compare it with the work that is done remotely. Moreover, the occasional prompting and addressing the more appropriate behaviour or expectations, and how to properly address these issues to high school students. Moreover, after final evaluation, I saw a decrease in work ethics from some of the HS co-op during the last week.
To close off the term on a high note, what were 3 highlights from your time at U+?
Working with the high school co-ops would be my most notable experience during this term. This highly aligns with my career prospective and being able to work with and supervise high school was a very valuable experience. The HR career fairs is another notable experience from my term. I got to meet different possible candidate from different areas, for example, possible HS co-ops at the Milliken Mills High School Co-op Career Fair, volunteers, full time and part time candidates at the Aurora Public Library Career, and the Uni co-ops from the University of Scarborough Campus Launch, etc. Lastly, I think the people that I worked with are another highlight of my term at U+. The backup, site leaders and camp counsellors had really helped me on the supervising the HS co-op and being a great role model and leader within the classroom.
What is some advice/tip that you would offer to future staff?
For the HS co-op management, I am suggesting that evaluations happen after the student finishes their term or to keep the evaluation private within the supervisors and teachers. There was a situation where I saw a decrease in the attitude towards the work from some of the HS co-ops.
Please nominate someone who deserves the employee of the month award and explain why briefly. You can nominate more than one person.
Carson, Kevin, Aminah, Esa, Vanessa, Edel, Moxi, and many other supervisorial staff. It was difficult to supervise over 4 different locations and I may not always be there when the co-ops need me or to overlook their proper behaviour all the time. Hence, it was really important that the onsite staff and other backup staff were able to support my work.
