Summer by the Numbers

The always thorough SuperCamp administrator Katie Terrill reflects on what it took to put together SuperCamp in 2010.

Remember your first impressions of camp? Being greeted by the most delightful staff member you’ve ever met? They were wearing one of those ridiculously stylish blue collared shirts you just had to have. We liked them so much too that over the course of the summer those shirts were worn over 15,000 days total. Watch out GQ.

Then you hopped in line and were given the sweetest lanyard your eyes have ever beheld. It’s gentle fold and brilliant colors almost brought you to tears. You promised yourself you would never take it off – and because you didn’t, those lanyards were worn over 22,000 combined days this summer.

Once you were checked in and your parents had gone you knew it was time to party. You ran outside with pure glee enveloping your face, jumped into the first hackey sack circle you could find and began dropping your honed skills and knowledge in all our faces. Because of your commitment to making it a great summer, we volleyed almost 600 hackey sacks in just a few short weeks. Calculate that amount of kicks…and the number of horrified groans you made when that precious ball of woven wonder hit the unsanctioned ground.

Then the most glorious thing happened. You heard a song that made your jaw drop. Your body had no choice but to begin clapping and grooving with the rhythm. Feet stomped, arms pumped and you vaulted up onto a chair that filled a magnificent Main Room. Giving it all you had, maybe even biting that lower lip, you clapped it in and dropped exhilarated into what can only be known as “Stock in Costco” – a folding chair. Not too soft, and maybe not quite “just right,” that chair was your friend for days. Thank you dear friends, for holding us up, supporting us whenever we needed you and at times even making us stand a little taller  – all of us together sat in over 10,000 of your kind. Good luck with your family tree.

We embraced and lived through 2,800 playbooks that contained just as many POW-OOOOOO-CHA’s. 12,500 pens later we’ve mastered Mind Maps and Fast Writing. Helping us along the way were 2,200 so deliciously-scented-you-just-might-eat-one Mr. Sketch markers. I call grape.

How can we forget our WHOA claps? Our hands were an array of colors and levels of tingly as we shared the clap with each other over 2,600 times. Of course there were the Power Whooshes. 1-2-3 (clap, clap, clap) Whoooooooooooooosh. Imagine that x 2,600 – because it already happened.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better you were presented with a terrific teal blend of cotton. At this moment you had a pinnacle of understanding – this truly is the fabric of your life. You caressed its texture with awe and wonder. You began visualizing all the feats you could accomplish wearing this amazing gift. Scaling a ladder and hovering 30 feet in the air wearing nothing but a harness and a ¾” thick rope was simple. Morning came and you could barely contain yourself. You threw it on and felt its power course through you. That summer, only 2,300 of these splendid babies were made, and you had one. With almost 7 billion people in the world, that’s impressive. Wrap that up with just as many brilliant made postcards written and mailed home. Whew!

Academics, team times, and some remarkable singing and dancing led us into the home stretch. Over already? You couldn’t believe it. But wait. What’s this? Another gift – something to remind you of the changes you’ve made and will continue as you head home. You may only be one voice, but a voice that will be heard. We shouted it all out together, “I Make A Difference!”. This medal reminded us that for the past few days we’ve focused on the Me – combined with the Indian word of “Dal” (meaning: a ready source of proteins for a balanced diet) we realized that the word MEDAL really means that sometimes we need to focus on bettering ourselves to be part of a healthy balance.

It’s a good thing we ordered 2,400.

(All statistics used in this mind-blowing blog post are true and accurate).

Strong Communication Skills: The Key to Healthy Relationships

Integrity is the gateway to credibility. It is a personal quality that is earned through truthfulness, honesty, and altruistic ideals that shows others that we can be trusted. What oftentimes comes along with integrity is a strong set of life skills that make us better communicators. Even if we make our best attempts at living life with the most integrity possible, it can still be a challenge sometimes. In the heat of an argument, our emotions can hit auto-pilot and take control, resulting in us saying things we don’t really mean. Apologizing after the fact can be hard, but with the right communication skills, we can better maintain our relationships by authentically resolving our mistakes positively and drama-free.

The Four-Part Apology is a great tool to maintaining clear and open communication that will maintain our integrity and build stronger relationships when it comes time to apologize for something. This model allows us to acknowledge what we did, take responsibility for it, and look beyond the actual incident to the consequences of our behavior. By verbally acknowledging these consequences and choosing a different behavior, you can help the person you have affected move from feelings of anger and resentment to being thoughtful and supportive.

You can remember the four parts by this phrase: “It’s All About My Relationships!”

The All stands for Acknowledge. By using ‘I’ statements, we take responsibility for our actions by admitting them. “I acknowledge that I didn’t call you when I knew I was going to be late for lunch.”

About represents Apologize. State the cost or damage your actions caused. “I apologize for making you wait for me, which caused you frustration.”

My is for Making it Right. Deal with the consequences of the behavior and offer to make up for it with a solution. “What can I do to make it right?” This is where we listen and discover what the other person needs in order to feel a sense of closure to the situation.

Finally, Relationships stands for Recommit. Make a commitment to appropriate behavior which will mend the relationship. “I agree from now on to call you if I am running behind so that you know what’s happening and you don’t feel stood up.”

When we use the Four-Part Apology, we have the power to clean up our mistakes and realign our integrity to match our values and beliefs. At our summer enrichment programs, students learn this technique and are encouraged to practice it on a daily basis throughout the 10-day program. Reciting the exercise helps them acquire positive communication skills that further promote a positive learning environment while reducing the presence of drama, conflict, and frustration. When campers return home, their parents notice that they have become much stronger communicators. This has decreased bickering within the family and also created further maturity in the student’s psyche.

Outside the home, the Four-Part Apology can be used in all areas of life, whether it’s at work, school, or even with people we don’t even know. When we use the Four-Part Apology model, we allow ourselves a clear, open channel of communication that upholds our integrity for positive relationships.

A Fun Technique for Better Writing Skills

Think for a moment about examples of writing that really grabbed your attention – the first paragraphs of a mystery novel – a very personal, very intimate letter, an passionate political essay. What was it about the writing that was so enthralling? Regardless of the type of writing it was, chances are the reason you were so impressed was that the words caused pictures to form in your mind and feelings to rise in your gut.

Vivid descriptions are powerful tools for writers. When a person learns to write descriptively, he or she is able to create visual pictures in readers’ minds. Dull statements of facts are transformed into fascinating illustrations. People not only read and understand what has been written, they are able to relate and react to it on an intimate level.

At our summer enrichment programs, we teach students a writing method called “Show Not Tell.” Developed by Rebekah Caplan, this technique takes “telling sentences” and converts them into “showing paragraphs.”

Consider the following sentence:

“It was a pretty day.”

Technically there is nothing wrong with this sentence; it’s grammatically correct. It does, however, lack the specific details that make descriptions come alive. What exactly does “pretty” mean? Your idea of pretty is probably different from what the writer was envisioning. And what time of day are we talking about here? What day of the week? If it’s a Saturday, you might see the day differently than if it is a Monday. Bottom line: after you read this sentence, a picture might form in your mind that’s not even close to what the writer intended. What’s more, “It was a pretty day” is SO BORING!

If this “telling sentence” were changed to a “showing paragraph,” it might read like this:

“The moment she opened her window that bright Saturday morning, she felt the freshness crackling in the air. The leaves on every tree sparkled with reflected sunlight. The rainbow of flowers lining the front walk shouted ‘Spring!’ And above it all, puffy white clouds scuttled across a brilliant blue sky.”

Now you know exactly what the writer means by a pretty day. You can see the scene in your mind as clearly as if you were watching it in a movie. When you use Show Not Tell, paragraphs form naturally and vividly. They seem to take on a life of their own. The effect is fun and easy to achieve – just show the scene as if you were filming it.

The best thing about Show Not Tell is that every writer will come up with his or her own unique description for any given “telling sentence.” It’s impossible to do it without letting your own personal style come through. So go ahead, give it a try!