A Summer Project
As a public education teacher there
is always a need to supplement income. So I along with a co-worker friend of
mine, decided to try our hands at starting up an academic summer camp for
struggling students. We came up with the
idea two months before school was to end so we were really anxious to get the
ball rolling. Outside of our intention to supplement our summer income, our
primary purpose for the camp was to provide learning activities that would
increase student skills in reading comprehension and math skills. We both had been working in the Special Education
field and felt that our background and
experience would be beneficial for those students who were struggling in these
areas or simply wanted to get ahead for the upcoming school year.
We weren’t sure who or how many
would be interested, so we created a mini brochure introducing the camp and its
purpose. We included contact information so the parents could call, express
interest and reserve a spot. We would later call them back to confirm
acceptance and invite them to a formal orientation. In the meantime, we had to book a location, as
we expected a high response. Due to our very limited budget, we needed to find
a location that would either be free or charge us no more than $ 100 per month
for rent. We were very lucky. Our local city hall building had small rooms
available for community functions and would only charge $75 per month. So with our location secured we were ready to
start accepting our summer participants.
To our surprise we had over 60
interested participants. We soon
realized though that our location would not hold all 60 at once. Therefore we
needed to change our plan to have a full day summer camp into a half day summer
camp with two sessions of no more than 20 students per session. Each session
was to last for two and half hours with a lunch break in between. The cost per
session was $25 per session for 4 days per week, which yielded $100 dollars per
child. So the payoff for the two of us was pretty nice. The parents seem to
think that the price was reasonable too, compared to other summer camps. After it was all said and done we ended up
with an average of 40 student participants over a six week period. Some opted
for a full day program due to work schedules and others tapered off due to
vacation trips or financial hardship.
Other issues that we needed to
address were lack of materials for the various levels of students that we
acquired. Part of this was due to lack of initial start-up funding and limited
time to really assess the needs of our participants. We were also initially
counting on having the ability to use several computers with internet access.
We had come across several online learning sites that we wanted to incorporate
into the curriculum to supplement our lack in materials. At the very last
minute we were told that the city would not be able to provide these computers
as originally planned. We also noticed
that towards the end of each session, there were several of our student
participants who needed time to be active (outside) play, due to developmental
or attention deficit concerns. Unfortunately, the facility did not have an
outside play area, so we had to revise our lesson schedules again to include some
indoor fun activities. That revision turned out to be a positive one though,
because it gave the participants something fun to look forward to at the end of
the session. It also gave us a mental break and more time to preplan for our
afternoon session.
Overall my co-worker and I were
pleased with the outcome. We did not really do an in-depth survey for our parents
at the end but we did ask if they would be interested in returning the
following summer. Most replied that they would especially for the price that
was set. Others wanted to know if would be able to do a full day and some were
interested in having their children attend field trips. Just about all the
children said they wanted to return, but many wanted to take trips to the
movies and have a pizza day! We think this response was prompted by our end of
the summer pizza party.
If we had to do it all over again,
we would definitely take more time to plan and gather resources. We also needed
a back- up contingency plan for the failed computer idea. We eventually used
some of the profits we made to buy materials to support hands-on activities,
but we weren’t able to do that until 3-4 weeks in to our summer program. It
would have also been helpful had we been able to assess each participant to
quickly identify specific skills that needed to be addressed. We did do a brief
survey intake from the parents who identified the weak subject areas, but a
more in-depth survey would have led to better lesson plans and activities from the
start. As time went on though, we were able to identify some individual needs
of the students rather quickly. Although the facility seemed a little small at
times, the city staff was very flexible, friendly and helpful. They even helped
the first week with directing traffic and setting up cones, so the parents
could get in an out the drop off area without any problems. Although we would
like to find larger facility, we couldn’t beat that price plus they provided
free advertising in their marque, newsletter and website.
Our next project endeavor can be
improved by finding and taking time to effectively assess our student
participants before the start of program. A simple needs assessment form can be
filled out by the parents which would identify the specific learning needs of their
child. This way we will ensure that our learning activities are confirming and
addressing identified needs (Portny Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton,
2008 ). We would also benefit greatly by planning for the unknown or examining
our limitations imposed by various needs, such as budget, spacing, and
accounting for holiday and vacation schedules.
Determining and planning for limitations is a fact finding process that
can led to quick resolutions and time saving efforts (Portny et al, 2008).
Reference
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith,
J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and
controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
