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Thread: Got through the first day of the biggest cluster-***

  1. #1
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    Got through the first day of the biggest cluster-***

    I am taking a break from working on things, today was the biggest cluster (bad word) of my 3 years of running this type of program. It is a summer camp where they go to reading tutoring in the morning and then come to us for traditional camp in the afternoon plus field trips on Fridays. We had no clue which kids or how many we should expect, anywhere from about 50 to 175 potentially. My computer failed at internet until I called tech support, this was happening all over. Then the printer I finally got did NOT work, so I could not print all the things I needed for the parent board. No big deal right, because all these kids were going to take the bus. Actually a lot of parents picked up and I didn't have good sign out sheets because we didn't really know what we were getting, who was taking the bus, etc. I did not make sign out sheets for all 175 kids, and if I had then I couldn't print them anyway. We are trying to get all families on the i-pad system which requires registering online, I spent a good hour on Friday working with a family that speaks Lingali and French.By the time I was done the facilities staff wanted to lock the building so I figured I could just come early today and get the printer to work, nope.

    The worst was a dad who came to drop off his son and wanted him to take the bus in the afternoon. He didn't want the drop off they planned and somehow the front office in taking care of it said something like he could have the other location. Well he couldn't, and the bus left over 20 minutes late because we had so many kids to process (175 kids not alphabetized on bus lists, argh). Complicated because he speaks Burmese and when I tried to help him he could not tell me what street he was walking on even. There is a cool 800 number we can call for translation, put everyone on speaker. That was past 5:30 and camp was out at 4.

    I think my supervisor is pretty cool for this, he stayed a lot and helped, all my plans kinda went to crap on the first day. at least 2 of my staff were officially hired last Thursday. They have never done our tracking system but have worked in our district at least. 2 other staff took vacation last week so they were not there for planning. In general I took over this site with 1 1/2 weeks notice. I went and did more shopping tonight, re-did all the tracking cards with the teacher for morning and bus numbers and color coded. I still have better sign in/out sheets to make up and to check the list of who has registered in the on-line system. I just want to do a good job, and amazingly I did not have too much anxiety. Of course it is hitting now because I have literally not sat down or checked my email all day long. I am not sure there was any way to be fully prepared for this however, most camps you have a solid list weeks ahead of time. Oh yeah, the principal and all the teachers for the morning program were out ALL last week so we couldn't do any logistics.

  2. #2
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    Three Cheers!

    --- for all you do!

  3. #3
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    Your average delay was less than 31 seconds per kid! (1.5 hours = 90 minutes, 175 kids) if you look at it that way, it’s pretty amazing.

    that translation thing sounds like a godsend.

    were the kids happy?

  4. #4
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    Good way to look at it, we actually had about 80 come and I expect that a few more will show up this week. The tutoring program in the morning adds them as they walk in which freaks me out. I have no idea what I am getting ahead of time, and my supervisor kept on asking how I planned to handle a kid who needed supervised potty breaks (found out about him about 8:30 am). Plus the languages! That part is very exciting to work with, as soon as we can pronounce all the names.

    The kids were very happy, we have some outside providers for sports and theater so they were calm and ready to go despite the crazyness. I think I didn't look as prepared (you know the department image right now) but at least I wasn't freaking out.

    Oh I realize that the phone calls this camp has been making over the last 2 weeks are the ones I was making back in April when I was planning my camp, no wonder we are having this huge gap in everything. Of course the previous person had never done this and I am not sure anyone really know how this program works.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    ZG, you did a great job even with those types of circumstances. Here’s hoping that the right job comes your way soon. The stuff you have to deal with is unbelievable.

  6. #6
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    Today one kid got on the bus who was not supposed to, another kid was added in the middle of the day to program and then did not get on the bus. One child was so shy that she did not answer when her name was called and so we thought she was missing. I have not sat down or answered email in a very long time.

    Thanks for the compliments everyone, my supervisors also thought it was smooth for the 2nd day. I have a LOT more work to do but I am doing to get iced chai first.

  7. #7
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    After all that you certainly deserve the iced chai. Reading about your days makes my job seem positively easy, despite things like our filing system not working for the last two days because an upgrade went way wrong. When I have a tech problem I just have to wait it out. I don't have kids literally depending on me to still function somehow.

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