A Typical Day on Camp
Below you can see a description of what a typical day on camp is like. At the bottom of the page you can see example timetables for staff.
08:30 – Wakey wakey!
Bright and early we start on summer camps! The monitors need to alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic and ready to go before this time. Each monitor (or teacher when covering for their monitor partner twice a week) will be responsible for waking up their leader group (group of 10-14 kids).
During this time we need to get our group of kids washed, dressed, and have each of them pack their bags with everything they need for the day.
The kids will also need to clean their rooms/huts/cabins before the activity coordinator comes around to do the room inspection. The kids will be graded out of 20, and if they get the maximum amount they get to vote for one staff member to be gunked (think Nickelodian style being covered in multicolour gloop!)
09:00 – Breakfast
We then bring out leader group down to the canteen to get some brekkie into us. At breakfast, like all meal times, we sit with our leader group on our assigned table (not if you’ve got older teenagers – they just sit wherever they want. because they’re cool. I guess.)
This makes it is easier for the monitors and teachers to control all of our kids, make sure they’re eating enough, that they are getting a balanced diet, drinking water, etc. Also it’s quite common to have kids with special diets, like celiacs, or allergies so it’s super important to make sure they’re getting the correct food.
It’s a summer camp, so we do a lot of standing on chairs and singing camp songs. At first it seems a bit daunting or weird, but you totally get into it and it becomes one of the best parts of camp!
09:30 – English Class
After breakfast we bring out the kids to the meeting area, and the kids get into their English class groups. The teachers are waiting beside the sign for their class and once they’ve got all of their kids they go off to their classroom.
The monitors get their break during this time (Wooooooooo back to bed! Or maybe sunbathe by the pool?)
On arriving to camp the kids are level tested and assigned to appropriate class, so each teacher will be teaching a different level. Each teacher will receive a “Masterpack” for their specific level. This is basically a coursebook made by TECS teachers over the years and it comes with a students book, teachers notes (with daily lesson plans), flashcards, and listening materials.
The classes are usually divided into:
- 09:30-11:30: Masterpack Session (using the coursebook)
- 11:30-11:45: Break (for the kids, not the teachers – We supervised the playtime :D=
- 11:45-13:30: Project (This is a fun way for us to bring out our creativity and design a fun project to further developthe language points learned earlier on)
Four hours of teaching is a long time but we make the lessons as fun and dynamic as possible by having the kids playing games, being up and around, and not just having a boring old school class!
13:30 – Lunch
The monitors are down in the canteen waiting for the kids and teachers to come down from class. More eating, singing and generally organised (hopefully!) chaos!
14:15 – Phone Call time
We bring the kids out to the zone for phone call time. This is where we give the kids their mobile phones back each day for 5-10 minutes so that they can call home.
As you can imagine this is a very stressful time, especially if you’ve got the little ones, as they remember that they are homesick and out come the floods of tears! Lots of hugs required at this time! Playing games and acting the fool can totally help distract the kids from their homesickness….
The teachers during this time get a well-deserved 30 minute break
14:45 – Arts & Crafts / Creative Projects
The monitors and teachers run their assigned Arts & Crafts or Creative Project class together.
The younger kids (Sophomores, Pioneers, Juniors) will do arts & crafts where they will make something each day. Think clay, painting, friendship bracelets, etc.
The older kids (Seniors, Freshmen, Anglos) will do Creative Projects. These are things that require a bit more maturity like making a film, magazine, fitness project, dance, wacky science, etc. The kids will give their preferences for what project they would like to do on the first day, and from their will be assigned one project for the entire two weeks.
In Magic Village, Little Village and TECS College a big part of the project will be coming up with a presentation aspect as on the last Saturday of camp they will present what they did in their project to their parents!
16:00 – Sports + Activities
Now comes sports and activity time! The monitors will run these as the teachers will now get their time off!!
All camps will have multiactivity, which means that the monitors will run 3-4 different activities with their sports group each day. We do things like football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, water games, cooking, trips to the beach, and even things like wii games or chess!
20:00 – Showers
Now that the kids are all sweaty after running around and doing sports all afternoon it’s time to get showered! The teachers are responsible for this as the monitors get a quick 30 minute break to chill out after sports time!
We get our leader group together and bring them back to their rooms to get their stuff for showers (towel, shampoo, flip-flops, etc.). We bring them to the showers and need to supervise to make sure they are all showering (and actually washing!) and behaving.
After everyone is nice and clean we all go up up to the rooms and get changed in some nice clean clothes. Depending on what the activity is we might need to get the kids into their colour war t-shirts (Come on blue team!!!!)
20:45 – Dinner
Back down to the canteen for some food and games! Getting the songs and chants really going during dinner to build up to the evenings competitions.
21:15 – Mini Evening Entertainment
After dinner the teachers will go off to have a meeting with the TEFL Coordinator, and then do their lesson planning for the rest of the evening. Teachers don’t do evening entertainments except for once or twice a week.
The mini evening entertainment is small activity or game where all of the kids can get involved. Like the evening entertainments they are usually done by Colour War, meaning it’s a game where the blue team competes against the white team.
22:00 – Evening Entertainment
Evening Entertainments are literally the best part of camp. They are huge competitions or activities where all of the kids get involved. Often they are done by Colour War but not always. There are so many evening entertainments that are just amazing:
- Cluedo – The monitors get to dress up!!
- Gala Night – Fancy dinner night. Who is going to be your date??
- Mr.Muscle – The strongest camper of them all? Who can eat cold baked beans?
- Capture the Flag – The.most.competitive.game.ever.
- TECS Factor – X-Factor but in TECS….
- It’s a Knockout – Random water based games!
- Family Fortunes – Like the t.v. show but for English Day.
- Casino Night (The Gunking!!!) – Which staff member is going to get gunked?!!
- Awards Night – Night final night where WE FIND OUT WHO WON COLOUR WAR!
23:00 – Getting Ready for Bed
After all that excitement the kids (and staff) are pooped and ready to hit the hay. Not really. The kids are actually even more full of energy somehow??
The monitors need to get the kids to brush their teeth, put on their p.j.s, etc. We usually give the kids some time to chat in bed before the dreaded turning off of the lights.
Monitors do putting to bed and waking up (and sleep in the room with the kids) 5 days a week. When they are “on” monitors cannot leave site as they are responsible for their group, so to allow monitors have some time off the teachers cover the monitors twice a week. This means that the teacher will sleep in the monitors bed with the kids, and the monitor can sleep in a staff room away from kids. On their night off the monitors would be off from after evening entertainment until the meeting just before lunch the next day.
23:00 – Lights Out
Once the lights are out you’d think the kids just go to sleep? You’d be wrong. The staff need to stay around their rooms/cabins for at least 30 mins after lights are out to make sure the kids are actually asleep before heading off.
One of the monitors will be assigned to night watch each night. The night watch monitor will walk around supervising all of the rooms/cabins until 01:30.
EXAMPLE STAFF TIMETABLES
Teachers
The following is an orientative timetable for teachers (May differ slightly depending on camp/age group assigned):
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| 09:30 | Teach English class |
| 13:30 | Eat lunch with your group |
| 14:30 | Break |
| 15:00 | Run Arts & Crafts session with monitor partner |
| 16:30 | Time Off |
| 19:30 | Shower supervision |
| 20:30 | Eat dinner with your group |
| 21:30 | Teachers meeting / Development session |
| 22:00 | Teachers planning altogether |
| 23:30 | Off till the next day unless on putting to bed (twice a week) |
| Weekend | Staff will have 24 hours off at the weekend. |
Monitors
The following is an orientative timetable for monitors (May differ slightly depending on camp/age group assigned):
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| 07:30 | Once a week: Dawn patrol |
| 08:00 | Wake up campers |
| 08:45 | Eat breakfast with your group |
| 09:30 | Time Off |
| 12:45 | Monitor Meeting |
| 13:30 | Eat breakfast with your group |
| 14:30 | Supervise chill out + phone calls |
| 15:00 | Run Arts & Crafts session with monitor partner |
| 16:30 | Activity Time – Sports, water sports or trips! |
| 19:30 | Shower supervision + 30 minute break |
| 20:30 | Eat dinner with your group |
| 21:30 | Evening Entertainments |
| 23:00 | Bonding and supervise getting ready for bed |
| 23:30 | Lights off |
| After 23:30 | Must stay onsite as responsible for group (Night off twice a week) Once a week: Night watch until 01:30. |
| Weekend | Staff will have 24 hours off at the weekend. |
TECS Employment 