So this week, after weeks of preparation, observation, and concentration…I’m in charge!  I’ve been helping with lots of things at camp, and taking over a lot of responsibilities, but this and next week the whole camp is on my shoulders.  That means that I am in charge of making sure each teacher has the supplies they need, helping switch materials between classrooms, making sure the volunteers are where they need to be and doing that they need to do, wrangling the campers, giving the morning and afternoon announcements and directions, preparing the art show, conducting the graduation program and art show, doing teacher contracts and payments, and supervising the whole camp operation in general.  My supervisor has stepped aside and left me in charge while she prepares for fall programs and other administrative duties that sometimes get lost in the shuffle.  Luckily, she is still a HUGE help with getting things organized, showing me tips and tricks to keep things running smoothly, and acting as a safety net in case I need extra help.

The theme of camp this week is “Go Figure!” to correspond the the current exhibit, called “Figure It: Forms of Human Expression,” at the museum. We have been making various types of human and animal figures and and exploring the range of expression and movement. We’ve been making animal heads, robot creatures, plaster “action” figures, masks, and “blockheads” to display in our gardens and homes.

The campers made foil armatures of figures doing actions, like dancing, jumping, kicking, and running, and then covered them in plaster bandages, like sculptures by the artist George Segal.

George Segal made life-size sculptures by making plaster casts of real people and assembling the figures together. This piece is his 1971 work, “The Dancers.”

We used our imaginations to create fanciful fauna figures!

I kept saying, “You blockhead!” like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strips, but none of the kids got it…I guess the younger generation doesn’t read the funny pages!

These last two weeks of camp are a great opportunity for me to prove that I can take what I learned by observation and put it into practice.  Running a camp is definitely hard work, and I can see why teachers are tired all the time! As happy as I will be at the end of next week, I know I’ll miss the kids I’ve gotten to know this summer.  The end will be bittersweet, but…8 days until vacation! 🙂