Hullo Campers

[success]

Hi I am living and working in China and even though it may seem early days to be planning a summer camp, I was surfing the internet this morning and came across this site and thought I might join to get some good ideas shared experiences and moral support.

I have taught managed and directed around 7 English camps in China over the years and am thinking this year to run my own.
I have tons of ideas running through my head. I hope in the following months to use the forum as a sounding board and to pick your brains.

My family are getting a bit bored with me when I start going into details about some fabulous teaching idea (well I think it's fabulous).

Cheers Success

[laurathistle]

Hi Success

Welcome to the site!

I am sure you will find the site useful. People are very friendly and have loads of good ideas and advice.

[success]

Thanks Laura,
I have just got confirmation for the camp venue and now I will concentrate on curriculum planning and marketing.
Cheers Success

[Dave]

Hey success! Welcome to the site :) .

[campnerd99]

Hey! Welcome! =)

[success]

Cheers Guys
Even though my position is a bit different in that at the camp our focus is on learning English, it is a live in camp and we have to make sure the kids enjoy themselves. Already I am finding some good ideas and have some of the same problems.

[camper]

welcome!

[Whimsy]

Welcome to the boards!
It is never to early to start thinking about camp!
The fact that you are going to run your own is so exciting.
If there is anything I can help with let me know!

[YUrocks!]

Welcome! I run an educational day camp in Canada. I'm sure we'll have lot's to talk about.

[success]

Thanks guys I haven't posted for a few days, been busy teaching. Yurocks would welcome your input.
My gut feeling is to really to concentrate on pronunciation and intonation, keep the English very basic, everyday situations and teach them how to talk about their interests, keep it simple and hopefully a good base, to build on but make them really proficient at a basic level. I have my goals of language learning that I want them to achieve and "fun" ways of them achiving them.
You know the kids that i teach in High schools their heads are so stuffed with grammar and vocabulary, they can barely utter a word and when they do their grammar is wrong and they have no real sentence stucture. Most of these kids have been learning English for 5 years. I would like to make a diffference in that have them achieve a basic spoken English level and make them understand that they can do that. I know they can.
Anyway one thing I would like to introduce is confidence building and the like.
No other camps really pay much attention to this but I think it is important and would welcome all of your ideas.
Cheers Success

[CAMPFRIEND]

Welcome to the site.. I hope that we can give you more ideas!

[Mouse...]

Welcome! I hope you find everything your looking for here.

[YUrocks!]

We focus on confidence building as well. I'm sure there are lot's of get-to-know you / community building games that use ESL that you could use.