Zoo Uses Video to Train Summer Staff

"How is it already June?" Have you heard people saying this lately? 2012 is almost half over already, and there seems to be a collective feeling of "boy, that was a fast six months." June is traditionally a busy month at KIT as we spend a lot of time teaching summer camp staff how to include kids of all abilities in their programs. It is very important to us that children with disabilities have access to camp, and that they create summer camp memories with their siblings and friends. We've worked with a wide variety of types of programs this past month, from museums, to city parks and recreation departments, to Boys & Girls Clubs and one of our longest affiliations, the world-famous San Diego Zoo. For the past ten years KIT has been working with the 50 summer camp educators who will reach thousands of children in their popular summer camp program. The San Diego Zoo has been very thoughtful and progressive in their approach to inclusion, and they have been an absolute delight to partner with over the past many years.

This year's San Diego Zoo training session was this past Friday and I was able to watch our Master Trainer, Nili Mathews, work with the educators. This year the Zoo had the great idea to work with the local youth theatre program to develop short videos using child actors that depicted typical summer camp challenges. At the training the educators viewed the video clips, discussed and received coaching and feedback from Nili. It was wonderful to see the Zoo educators think through each situation, and you could see their knowledge build on itself with each new situation. Video is such a great tool for learning, and this was such a creative, collaborative and inexpensive way to approach staff training.

Here are a few tips for including video in your training program:

1. Plan ahead! Line up your location, talent and crew ahead of time. As the Zoo found, this is a great opportunity for collaboration. Is there an Audio Visual group at a local high school or community college that can produce your videos? Can you work with a local after school program to use their facility or children?
2. Get permission! It is very important to get release forms from anyone appearing on camera. Also make sure that you have permission to use facilities, and bring a copy of any documentation you have about facility use on the day of the shoot (emails work).
3. Check your equipment! Batteries charged? Microphone? How's the lighting?
4. Know what you want to shoot! Don't wait until the day of the shoot to figure out what you want to capture. Kids don't have patience for that. Figure out your scenes and shots ahead of time. Keep them simple and give the kids clear direction. Shorter is better.

Inclusion is...always ready for innovation!