Camp program staff and service staff can "war" and negatively affect campers. Frequent causes are misunderstood roles, conflicting expectations, jealousy, and feelings of being undervalued. Presents ideas for integrating program and service staff in the off season, when staff arrive, and during camp, and for dealing with a "civil…

Presents a position statement of the Board of Directors of the Division on Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities that reviews the employment, preparation, and management of paraeducators. The statement addresses role definition, employment and management, legal and ethical responsibilities, job descriptions, paraeducator training, and…

The World Wide Web is a good source of quick information, which is especially helpful during the busy camping season. Among the subjects on the Web relevant to camp are horsemanship, canoeing, waterfront safety, government standards, legislative news, disabilities, youth resources, vegetarian meals, grant writing, news, and stress management.…

Evaluation of the effectiveness of a training program for behavioral aides providing individualized support for adults with severe disabilities and challenging behaviors in a day treatment center found all five participants were able to show marked increases in their clients' social and physical community integration. The training program focused…

Discusses some strategies that can keep alive the organizational vision of staff working in a child-care center. Suggestions include ideas such as exploring and developing collective visions over time; determining parents' expectations; encouraging collaborative efforts in keeping the visions alive; creating maps, symbols, and representation of…

Discusses current views on problem solving in the workplace, and identifies five areas for consideration: (1) knowledge representation; (2) verbally teaching strategy components of the skill--versus the learner acquiring it inductively through practice; (3) the principles of teaching procedures; (4) how to construct simulations; and (5) weighing…

Describes infant-toddler training-of-trainers workshop in which trainers respond to trainee resistance through role-plays illustrating respectful and disrespectful ways of training and through discussions focusing on accepting and acknowledging the feelings of trainees and trainers. Asserts that forming diverse training teams, valuing opposing…

Food allergies can kill a child, and camp offers many opportunities for things to go wrong. One camp with many allergic campers gathered information from parents on the extent of allergies and medications needed; educated staff about the seriousness of allergies, food preparation procedures, and snacks; and prepared an emergency plan. Family,…

This study reports the characteristics, career intentions, and professional development needs of staff from a wide variety of services for people with a disability in New South Wales (Australia). Staff were predominantly female; male staff were unlikely to regard their career futures as being in the disability field; and employers were providing…

Project Adventure (PA) offers certification for adventure program managers and two levels of challenge course practitioners. PA feels certification is timely because other fields have certification programs that work well, PA has been using competency-based certification for their own staff successfully for 8 years, the field has recently…

A New York camp's character education program is described. Implementing the program involves choosing which values to teach, making staff and campers aware of the program's importance, deciding where to teach the values, choosing and coaching the attributes that reflect each value, debriefing after activities, and keeping campers and staff…

Describes four staff development leadership styles provided by principals (traditional administrator, instructional leader, community builder, and orchestra conductor). Suggestions are offered encouraging principals to orchestrate staff development for all personnel (e.g., advocate lifelong learning for all employees and encourage learning…

Outlines an organization development view of change, identifying strategies for implementing the approach and noting how staff developers' roles change with the organization development perspective. As organization development specialists rather than trainers, staff developers must develop skills in group process, facilitation, team building,…

Considers the relationship between testing and curriculum by examining the testing literature. Argues that a test that is both valid and useful is not possible due to the absence of a certifiable standard in most curriculum areas. Suggests that validation could be better defined through a consideration of various factors of education. (KO)

This article presents a concept of reflection, explains its importance in staff development, and describes ways reflection can be effectively integrated into staff development programs. Programs discussed include Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement (TESA), as well as tailor-made peer coaching and discipline workshops. (IAH)