Saturday COCAcademy with Michelle Cummings, M.S.
Saturday COCAcademy with Michelle Cummings, M.S.
Join Michelle for an interactive, immersive workshop focused on staff development and programs!
Michelle is not a stranger to COCA. She attended COCAcon at least 10 years ago (before it was even called COCAcon) and provided an awesome and fun day of team building.
About Michelle:
Michelle Cummings, M.S., is the Big Wheel and founder of Training Wheels, a known leader in the Team Building field. She is also the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Personify Leadership, a Leadership Development organization. Michelle is an accomplished author and a dynamic, sought-after speaker in the areas of leadership, team-building, and experiential learning. Michelle has created a wide variety of facilitation, debriefing, and team-building activities that have collectively changed the way trainers and educators work.
Michelle speaks at more than 25 local, national, and international conferences each year and authors a weekly team-building newsletter called The Spokesperson that has over 24,000 subscribers in over 100 countries.
COCAcademy Session Title: Interactive Activities for Camp Staff, Volunteers & Leadership Teams
|
Conference tracks Michelle’s sessions will include:Staff Development & Training and Innovative Programs Presentation Summary: |
|
The best camp experiences don’t happen by accident—they are created by teams that are connected, adaptable, and prepared to support campers through both joyful and challenging moments. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will experience a collection of engaging activities that can be used during staff training, volunteer orientation, camper programs, and leadership development sessions. We’ll explore icebreakers that quickly build connection, experiential activities that reinforce teamwork and communication, and structured debriefing techniques that help participants reflect on meaningful experiences. Along the way, you’ll discover how to intentionally select and adapt activities to meet specific learning objectives, strengthen camp culture, and enhance the camper experience. Whether you are a camp director, program coordinator, healthcare staff member, counselor, or volunteer, you’ll leave with practical tools, facilitation tips, and ready-to-use activities that can be immediately incorporated into your camp programming. You expect staff to think on their feet, why not train them on their feet? This workshop will cover a wide range of helpful staff training topics, from icebreakers, behavior management tools to activities that help staff embrace work-style preferences and differences. We’ll also teach participants how to insert activities into their existing staff training curriculum to help make it more interactive. Come prepared to participate and play. |
Measurable Objectives / Outcomes of Presentation:
Participants will:
1. Experience a variety of interactive icebreakers, team-building activities, and debriefing tools that can be used with camp staff, volunteers, and campers.
2. Learn how experiential activities can reinforce important camp values such as communication, teamwork, inclusion, empathy, adaptability, and leadership.
3. Discover strategies for selecting, modifying, and facilitating activities to meet the unique needs of oncology camp communities.
4. Practice debriefing techniques that help participants reflect on experiences and transfer lessons to real-life camp situations.
5. Leave with a collection of adaptable, low-prep activities and resources that can be implemented immediately at camp.
• To provide the opportunity for participants to play!
• To learn new games and initiatives to use during staff training to reinforce desired behaviors.
• To gain access to resources that will further develop staff members ‘bag of tricks.’
• To learn practical, hands-on activities that are easy to tweak to specific learning objectives. Attendees are given multiple examples to ensure success back in the real world.