How to Field Instructor
MESD Outdoor School > For Staff > How to Field Instructor > Times to Check In with Your SLs
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What is a Field Instructor?
ODS Lingo
Sample Schedule
​How to Be a Mentor
How and When to Set Goals
Ways to Be on Field Study
Being a Guest at Meals
Meeting with your SLs on Field Study
Meeting with your SLs on Monday Nights
Times to Check In with Your SLs
Feedback - What to Look For
Ways to Help Returnees Grow
Nice Things to Do for Your SLs
Breaks!
Niches
Recreation Ideas
FI Evaluations
A Week in the Life of a Field Instructor at Eagle Fern Outdoor School
​TIMES TO CHECK IN WITH YOUR SLs
There aren’t many official blocks of time set out for checking in with your SLs, look for spare moments whenever you can.  They definitely need and appreciate any time you can find to talk to them, whether it’s about ODS, or the rest of the world.
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  • Eat a meal with them on the porch / in the office.
  • Stand with them in the ‘guest pool’ before the meal starts.
  • Have a Program Leader take over their field study group for a few minutes so you can chat.
  • Pull one SL aside as students are arriving at field study, while the others stall waiting for more students.
  • Sit at their table in the DH and talk with them and the kids at the table (not good for deep personal conversations, but you’re still spending time with them).
  • Have a Program Leader lead your morning or afternoon intro so you can check in with the whole group.
  • Before field day gets going.
  • During social hour (don’t take up all their fun time, though).
  • Have a journal or write notes back and forth.  A little notebook makes a great journal for jotting notes back and forth – especially if you attach a tiny pencil to it so they can write whenever.