Jillian Pullara

General Instructor (began in 2017)

The basic things an instructor at BGL does

• Engages with children of different maturity levels to teach them how to play board games
• Be responsible for up to 10 children at a time while in Prospect Park
• Train new staff members on board games, park games, and the daily flow of BGL
• Keep the physical space of BGL organized by putting games away in their correct places, and taking one day a month to reorganize what needs reorganizing

Front of House/Manager

I began filling in as FOH/Manager as needed in 2018

• Am responsible for up to 80 children in one location (pre-covid, 50 post-covid)
• Communicate between locations on any issues that come up
• Communicate with parents about their children letting them know if they had a particularly bad day, or anything that came up that they should know about
• De-escalate any conflicts between children
• Administer first aid if needed

Girl Gaming (Fall and Spring 2016/2017)

A program just for anyone who identified as a girl to join and learn about women from history and play a board game or role playing game based on the themes from her life

• Created and managed the Girl Gaming program for a year, which had an attendance of up to 30 girls, every other Sunday
• Researched women in history and created presentations about them
• Looked up games that could tie in with the theme of their lives in some way (eg: Mary Anning, a paleontologist would match with The Great Dino Rush, a game where you are paleontologists digging for bones and building dinosaurs)

Social Skill (Fall 2019 to March 2020)

A programmed aimed at children either with diagnosed issues or without, who needed help with socializing with their peers, using Dungeons and Dragons to reinforce social lessons

• Managed and helped develop our Social Skills program alongside two licensed social workers
• Communicated with parents about their children's progress
• Helped craft the Dungeons and Dragons sessions based on feedback from the parents and social workers about what their kids need more help with
• Facilitated conversations with the children between their peers to help them consider other people's points of views
• Monitored each child's progress and wrote a weekly email to each parent about their child's personal victories, often including something their child said to illustrate their progress

Outdoors Safety Manager (began summer 2020)

The Safety Manager is responsible for the outdoor programming - from Outdoor labs, to after school, with the flexibility to shift to indoor programming if the weather doesn't allow us to be outdoors

• Be responsible for over 80 kids in Prospect Park
• Coordinate with the instructors on what the games of the day are, and which group of kids they have, switching instructors if needed based on whether they have worked well with the groups in the past
• Be in touch with parents if anything happens to their children that they need to be informed about
• Debrief with Instructors at the end of their shifts to learn about how their days went, if there were any problems, how the games went, and troubleshoot any problems
• De-escalate any conflicts between children
• Administer first aid if necessary
• Sanitize all materials used

Tutoring (started 9/2020)

As many children began remote learning in 2020, BGL currently has a program where children can come with their laptops and whatever other supplies they need to go to their zoom classes. Instructors help them with their school work, keep them on schedule, and if they have any down time, play board games tp keep them occupied, engaged, and socializing with their peers

• Help troubleshoot any technical problems with children's laptops, zoom issues, etc...
• Help children with their school assignments regardless of subject
• Help children focus on doing their schoolwork
• Slate children to instructors based on how well they have worked together in the past, or how I believe they will interact based on what I know of the instructor and children
• Communicate with parents about what their children did at tutoring and if they have any work they need to finish
• Communicate with other programming leads and admin about anything that comes up that they need to know about

Hero's Journey (Summer 2020)

BGL Online Program aimed at helping kids with executive function disorders take control over their daily chores by making a map of the tasks they need to do, and integrating it with Dungeons and Dragons, having them receive in-game rewards for D&D based on how well they completed their map

• Coordinated intakes between parents and Executive Functioning Coaches to learn children's needs
• Moderated zoom calls of up to 20 kids, managing break out rooms, and moving people as needed
• Communicate with parents about their children's progress during the week
• Worked one-on-one with children on their "Hero's Journey Map", tracking tasks they completed and finding tactics they could take for tasks they regularly did not complete (eg: if a child always forget to make their bed, we would find something to help them remember to make their bed)
• Hero's Journey: Maintained and updated google spreadsheets with the children's map information

Scheduling

Fill in to help with scheduling as needed

• Make sure people have filled in the google doc survey of availability
• Be in contact with programming leads about their staffing needs
• Set up a schedule based on the information given in the survey
• Reach out to staffers to fill any gaps created by more enrollment or instructor absences