Disorganized, exploitative, and stressful for "Teachers"
Pros
Connections with kids, experience in childcare, education-related work. Consistent work hours through the summer months. If you enjoy working with VERY large groups of children, you might enjoy it.
Cons
Where do I even begin? From start to finish I found DS to be a dishonest employer. This job was nothing like what I was told to expect. Provided lesson plans and materials are extremely inefficient and hard to work with, and often were just plain boring or made no sense. Coworkers often canceled shifts or quit at the last minute, leaving the remaining employees overwhelmed with over-full camps. Sites are often difficult to get to, inconsistent, and very poor environments for running programs. Training is not fairly compensated, and I didn't receive my first bi-weekly paycheck until after I had been working for at least a month. After discussing this with coworkers I discovered that issues with payment and management are extremely common. Site supervisors are not fairly compensated for the extra time and responsibility they take on. Do not expect anything more than minimum wage, even if they promise you more. The entire last month I spent working for them we were desperately understaffed, to a point that we did not even have the legally required ratio of adults:children. This was one of the most stressful jobs I have ever had, and that's saying something.
