Six Word Memoir
Looks Like it's Time to Teach
For the past four summers I have worked at a private educational summer camp for kids 4-11 years old. And in that time I have taught computers, arts and crafts, activities, and the resource programs. Let me just tell you this upfront, teaching is pretty fun.
Let's start with my first two years working at the the summer camp. In the mornings I worked with resource students in small groups doing reading, writing and math. What that means is that I worked with students who were multiple grades behind academically, had learning disabilities, or physical handicaps. The largest group of kids I would ever work with in these situations would only be about three or four, but for these students this was incredibly necessary. Many of these students would get written off or forgotten in a class of twenty or even thirty students. I know I struggled to even keep four students focused and on task all at the same time for more than five minutes, so I can't even begin to imagine trying to teach thirty students. While working with these types of students I had to learn an incredible amount of patience. School has always been something that has come quite easy to me, so working with these students gave me perspective into the struggle that so many people go through in school. I became a role model for these students and for the first time in my life I was aware that people actually looked up to me. I tried my best to set the best example. When the afternoons would roll around most of our resource students would go home so I was then put into various classrooms depending on the day, to help the other teachers.
The third summer I returned I finally got the chance to have my own classroom teaching computers for the first three weeks. I'd like to think I'm pretty tech savvy, but in reality I'm definitely no expert. However, I was undoubtedly more tech savvy than any of the other teachers, so I was good enough. Having my own classroom also meant that for the first time I would need to make my own curriculum. Previously I had only done scripted teaching, which means that I just read from a book and used workbooks and worksheets to teach the students. Making my own lesson plans was the easy enough. With computers I could have almost every grade doing the same thing for each lesson. The harder part was when the students get there. I can remember being so nervous on the first day teaching the rules to the students. With my first class I actually skipped over an entire slide of rules and only noticed after because I was going over them again for my next class. Luckily with the rules and my first day of teaching my own class over, things went pretty smooth sailing for the rest of the three weeks. But like all good things, they must come to an end, and after three weeks I was back teaching resource for the rest of the summer.
Finally, this last summer I got to have my own classroom for the whole summer. This time around instead of computers I was teaching the activities and crafts class. Basically I was supposed to be the fun part that was like a real summer camp. This was by far the most fun position I could have. I got to put together activities like kickball, water balloons, and sharks and minnows, and lots of fun crafts like origami and making musical instruments. I even got to incorporate ideas I had learned in school by doing STEM activities like paper airplane aerodynamics and popsicle stick bridges. However coming up with everything to do posed some issue. I found out very quickly that trying to organize an activity for four year old compared to organizing an activity for a seven year old was very different. I could no longer have everyone do the pretty much same thing, instead I had to come up with a unique activity for almost every grade. The four and five year old class was by far the hardest to plan for. You might think there would't be much difference between a four and five year old, but you would be very surprised. But even with all the work I had to put in it was still the most fun I have ever had teaching.
And now here are a few pictures to give you a little more insight to my life.
Let's start with my first two years working at the the summer camp. In the mornings I worked with resource students in small groups doing reading, writing and math. What that means is that I worked with students who were multiple grades behind academically, had learning disabilities, or physical handicaps. The largest group of kids I would ever work with in these situations would only be about three or four, but for these students this was incredibly necessary. Many of these students would get written off or forgotten in a class of twenty or even thirty students. I know I struggled to even keep four students focused and on task all at the same time for more than five minutes, so I can't even begin to imagine trying to teach thirty students. While working with these types of students I had to learn an incredible amount of patience. School has always been something that has come quite easy to me, so working with these students gave me perspective into the struggle that so many people go through in school. I became a role model for these students and for the first time in my life I was aware that people actually looked up to me. I tried my best to set the best example. When the afternoons would roll around most of our resource students would go home so I was then put into various classrooms depending on the day, to help the other teachers.
The third summer I returned I finally got the chance to have my own classroom teaching computers for the first three weeks. I'd like to think I'm pretty tech savvy, but in reality I'm definitely no expert. However, I was undoubtedly more tech savvy than any of the other teachers, so I was good enough. Having my own classroom also meant that for the first time I would need to make my own curriculum. Previously I had only done scripted teaching, which means that I just read from a book and used workbooks and worksheets to teach the students. Making my own lesson plans was the easy enough. With computers I could have almost every grade doing the same thing for each lesson. The harder part was when the students get there. I can remember being so nervous on the first day teaching the rules to the students. With my first class I actually skipped over an entire slide of rules and only noticed after because I was going over them again for my next class. Luckily with the rules and my first day of teaching my own class over, things went pretty smooth sailing for the rest of the three weeks. But like all good things, they must come to an end, and after three weeks I was back teaching resource for the rest of the summer.
Finally, this last summer I got to have my own classroom for the whole summer. This time around instead of computers I was teaching the activities and crafts class. Basically I was supposed to be the fun part that was like a real summer camp. This was by far the most fun position I could have. I got to put together activities like kickball, water balloons, and sharks and minnows, and lots of fun crafts like origami and making musical instruments. I even got to incorporate ideas I had learned in school by doing STEM activities like paper airplane aerodynamics and popsicle stick bridges. However coming up with everything to do posed some issue. I found out very quickly that trying to organize an activity for four year old compared to organizing an activity for a seven year old was very different. I could no longer have everyone do the pretty much same thing, instead I had to come up with a unique activity for almost every grade. The four and five year old class was by far the hardest to plan for. You might think there would't be much difference between a four and five year old, but you would be very surprised. But even with all the work I had to put in it was still the most fun I have ever had teaching.
And now here are a few pictures to give you a little more insight to my life.
My cat George and me
My girlfriend Sage and me, Halloween 2015
My family at my sister's college graduation
(From Left to Right: Me, my dad, my sister, my mom)
My Three cats
(From Left to Right: George, Lily, Charlotte)
Girlfriend and me at Muir Woods
I can see that cats and teaching are a huge part of your life. Honestly, I can't imagine teaching a large group of young students. A classroom of college students is easy, but little kids? I would be overwhelmed to work with so many of them all day long. Is this part of your life plan? Teaching?
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly I don't have any intentions to go into teaching after college, and I am actually a mechanical engineering major. However I could see going to teach high school or college after a couple decades in the engineering industry as more of a retirement type job. I could even see myself as going as low as eighth grade, but nothing lower because while I can teach younger kids for a summer, I don't think I could last a full year.
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