During the summer of 2015 (the year of the Toronto Pan Am Games), I had the privilege of working with children in a non-academic setting. This was also my first paid experience working with children ages 3-14 and when I was first introduced to the greater responsibilities that come with a paid position.
I have volunteered with summer camps before then but my duties were mainly to ensure flow of activities and having that extra pair of eyes to watch out for danger signs. As a staff member, my additional responsibilities included filling out accident report forms, creating daily schedules, and planning with other counselors to coordinate use of communal spaces, just to name a few. I would get to know my new camp members every week on Monday, but because we had to submit our weekly planned activities on the Sunday evening, it was difficult to adjust the activities in the specific venues because it was booked ahead of time. Thus, I struggled a lot at the beginning of the summer where I was new to the planning aspect but over time, I saw some familiar faces and I learned to plan flexible activities that did not 100% depend on venue. This allowed me to stay in tune with my campers and incorporate their ideas into the rest of the week. On some mornings, campers may feel super excited and awake and thus an outdoors game such as Capture the Flag might be more appropriate. However, on days that I have booked the soccer field for my group, and my campers are not so awake, we can do circle games such as Squirt and Broken Telephone. I got very creative one week with older campers aged 12-14. This group of girls loved mystery, and so we spent many days in different rooms of the community center, including empty locker rooms, the library, party rooms, and the staging area to engage in escape rooms I have designed for my campers. This way, my campers are enjoying themselves, while I adapt to their needs and preferences. On some weeks, I also have campers with special needs. Usually that camper has a support worker with them and thus getting to know the camper is easier because of the background information provided directly to me. On other weeks though, I am not so lucky. However, regardless if I got information or not, it was important for me to treat the child like any other camper and include them in discussions of what they would like to do for the rest of the week as well as any dislikes. Some campers with special needs adapt best when I provided them with a schedule ahead of time as they like the establishment of routine. For these campers, I generally them tell the location we are going to and the type of activity we are doing. For example, I might tell them that we are going to the library tomorrow for some computer time, followed by the soccer field for some games, then the terrace upstairs to do some crafts. By the end of the summer, I got into the habit of informing all my campers about the gist of the day so they can also gauge their energy levels and adjust accordingly (hopefully). With the accident reports, at first I was filling in about 10 per day because children running around tend to run and trip often, or get a paper cut doing crafts. I was so nervous that parents were going to be angry at me for letting their children fall that I was thinking of planning no outdoor activities and/or activities that require intense running. The mother hen in me just wanted to protect the children but I could tell that they needed some activity to vent off their excess energy and I could not keep them still for very long. Just like learning to ride a bike; if someone gives up just because they had a fall, they may never learn to ride a bike. If someone answers a question incorrectly at school, does that mean they will drop out of school? Even when I kept the days to exercise-limiting activities, I would still fill in accident reports due to sporadic incidents beyond my control such as nose bleeds. As much as I cannot prevent a nose bleed, I can also not prevent children from their very energetic nature of running around and just being children. I believe as a future educator, it is important to know when to let go; to let my students experiment, make mistakes, and learn from them so they can grow to be more resilient critical thinkers in the future.
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AuthorHi! Thanks for taking the time to read about my journey. I hope you can take something from my experiences and share yours in return. Don't be shy! Archives
September 2021
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