Good morning people of the internet. It’s Saturday, the day after the last day with students at my summer job. For reference, I generally teach grades 6 thru 12, with the majority of my students being 8th and above. My son is starting his senior year and most of his friends are my students so my whole life is teenagers. I understand teenagers. I know how to talk to teenagers. However, when it came to getting a summer job, I found myself as a project based learning teacher in Kindergarten. (For those of you who don’t really understand the term project based learning, I was essentially a Kindergarten art teacher this summer.)
It may come as no great surprise to any of you, but six year olds have VASTLY different needs than sixteen year olds. Can you hear the sarcasm? I knew this, logically at least, going into my summer, but it hit me in the face the first week. I’d forgotten how complex the emotional spectrum of little people can be. Over the course of the summer, I was punched, kicked, run away from, yelled at, told no more times than I can count… but… I was also hugged every day, mobbed by kids after I took two sick days and came back, given art work they made just for me, told I was loved every day, and so on and so on and so on.
Summer school is tough. They don’t want to be there. They want to be swimming or playing video games or running around with their friends. They don’t want to be learning to read or figuring out who they are as individuals. It was my job (and my teams) to make those unwanted activities fun. It took us a minute to ease into that groove. To figure out these kids and their interests. But once we hit that sweet spot, where we knew them and they knew us, it was SO much fun!
It was also insanely satisfying to me. One of the literacy teachers needed a book to read to the kids one day so I brought her my copy of the first Abbee the Dog book. The kids freaked out. They LOVED it. Which… I mean… what author doesn’t want an audience that thrilled with what they’ve created. I loved watching their faces as they figured out what the words said and who Abbee the Dog was. They thought she was pretty cool. And knowing she’s a real dog that lived at my house made them even happier. We used all five of the published books this summer. The kids fell in love with Abbee and her new buddy Max in the most precious way possible.
There were downs. No job is perfect. But upon reflection, those downs were overshadowed by the kids. The kids were amazing people. They were people I’d like to see again. They asked me to start doing story times with my Abbee the Dog books around town so they could see me again. I’m going to figure that out. And hopefully, this organization will hire me again next year. Because once I figured it out, I feel like my team provided a good experience for my students.
Lanie Goodell 