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I spend my summer waking up at 7 AM every morning just to go spend my day with over 100 4-6 year olds who yell, rip things up, and flick crayons at each other. I walk kids around as I teach them to cross at crosswalks and that a red light means stop. I deal with screaming children riding their bikes like crazy as I try to prevent wrecks from happening. I put bandaids on their little fingers and deal with kids who miss their mommy. That might not sound like much fun to some people, but what can I say? I love it.
How many 16 year-olds can exactly say they love their job, even look forward to going? I actually love getting up early to go to work because I work with kids, and working with kids is what I love. I work at Safety Town, which for those of you who don't know, is a place for kids going into kindergarten where we teach them basic safety rules.
We use crafts, movies, and activities to teach them and it can get very crazy. It's not exactly easy having two teenagers that need to teach 15-25 kids, but it is pretty fun. I love to interact with the kids and learn all their little personalities. At first I thought I'd never remember their names, but I knew all of their names and even kids from other classes from just one day. And let me tell you, it's always the quiet ones whose names you don't know. They're the ones you don't have to tell to "use your indoor voices" 20 times every hour.
We do coloring pages first thing in the morning. On the second day, I put crayons out and I have never seen a more broken bunch of crayons, and that's just after one day of being used. We do crafts using scissors and glue, and one or two kids always ends up cutting something up way more than it needs to be cut. Today someone cried because, "I lost my house!" But it turns out, she just cut it up into tiny pieces.
We also go outside and use a tiny town with fake buildings, sidewalks, crosswalks, roads, and even a stoplight in the middle. One thing I've learned is you have to repeat things over and over for kids this young to get it set in their minds. You have to tell them to look both ways before you cross the street at least 100 times before they get it down pact. You'd think they'd be getting tired of walking around that tiny town for 20 minutes and having to repeat over and over, "Look left, then right, then left again, then over your shoulder," but that's just their way of learning things.
We have guest speakers and watch movies and it's hard to get them to "sit on your bottom" and "keep your hands and feet to yourself". We just have to repeat what they just learned again and again and again. But, eventually they learn it. We teach them to memorize their full name, address, and phone number in case they ever get lost or hurt. Sometimes it takes them quite a while to learn it, but they do. Of course, the incentive of a gold or red star to put on their nametag always hurries the process.
Yeah, life can be hard when you have a bunch of almost kindergarteners running around and you're the one who has to get them to "zip their lips" and "put on their listening ears" but it's a good experience. I want to be a teacher when I grow up, and I'm learning exactly what being a teacher is all about. I have to get everything ready and set up for them, and then teach them. I have to be patient and kind with them but firm at the right times. They hate it when they get the firm voice, but it's my job to help them learn what's ok to do and what's not ok to do. I like to know that I'm making a difference in these kids lives. That maybe one kid will remember what we said and not cross the street alone, or not drink a chemical from underneath the sink, or not get in the car with a stranger. That's why I want to be a teacher. To know I'm helping someone and truly making a difference. Not to mention, the hugs at the end of the day can be very rewarding
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