I have never wanted to go into the field of teaching or anything related to working with children as a career, but since my mom has always worked in schools, I have spent a lot of time either babysitting or working in different schools as an after school teacher or as an intern in classrooms. This past school year, I spent three days a week from 2:30 to 6:00 working with an after school program at a local public school. The kids I worked with were full of energy and had great personalities. While some days were overwhelming, the overall experience of working with the kids was great. I got to watch them grow and learn new things from the beginning of their school year to the last day of school. I loved being greeted with hugs and being asked about my day because I could tell that they were always grateful for me being there, just as I was for them. Here are some of the lessons I learned that stuck with me throughout the year.
1. Don’t wear a white shirt to work:
I rarely wear white shirts in general because I’m such a mess and I’m probably going to spill coffee on myself, but I never learn. One day I decided to wear a white tank top to work because it was really hot and I was going to be outside the whole time. Everything was going perfectly fine, until a kid threw some mud at me. That's when everything went downhill. Later on, a girl with a neon green sharpie decided to draw a line down the back of my shirt. By the end of the day, my shirt was no longer white, but instead a weird dingy brown.
2. Don’t take yourself too seriously:
When I first started working in after school, I wanted all of the kids to like me but also listen to me, so I would never raise my voice and would rarely discipline them at all. That all stopped very quickly when nobody ever listened to me, so I had to learn how to be stern with them. After all, they were kids and it was my job to keep them safe and not just be their friend. Once I got over that and found a good balance, my job got a lot easier. There would still be some days where a kid would make a sly comment like, “Are you having a baby? You look different” or “Don’t wear that outfit, it’s gross," but you just learn to laugh and move on.
3. Kids will always want to play on your phone:
I was seriously against letting kids play on my phone when I first started working because I thought they needed to go run around play and I also didn’t want them to somehow ruin my phone, but kids are persistent. I went out of my way to make sure I never have my phone out because I knew if it was out a kid would ask to play on it. I eventually ended up downloading about 20 games.These ranged from Temple Run to Dumb Ways to Die. I still tried to keep them away from my phone, but by the end of the day, I usually ended up giving in.
4. Kids will try to trick you into anything just to see if they can:
You can’t be gullible when you’re working with kids. I’m a pretty trusting person and I would assume a child would have no reason to lie to me, but that just wasn’t true. Kids would lie all the time saying they were going to the bathroom or to get water but then not come back until 20 minutes later because they got lost in the school. I had a girl try to convince me that she spoke a different language, so she sat there and made up new words for every word I asked her in English. It was extremely impressive and she was consistent, but there was no way it was true. The same girl also spent all year convincing me another one of the students was her sister.
5. Kids teach you communication skills:
Trying to talk to kids is nothing like trying to talk to adults. They take everything extremely seriously and their emotions are much more sensitive. I would sit there and help them with their homework and I had to be patient and not get frustrated because there were definitely times where I wanted them to finish their homework more than they wanted it to be finished themselves. It was hard not to just tell them all of the answers at first. There would also be times where I’d deal with three crying kids at once and I’d have to listen to all of their stories and find solutions for them all. I also had to be sensitive and not just laugh when they said they needed a Band-aid for a scratch smaller than a paper cut. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard something like “I have rocks in my ear and can’t get them out” and I’d have to reason with them why that wasn’t possible.
