Elementary Camp: Day 5 and Reflection by "Misses Craft Lady"

Well that time has come again.. the time where we say goodbye to another group of campers. Elementary Camp has been a journey through my levels of patience, my skills in planning and organization, and my rapport with young kids. I said one too many times that I am DEFINITELY a secondary teacher, but I knew if I pushed past that I could get through to the kids. I had to learn to work with another age group which I had previously not worked with very much. I found myself speaking differently to these kids than how I had spoken to other camps and having my patience tried much more often. The attention span of the campers was sometimes completely absent and I was repeating myself more but failing to check for understanding... so the kids were becoming confused.. which led to distractions.. which led to not a lot getting done!! Teacher fail... all very discouraging. The kids would become frustrated when I didn't help them IMMEDIATELY and I would become frustrated that there wasn't more than one craft lady.

I had big plans for this group but I ended up changing most of them and doing what was easy and simple for the kids to work on all week or for several days in a row. Those activities included weaving, gimp bracelets, drawing, shrinky dinks, bead animals, macrame, pipe cleaner play, marionettes.....

Okay, so maybe we did a lot. But I don't feel like I was at my best! Some of the campers reassured me today that my perceived 'crabby days' were not a problem at all, and the older kids explained that they just wanted to keep up with me. So does that mean I move too fast? It opened up a new line of questions and I am still pondering them now... every group had different things to say, and the ones that didn't were either working or busy socializing.

The thing I kept reminding myself this week was that things will be DIFFERENT when I am in a classroom of my own/student teaching. I will hold the reins and have to establish good rapport and PROCEDURES early on to help the kids understand my place as their teacher. My classroom persona will be different, basically.. but I will still hold the place of crazy arts and crafts lady! I hope that my classroom will be the same as Rockland is for the majority of the campers I have worked with; a place of free expression and creative ideas with many solutions to the same 'problems'. 

I have been very impressed with the work the campers have produced this summer and I have learned a lot.. In the past few days, I have worked hard to organize more and explain promptly with specific directions. I would stay after campers left and work in my free period to schedule the lessons/activities for the next day. Today I just abandoned demonstration and I worked alongside the campers, doing everything step-by-step like I did with the younger campers. This group of campers, and counselors, presented more challenges than I had foreseen, but I am grateful for the experience and the mishaps and foibles. That's the way I learn!! 

Each day presented new problems to solve, new questions to answer, new high-pitched voices to try and calm to a tolerable volume. That was my main issue: keeping the peace! I know I yelled a lot this week, but I never yelled AT campers. I was, unfortunately, doing something I do not like doing - yelling OVER the kids. I was overpowered by their numbers (I feel like I am talking about Tusken Raiders in Star Wars...okay, stop that.) and the sheer amount of noise and volume of their voices was impressive! I tried the 'hand goes up, mouths go closed' method and got very little success. A few times the counselors had to intervene to get the kids' attention, which was frustrating for me. That would be when my patience would start to wane.. and I could sense that right away. I think the kids could sense it too, which made me feel bad. We're all human; we all have our limits. When you're a teacher your limits need to be much, much higher, I think.

I am always thinking of how my situations in Rockland could apply in my future classroom or in an observation or student teaching situation.. I feel more prepared to take on:

1. More students in classrooms. I know in the UP and surrounding areas the class sizes are small, but if I end up student teaching and/or working in a larger populated area I will need to come up with some attention grabbers for LARGE groups. I hope to learn more about that in my classes or from observing other teachers at work. I kind of abandoned what I had learned or seen in favor of yelling over the kids. Scare tactics are not my style... I'm gonna stop doing that.

Flying dragons: My lesson plan :)

2. More complicated and involved lessons. I felt AMAZING about the way the dragons went with the youngest campers in the group. These girls were probably 1st-3rd graders and they were all over the place with their focus, but when it came down to it they really loved the project. They would listen for the next steps and come back from distractions ready to work. I feel bad that they each didn't get to make one, but we didn't have the time this week! I was really proud of them for listening and working with their counselors, myself, and EACH OTHER so well. 

I will be working to improve this lesson and organize it better for future use. I will need to do some research and come up with some more lesson plan ideas. I have always loved dragons and they would make an AWESOME unit plan and/or theme - Nerd alert-. Really, though. That was my 'baby' for the week and I got to make 3 with a bunch of kids I didn't think I could work with and maintain a level of sanity. It is still bringing a smile to my face, and to theirs! :) I have also received lots of warm thank yous and pats on the back for working with this group so well. I hope that the kids enjoyed this week and I know that a few of them are definitely taking new craft skills with them. Those little victory moments were when the campers were teaching each other what we were doing. Those little victory moments are HUGE, though.

Smile and say "Dragons"!

What I am going to take from this camp experience is that I need to spend more time working with younger kids (k-5). I would like to learn more about organizational skills and especially PLANNING. Thinking about translating some of my crafts from craft to fine arts is pretty intimidating, but with the right tools and planning I could definitely devise a lesson or even a unit plan around some of the projects! So that is always a light at the end of a week-long tunnel of loud campers haha. I would feel more confident with more time to plan and gather context for the lessons and projects.

On that note, it is getting late and we have to send the campers home tomorrow. I promised I would bring Cézanne to see them off if it was warm enough! Gotta get some beauty rest, I suppose.

All of my dragon-y love, 

Ms. K, "Mrs. Craft Lady"