One of my favorite things this week was getting to experience all of the different classes. I love teaching my own class because I get to see all the kids instead of just one group, but I'm thankful that I had this opportunity to observe all the different classes being taught. Since they are younger, my boys had some trouble staying focused and paying attention during all the classes that we went to. But for the most part, they amazed me with how smart and eager to learn each and every child was. The best part of the day was just getting to hold and love on them and how happy and joyful they were to have me there.
The first bump in the road came Tuesday morning, when Emily was too sick to leave her bed. Along with another girl who's here for the summer, she ended up having to stay in bed for two days, which left me alone with my 3o crazy children. It was stressful to say the least. Luckily, I think that white group has some of the best junior counselors around. Peterson and Telus make my job so easy. In the morning, while handing out name tags, Peterson stayed with me the whole time and made sure every kid was matched with the right name - something that may not have happened if I'd been on my own! Both of them are so good with the kids, and the kids love them.
But my second bump came when Tomy Lee, a junior counselor from last year, finally showed up to camp in the fourth week. He got placed with my group and from the second he came, all he did was cause trouble. I remembered him as being sweet and helpful, but this year he was anything but. In fact, after one day with him in my group, I had to talk to Andrew, who gave him several chances before eventually having to ask him to leave camp. That was disappointing because we try so hard to touch the loves of all the children who come here, whether they're campers or junior counselors, but no matter how hard we try, they have to be responsive or else it doesn't matter.
After Tomy Lee was asked to leave, my week improved significantly. Emily got better and came back, and I got to refocus on just loving my kids. They are completely rambunctious, but as soon as you give them something to do, whether it's a craft or tinker toys or coloring, they're completely absorbed and so determined. Seeing how much English they learned in class, and how excited they were to watch Planet Earth in science, it was all the little things that made me realize how blessed and lucky I am to have these children in my life. Also, my 4-6 year old boys sang Justin Bieber to me at least 3 times, which was one of the best things I've experienced since being here.
And while I absolutely loved every second I got to spend with my boys, this week also reminded me of how much I love what I do every single day - that I see all of my kids every single day and play with them and just have fun with them. I also selfishly was happy when all my kids and Emmanuel asked when I'd be back and told me they missed me. My yellow girls, who I sit with at assemblies and eat lunch with when I'm teaching, were so angry at me because they thought I didn't want to be with them anymore. Every time I walked by them, they told me I should just go back to white group. And then Emmanuel thought it would be funny to tell them I was never coming back instead of saying that I would be back next week!
It was a great week of loving on kids, but I was excited to go back to teaching and working with Emmanuel and Jeff and being able to finish camp the way I started. This was a nice break and it was good for me to see how other teachers run their classes, but there's nothing I'd rather do than play with kids all day.
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