Personal Narrative: After School

My experience working with children is rather limited - part of the reason I am interested in working at Pine Forest is to develop my skills working with children. I recognize that it is a part of my character that I want to develop, and I cannot think of a better way to develop those skills than to work at a camp such as Pine Forest.

I love working with kids, I have my Elementary Teaching Certification for grades K-6 from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Similarly, from July to August 2014 I worked as a Teachers Aide at Ramapo Explorers: STEM CAMP, providing a positive and supportive classroom management system for middle school students. From March 2014 to August 2014 I worked at Golden Steps Learning Center where I was a Teachers Assistant. My responsibilities included: composing a lesson plan and assisting the teacher on their lesson. Then from June to August 2015 I was a Teachers Assistant at the Goddard School. I experienced solo class time and improvised in order to keep class running smoothly and stay on a tight schedule. Then from September-December 2015 I student

As you view my resume you will see that I possess a combination of education, training, and hands on experience that will be a great asset to your company. I have been working with children and their families for the past twenty seven years. I have worked in both fields of regular and special education. I have worked with children between the ages of infants to the age of twenty three years of age. I started working with children as a tutor when I was in high school. Then, when I had my last child in kindergarten I started working as a bilingual instructional assistant for Downey Unified School District. Within the same school district I was promoted to Senior Instructional Assistant Behavior Challenge. My responsibilities in this capacity were to assist Early Intervention

I was in 7th grade and didn't know everything was about to change. My mother wanted to get a job and this meant she wouldn't be able to be my teacher anymore. My parents decided, after three years of homeschooling to send me to public school. This was so it would be easier for my mother to get a job and not have to deal with being our teacher as well, because that would be too stressful. I didn't know very many people and wasn't used to being with large amounts of people for long periods of time. Eventually, I got settled in and started to make friends.

With the end of middle school in sight, I have done lots and lots of thinking. I have been thinking about how I got her . I don’t think I would be here today without my grandma. Now, that might seem funny, but it’s true. She was there for me. Whether it was when we were together, or calling me to make sure I was okay after I had a hard day. Unlike some of the people around me she saw me as a kid who just made a mistake when I got suspended. While others saw me as a kid who was only going to fail. She made me feel better about myself during the times that I really didn’t. My middle school teachers also helped me through middle school Mr. Genco taught me that school was a fun place to be at. He taught me that it wasn’t stupid rather an enjoyable

Westfield Child Center was a day care in my home town primarily for children ages two years old through elementary school. The younger children who attended the daycare remained there all day. The children in elementary school went to the after school care center. Various diverse children all ranging in divergent personality types were all throughout Westfield. The staff was diverse as well. They inhabited similar characteristics as one

Week One: This week was an interesting week. I was at my church working and it was about that time for our yearly fire inspection coming up soon. So we were getting all of our building fire alarms panels renewed, and we had this one young guy name Adam Shabli from Cintas who came to look at our building. As the conversation continues we started just to talk about life and he asked me and the campus pastor if we were the pastors here at church. We replied saying yes and he had a shocked look. He said that we dress to fresh that he would of never knew. It was funny to us, and he started asking questions about Christianity. He grew up in a Jewish home, his parents are from Israel. He was shocked when we told him that we read the old testament.

During my three-month time volunteering, I supervised and acted as a role model for children in grades K-4, planned group activities for them, and resolved conflicts between students. I returned to Key Kids in February of 2018 to complete a project for my Child Welfare class, and being able to come back has allowed me to rediscover my love of working with children. After volunteering with Key Kids, my next position was as a summer dietary aide at Valleyview Assisted Living in Northfield, MN. I was at this job for three months, but was invited to return when I’m on breaks from school. While I was there, I made outstanding connections with residents who I truly enjoyed seeing.

"Things end, but memories last forever." My weekend was sure to prove that. Even though the seniors of 2016 are in readiness to graduate we will most definitely miss these times consumed together. On top of my roof, we sat chattering about what we are going to do after senior year. We discussed about how May 21, 2016, would arrive way before we wanted it to come upon us; once that day comes, we will realize only then that we might never see everyone out of our class again. As we all were articulating about how college will be contrary, how we will study so much more, and how tough it really might be; we promised to never drift apart from the best friends that we are. Finally, two a.m. crept up on us, and we knew it was time to get some

In December 2006, I joined Peninsula Family Service Agency as one of their site directors for their Plaza Child Development program in Redwood City. When I joined, Plaza was one of the worst programs at the verge of collapsing. As a way to save this program, Peninsula Family Service applied for Preschool for All funding through San Mateo County Office of Education. One of the requirements for this particular funding was for programs to receive score of 5 or above in ECERS. I was given the job with the stipulation that I may not have a job if the program did not meet the requirements in less than a month. With my leadership and experience in early childhood education, Peninsula Family Service opened the center on time, within budget and received one of the highest quality rating for any Preschool for All Program in the county.

As the hallways emptied, the three girls gathered into Desiree’s blue saturn car. Ironically, though her car was beat up, she had managed to dress in only the best and most expensive clothes items. Many were skeptical of her work ethics, and the fact that her bag cost more than her car, but her friends were not. She had always been brutally honest so her friends never questioned why she would never wear the same outfit twice.

Any previous experiences that I had working with children came from volunteering through Key Club in high school, the Extended Day Enrichment Program at J. J. Finley, and ReadingPals at United Way of North Central Florida. Some activities that I engaged in while volunteering includes designing and monitoring student activities; helping students with their homework or crafts; reading, re-reading, and discussing familiar books; and writing activities. Other experiences that I had came from babysitting for families and friends and interacting with the children in the Hmong community. These experiences consisted more of conversations and modeling social norms at events within the Hmong community.

I have had several experiences working with children, most of them volunteering. I have helped 2nd graders practice reading, 7th graders write research papers, and 12th graders with auto-ethnographies. I also spent time tutoring in the Muncie community, the center received a variety of students in middle and high school that needed help in all kinds of subjects from English, to Math, to science.

I expected the work to be challenging and I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t know what types of families the children would be coming from. I was also fearful of offending any of the children or parents, and wanted to make sure that I was respectful and understanding of the situation I was being placed in. All of these emotions were occurring the morning that I went for my first day of volunteering; however, as soon as I met the fifteen beautiful children, my fears turned into excitement to get to know each and every one of them.

I grew up loving children of all ages and wanting to be a caregiver. I was the baby sitter and nanny to the neighborhood and my church ward. When I was in High School’s it was no surprise to anyone that I chose to work in the school’s child care center. I continued working with children at several child care centers until I went to school.