Current Events > I like kids

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've worked with kids for the past 4 years and I love it. Every day is slightly different. When it's fun, it's really fun in the purest sense. You get into really fun and whacky scenarios. It's very rewarding to hear your name cheered when you enter the room. When it's stressful, it teaches me something. I feel like it's made me a better person overall, to others and to myself. It's rewarding to share my years of experience of life to help solve their problems. Sometimes it's like an emotional time capsule of remembering what it was like to feel what they feel but also be aware as me in the current day. One kid had a PS1 and SNES mini so we got to bond over random games like Megaman X and I told him how to get the Hadoken.

It also helps that I'm social and playful and goofy af so I get to let that side of me out more.

I have worked summer camp and summer camp is a little too much. School and afterschool is nice but summer days feel incredibly long and hot, the energy levels are super high cause they're out of school, etc and there's no down time. Basically it's just very draining.

I've technically worked with kids from every grade from K-12. I have the least experience with middle school. I think I work best with grades 3, 4, 10, and 12.

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Middle school was the worst

Saw about 3 grown ass adults cry

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armandro posted...

Middle school was the worst

Saw about 3 grown ass adults cry

Middle schoolers can be rough. They're good at recognizing your insecurities and doubling down on them. You have to remember that they're just mini adults testing/prying at you and they're learning the concept of sarcasm, so you sometimes have to throw it back at them, sometimes accept it and roll with it, but yeah I don't blame any middle school teacher for being overwhelmed lol, that can be a very rough demographic.

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Master Kazuya posted...

Middle schoolers can be rough. They're good at recognizing your insecurities and doubling down on them. You have to remember that they're just mini adults testing/prying at you and they're learning the concept of sarcasm, so you sometimes have to throw it back at them, sometimes accept it and roll with it, but yeah I don't blame any middle school teacher for being overwhelmed lol, that can be a very rough demographic.

Yeah, that's true it really amazed me as a kid how we acted so different with strong teachers.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeOpSYD2iv4

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More power to ya, mate.

Personally, given the choice between spending any amount of time with a group of children and taking a rusty whaling harpoon to the face, I'm going to draw a target on my forehead.

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armandro posted...

Middle school was the worst

Saw about 3 grown ass adults cry

i saw my first year spanish teacher driven to tears multiple times in highschool. she had no control over the class and she got read the riot act in front of the class by the language department head because she kept sending the worst offenders to ISS. she ended up quitting because of that about a month before the year ended, and the department head bitch ended up filling the role. it was great, because while the majority of the class were monsters to the previous teacher, everyone hated the department head so that class actually got worse...

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Have worked elementary and kindergarten as an after school teacher, great fun absolutely

Nothing made me feel more proud of myself than some little kid saying Mr. _________! Mr. _________!


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I dont know how to interact with kids. Only kids I will even talk to are my niece and nephew

Mistere Man posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeOpSYD2iv4

Lol if only you knew what we say about them in the staff room...all lovingly ofc

monkmith posted...

she had no control over the class

There's a sliding scale to dealing with kids. On one end, you have the nice and loving teacher who cannot put their foot down since it goes against their nature, and on the other end, you have the rigid, strict, authoritarian teachers that nobody likes but can command respect. Being a good teacher is realizing where you are and working towards getting to the middle of that scale. Sometimes you gotta drop your guard and realize that this is a moment to connect and not gain control, sometimes you gotta realize that you're the authority figure to them and act like it. She likely could not deal with them directly and instead found indirect ways to relieve that tension. Unfortunate all around.

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RedJackson posted...

Have worked elementary and kindergarten as an after school teacher, great fun absolutely

Nothing made me feel more proud of myself than some little kid saying Mr. _________! Mr. _________!

Yeah, it's nice when someone likes that you do your job instead of just expecting you to do it.

Zikten posted...

I dont know how to interact with kids. Only kids I will even talk to are my niece and nephew

Remember what it was like when you were a kid interacting with adults and remember what the cool ones did. They treated you with respect and tried to relate with you. They're just tiny people that like good vibes, being silly, and feeling special for who they are. Pretty much like anyone I guess.

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Should've worded the topic title a little less creepy. Ijs
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CosmicShadows posted...

Should've worded the topic title a little less creepy. Ijs

intentional clickbait to shatter your expectations

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Master Kazuya posted...

There's a sliding scale to dealing with kids. On one end, you have the nice and loving teacher who cannot put their foot down since it goes against their nature, and on the other end, you have the rigid, strict, authoritarian teachers that nobody likes but can command respect. Being a good teacher is realizing where you are and working towards getting to the middle of that scale. Sometimes you gotta drop your guard and realize that this is a moment to connect and not gain control, sometimes you gotta realize that you're the authority figure to them and act like it. She likely could not deal with them directly and instead found indirect ways to relieve that tension. Unfortunate all around.

i'm pretty sure you've never seen an uncontrollable class in a shit school...

let me set up the scenario. first year spanish was essentially a dumping ground for students that didn't want to be there, so a solid 1/3 (class size was 35 to 40...) of the students were pretty much forced to take the class and many of them were repeating.

so in comes a new teacher (i found out in later grades that the turnover for spanish one teachers was really high), she's friendly and well educated and spent a solid decade living in spain; so she knew the language and knew how to make the class interesting. from the beginning she has issues, language classes aren't easy and many of the students dont give a fuck; many refuse to stop talking during class, they drown out her lecture and make it impossible for others to learn.

she tries to handle the situation multiple ways, friendly requests/demands for quiet/points off/and eventually detentions. none of them worked, they didn't care about their grades and refused to show up for detentions. a few realized she had no power over them and began getting worse, yelling in class/fighting with each other/throwing shit. eventually the worst one got tired of her reprimanding and openly threatened her, he was ~18 and stood a foot taller then her at least...

she hit the panic button (remember i said shit school), he was pulled out of class, and she tried to have him expelled. but there was pretty much a block on expulsions, so he was back within a week and that emboldened the other offenders in the class. so she started sending the worst ones to in school suspension, which actually worked for a time and was the primary reason i was able to pass the damn class. and then the language department head literally burst into the class one day and started yelling at her for "abusing the ISS system", point blank told her that she wasn't allowed to send students there anymore...

so tell me, what do you do in that situation? do you try the "stand and deliver" approach?

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I don't mind kids, they're just tiny people who haven't experienced the world all that much yet. Like a grand majority of them aren't the little monsters that the internet would like you to believe lol

Then again, I don't remember the last time I talked to a little kid who wasn't family >_>

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monkmith posted...

so tell me, what do you do in that situation? do you try the "stand and deliver" approach?

You're right; I've never first-hand witnessed an uncontrollable class in a shit school. I have no idea. That's one scary part about working with kids is that at the end of the day, you actually have no power over them. I've had other coworkers who's jobs have been in jeopardy because a kid decided to use "I'll tell my mom that you hit me" as their leverage. I didn't mean to come off as I'm better than this Spanish teacher. I don't have the passion to work in shitty inner city schools like some people do; I have a huge respect for those people. Like I said, just seem unfortunate all around.

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CosmicShadows posted...

Should've worded the topic title a little less creepy. Ijs

Liking and being good with kids is actually a respected and positive value to normal well-adjusted people. If someone's first thought is down the creepiness route that says a lot more about them and the environment they're likely in.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s-lQHuPUPWc&t=8s

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PBusted posted...

Liking and being good with kids is actually a respected and positive value to normal well-adjusted people. If someone's first thought is down the creepiness route that says a lot more about them and the environment they're likely in.

hey, so have you seen the quality of posters/topics here?

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monkmith posted...

hey, so have you seen the quality of posters/topics here?

That's literally my point lol.