Summit Drive Church
I have worked at Summit Drive Church for the last 5 years. The first 3 years I just worked as a summer intern in the Children’s Ministry and then for the last 2 years I have been working as the Assistant to the Director of Children and Family Ministries. My job involves a lot of things in a regular week. I sit in staff meetings quite a bit during the week, I am also in charge of all the volunteers that help our programs run. One of the bigger parts of my job is to put together lesson plans for Sunday school. I teach Sunday school as well, but I’m more of an overseer on Sunday mornings. Another big part of my job that I think has played an important role in preparing me to be a teacher, is running and organizing our Vacation Bible School that happens every summer and we have 180 children participate every year. This task can be quite overwhelming as it deals with the registration of kids and putting everyone into groups and working with a lot of volunteers to make an event like this happen. The leadership roles I have in this job have really been helping me develop as a person and prepare as I anticipate being a teacher.
Support Worker for a child with disabilities
The last couple of year I have been a support worker for a child with Disabilities. She is 14 years old and has mild cerebral palsy, FASD, and severe anxiety. Once a week, she goes to swimming with the Special Olympics program in Kamloops. I go with her and help her with her self-regulation and coping skills while she is learning and practicing how to swim. I also take her on the weekends and sometimes during the week, to give her mom a break. I’ll take her with me grocery shopping sometimes and we walk through the process of grocery shopping. We will sometimes go out and do activities, such as the wildlife park. We work on social skills when we go out in public and any other skills she is working on. This job has played a role in why I want to be a teacher as well as preparing me to be a teacher. Working with children with disabilities is much different than working with children who do not have disabilities. It challenges you to be a couple steps ahead of whatever is happening, so you are prepared for any outcome and situation.
Trampoline and Tumbling Coach
This was the first job I had that put me in a teaching role. I was a competitive gymnast in Trampoline in Tumbling throughout junior high and high school and in my last couple years of high school I took on a coaching job with the little kids. I loved this job because not only did I get to spend more time doing the sport I loved but also teacher children how to do it. As fun as this job was, there was a lot of safety involved, which you more aware of your surroundings and better at paying attention to the children you are in charge of. I think this job prepared me to be a teacher because it helped me establish my sense of awareness in a particular way.