Summit Drive Sunday School
Before I started working at Summit Drive Church, and in between my summer internships, I taught Sunday school on a regular basis. I have been involved in volunteering in Sunday school at every church I have attended since I was 12. My little sister is the main reason I started volunteering in Sunday school because she wouldn’t go to Sunday school unless I went with her. Being in Sunday school every week with her, increased my desire to become a teacher. When volunteering as a teacher for Sunday school, specifically at Summit Drive church, involves teaching a lesson, a bit of classroom management, and leading the kids in a craft that goes with the lesson. This has given me some hands-on experience teaching groups of children in different age groups.
Grade 6/7 at the arts school
I sporadically volunteered in a Grade 6/7 classroom at the Kamloops School of Arts and it was a very interesting experience. Teaching intermediate never appealed to me but after spending time in this classroom I felt like I could teach this grade and it gave me some more confidence in teaching in general. At the arts school they spend more time focusing on the arts, but it is very interesting how they do that. One unit I got to watch was very interesting because the class read a book and then they took that book and made it into a song and learned about to play all the different instruments in the music room. After that, we made a movement project, so they had to come up with a movement for each part of the story/song. It was very cool to see how this book went into so many things surrounding the arts. You wouldn’t be able to see something like that in any public school. This was a cool experience to volunteer in a grade I was unsure of, and in an alternative school, it definitely expanded my knowledge about schools and what grades I wanted to teach.
Kindergarten at the Christian school
I have always enjoyed younger children, but I always said that I would never teacher kindergarten because they are too little. I got the opportunity to volunteer in a Kindergarten class for a couple weeks the year before I got accepted into the Education program and I completely fell in love with the age group. They are so excited to see their teacher every day and they learn a lot in one year. They learn all the educational pieces from the curriculum, but they learn a lot of be socialization and routines in Kindergarten. I fell in love with Kindergarten because they have so much fun while learning and they are excited to learn. You see that in other grades, but I think Kindergarten is its only space and I think it would be amazing to play a part in the early years of a child’s education and it encourages me to be a better teacher. At the Christian school they have a different way of teaching just like at the arts school. It was interesting to be able to see how they integrate Christianity into the day. This experience opened my eyes to a different age group for teaching as well as a school outside the public schools.