In a career where I find myself constantly surrounded by small girls taking dance it is always heartening to have a boy in my class.  This particular boy is a complete sweetheart.  I was away from my campers while they had snack so I could set up the gym for an obstacle course.  He peeked his head into the room and said in a genuinely breathless voice, “OH! Teacher Mara we thought you were a PRINCESS.”  It just about broke my heart.  Sometimes you need that sort of recognition.  The same student kissed my shoulder while we sat in our final closing circle.

I find that without a second teacher teaching a two hour camp with 8 students by myself is difficult.  It is largely due to the 3 year olds, I think.  Their focus is all over the place, whether it’s with specific games with rules or sitting down and reading a story.  I also had three sisters in my last camp (a set of twins and a smaller sibling) who had very little schooling.  I could tell this by the way they constantly interrupted me while I spoke–it might seem like a small thing but kids that have been to school sort of understand the teacher/student dynamic: you don’t interrupt the teacher.  I try to be pretty militant about raised hands being the key to communication.  There is no shouting out in my class: you got something to say you raise your hand.  That’s pretty standard, right?

I am also facing a big decision: should I teach only.  I say this because right now I am program coordinator and pretty miserable.  I don’t have much support for this position.  Outside field work? No time.  Personal calls to parents? No time.  Outreach in nearby pre-schools? When would I ever have that sort of time.  I feel as if I’ve been set up to fail.  Therefore, I haven’t felt successful in my job since I’ve started.  I have turned down multiple teaching jobs in order to fully commit to my 30 hr coordinator job.  I have one foot in the door of another local studio and I taught at another studio in Burien over the summer that begged me to reconsider teaching for them in the fall.  I’m interviewing at a children’s theater in Kirkland this afternoon.  What would you do? Continue trying to make this resume-building position work? Or try to survive off the teaching jobs that keep resurfacing and leave the complicated corporate world…