Personal Narrative Essay: Working With Children

Work with children Throughout my high school and college years, I have had several experiences with children that have all played a part in shaping my love for working with children. During high school, I spent two summers nannying for two young school aged children. Working with these siblings really made me realize how much fun I have working with children and watching them grow. Once I came to college, I started another babysitting job working with two four year old twin girls. This job really taught me about the importance of children having a routine to follow as well as the impact teachers can have on a child’s life. After my first year in college, I realized that I wanted to gain more experience with children of all ages. Shortly after,

Most of my field work has been in The Akron Public School District which has allowed me to gain a lot of experience with urban youth students in the Akron area. I have been placed into preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, and high school classrooms which has allowed me to be given a wide variety of experiences with teachers and students. During my placement in the preschool classroom, I was able to learn about the importance of including lessons that enrich each area of a child’s development. While working with the Kindergarten students, I was able to observe a classroom that was run based on centers and small group instruction. I enjoyed working with the students in this classroom as many of the centers were game based which established a fun way for the students to learn. While in the first grade classroom, I was able to form a great relationship with my mentor teacher that allowed me to be very hands on with the students throughout the semester. Among many things, I learned how to run an educational circle and calendar time, worked with small groups of students to improve reading, provided practice spelling tests to students, assisted students in developing their writing abilities, and implemented the class’s behavior management plan. While I worked with the fifth grade