It was absolutely delightful to create a lesson plan again. I used to do this all the time for my church jobs, and even a little bit for my music teaching job, but I haven't done anything like it for over a year. One of my favorite things to do is read a million different lessons online and then write my own based on everything I read. I've always enjoyed writing instructions and step-by-step plans and trying to make them easy to understand and follow. I also really like finding ways to teach kids lessons without lecturing them, so they learn the desired lesson by discovery and experience, called "experiential learning", which I studied a lot at Northwestern and Harvard. I am excited about the possibility of being a camp counselor and designing (and implementing) lesson plans again. (During training week, all the counselors design the lessons for the entire summer.)
During this exercise, I was reminded of all the delightful times I had writing lessons and teaching, and especially for the biannual week-long children's day camps I used to lead at my church (Vacation Bible School or VBS). I love the idea of being able to do this again, but in a non-religious environment. For VBS, I tried to teach lessons about love, kindness, sharing, giving, cooperation, being a good person, etc through bible stories, but for this camp, I would be able to teach these same lessons through the lens of nature, science, literature, art, etc, which really feels more authentic to me. I feel like I only ever taught through the lens of the bible because I had to. It will be nice to be released from that restriction and have so many more possible inspirations for lessons. Even if I don't get this particular job, I am definitely inspired to use this skill and desire for something in my future.
With delight,
♥Jamie
No comments:
Post a Comment