Cooking Classes for Young Children
Description:
When I was 16 years old, my friends and I decided to start a cooking class for young kids in our neighborhood. I realized how much little kids love to bake and cook yummy things so I thought it would be a great idea. We charged $20 per kid for the kids to come over to my house for two hours and bake either a treat or snack of some sort. Then while the treats were baking, we would play games or play nintendo which seemed to be the kids' favorite part. We did our cooking class every two weeks for an entire summer and we always had a great turn-out of 12 kids or more.
How I got the idea / found the employment:
My mom was actually the one who thought of the idea. She thought it would be a great opportunity for parents to drop their kids off for a couple hours and have them participate in a fun activity where they are able to learn useful cooking skills.
Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:
Challenges included deciding what the kids would actually enjoy to bake as well as buying all the ingredients for it. Also, it's not easy to watch over a large amount of kids at once. We overcame the challenge of not knowing what to make by asking the kids themselves what they wanted to bake for next time each time they came over. Also, since there was myself as well as two of my friends doing it, we were able to keep tabs on the kids at all times.
What I learned:
I learned that making money can be something you actually enjoy, while entertaining others at the same time. Making money doesn't always require an extravagant idea--it can be something very simple and easy.
Day Camp Counselor
Description:
This job provides experience in both working with children and in recreation. Three days a week, you teach a class in a subject that you specialize in such as art, archery, soccer, jewelry making, scrapbooking, basketball, etc.
The other two days of the week you work with the entirety of the staff and children (everyone from all the classes), to have a themed day full of activities and fun. For example, one day might be food day. During this day, you will take your assigned group to various rotations such as pudding wrestling, cookie decorating, or other food-related activities.
On the days of the week when you teach class, you are responsible for coming up with your own lesson plans and executing them in an effective manner. On the other days, you are responsible for overseeing the children in your group, making sure all are happy and participating where they should be.
How I got the idea / found the employment:
I came across this job by way of my high school art teacher. He knew that I wanted to be involved in a job that allowed me to express my creativity, and recommended me to the woman in charge. This was the perfect job for me, as I wanted to become an elementary school teacher, and it offered me opportunities to practice my teaching skills and my people skills.
While my employment was run through the city's recreation program, I think it would be entirely possible to start up your very own similar program.
Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:
One major challenge I faced was having to come up with three weeks worth of lesson plans for the classes I taught. In order to overcome this challenge, I sought out the advice of my parents, coworkers, and former teachers. Once I had a significant database to draw from, I had no problem at all coming up with creative things to teach.
Another challenge that I faced was keeping the kids motivated. Some children were present, only because their parents had dumped them off as a sort of babysitting business. In order to overcome this, I began to treat each child as if he wanted to be there. I showed my enthusiasm, and eventually, even the least motivated child began to enjoy the experience.
What I learned:
I took many, many things away from this job. I gained a lot of skills that I still use today. For example, I taught elementary school last year, and not only did I use the teaching skills that I'd acquired, I also was able to reuse some of my previous lesson plans and ideas
In addition to helping me while I taught, this job actually helped me land my real teaching job. It looked fabulous on a resume, and not only elementary schools have liked to see it, but I also just got an interview to be an event planner at Zion National Park, thanks to this job being on my resume.
I also learned a lot about how to be quick on my feet. Sometimes, you will find, that your lesson or activity goes by much faster than you�d planned, and you have a lot of time left over. When this happens, you have to be able to come up with creative, entertaining ways to fill the time. This is a skill that I have used not only in teaching, but at church, with my friends, and in other jobs that I've had.
Another thing that you learn from the job is great people skills. You are constantly in contact with others. I learned to work well with my fellow employees, my supervisor (which eventually I became), parents, and the students. I cannot tell you how glad I am that I had the opportunity to practice these skills, because they have become vital to me in my later life.
SCORE! Educational Center
Description:
With this Job I would go help children with math, reading, and writing problems. So they would come and do a program that was fitted to them, and I was in charge of supervising, taking notes on, and helping to motivate them. It was very good for me because I’m thinking of going into psychology and it helped me to see a little bit more of how kids are, and how I can help them. Also it helped me to be more responsible, in that the children were under my supervision. It also gave a great feeling of making a difference in a child’s life. I feel like many of the children looked up to me, and I felt an even stronger desire to be a good role model.
How I got the idea / found the employment:
I was looking for a part time job, and some of my LDS friends worked there and said that there were openings. I already knew that I liked kids, since I’d babysat a lot.
Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:
The biggest difficulty was getting some of the children to be motivated, a lot of times they just didn’t want to do the work. I usually did this by just trying to make them laugh, and by using positive reinforcement.
What I learned:
I learned how to deal with unmotivated people. A lot of the kids didn’t want to do things, just like a lot of workers won’t. I was able to discover that I am good at motivating people to do things. I also learned responsibility toward the customer. We would have to talk with the parents sometimes about how their child was doing, and take notes on what they were doing the whole time.
Tutoring/Mentoring
Description:
Every day after my classes in high school I would go to the middle school that I attended and tutored/mentored the students that needed help in their subjects or with life. Spending a couple hours with the students and giving them someone for them to look up to.
How I got the idea / found the employment:
My sister participated in it during the previous year and she introduced the program to me my sophomore year.
Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:
Your normal middle school student isn’t very mature, which is to be expected. I learned to be patient with them and remember that I was like that once too. There were at times that they had problems that I didn’t know the answer to. I would sit down and learn with them, side-by-side.
What I learned:
I learned how to better communicate with people. I also learned to be patient with people as well. Both of these have helped me in my career today. Working with people, these are both very important skills to have.