The Summer Camp Classroom

Teaching, like anything else worth doing, requires a great deal of time and dedication, and not to mention, your own personal style. There are lots to choose from, which leaves you with the rather difficult decision of which suits you best. For example, theres the dictator, who lets no undotted i or uncrossed t go without a point deduction. And at the other end of the spectrum you have the Waldorf school style, where the teacher lets the class dictate what i's are dotted and what t's are crossed. I find myself somewhere in the middle. If I had to name it, it would be the camp counselor mentality, because no matter how much I try to pretend to be a teacher, I'll always be a camp counselor at heart. This leads to lots of games, lots of noise, a certain amount of discipline and respect, and no shortage of candy or fun.

The Summer Camp Classroom

Along with this style comes a certain shade of the "sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission" mentality. There are many days where, well, I'm just plain loud. The girls yell, chant, scream, and run in these absolutely ridiculous games that I come up with (aka find on ESL teaching sites) for them to play. And every now and then, there comes a knock on the door, or a look through the window, that, without saying anything, says "Shut the hell up you damn gringo I don't know how you are teaching these girls anything but please do it quieter."And that's when I have to ask the girls to quiet down and in turn, apologize to the teacher whose test I just totally interrupted.

Luckily, the teachers are very understanding and don't give me too much grief about the absurd amounts of noise my classes manage to produce, but they definitely do think I am just running a dance studio and summer camp out of my classroom. Which is totally fine by me.

My antics may be unorthodox, loud, silly, and annoying to anyone not in the class (and some in the class), but the girls have fun for the most part and are learning and practicing their English while doing it. And that to me is the best thing that I can give them, because we all know that they will probably never remember a single thing that I taught them, but they will remember the silly games, songs, and dances. And that they were all in English. And that English can be fun. And who knows, they might even remember the crazy gringo that taught them all to them.

Over the past few months I have really come to enjoy teaching and have put everything that I could into my classes and extracurricular activities. From class, to teaching line dancing, to performing in school talent shows (not by choice), to playing basketball during breaks, and taking countless selfies, these girls have given me back everything that I have put in to teaching and then some. Teaching is one of the greatest opportunities I have ever been given and it has given me a wealth of knowledge and experience that cannot be found in many other places.

(The Fake ID line dance in talent show I was "forced" to be in)
I like to call it leading by example.

So I guess what I'm trying to get at is this, my teaching style was one that was my own. It was me in a nutshell. And because it was my style, I didn't struggle with trying to develop it or balance it, and I could focus on my students. It allowed me to teach, and teach in a way let my inner enthusiasm and care for my students show. A wise man once told me, the students don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care, and I believe it was this that allowed me to lead ridiculous games and activities and have my students actually buy into them. They saw that I was genuinely excited to teach them all of the things that I did, and that made more of an impact than any meticulously planned or well thought out lesson ever did.