In January 2016, I started working for the district of Abbotsford as a recreational coordinator and leader. This job was such an awarding job, yet it had its challenges. I worked with children between the ages of 0-12. Through this job I got to create lesson plans for the classes I instructed. I was a leader in hockey, basketball, gymnastics, tiny tutus, soccer, and badminton. I taught children how to play these sports and guided them through warm-up activities during every shift. I got to build great relationships with the children I taught, and I also helped these children become comfortable with leaving their parents in the stands while they listened to my instruction. These were the moments where I felt awarded, as these children started to feel comfortable around me, as they did not need to have their parents right beside them for the hour that I had them. The challenging moments were when I had children who would misbehave, distract other students, or would talk while giving instruction. However, by being assertive, and letting the children know the consequences of their behaviours, they quickly realized that its best to pay attention and to be respectful while I was giving instruction.
Since I want to be a teacher, this job was a great learning opportunity for me to develop on the spot thinking if things did not go as planned. Considering that these instructed programs had children between the ages of two to twelve, it was important that I constantly keep a vibrant and outgoing personality while teaching. With this age group, parent participation was also heavily involved, so I had to balance the children’s needs as well are their parent’s wants/needs for their children. The parents would sometimes ask for specific requests for their children in terms of what they would like for me to focus on so that their child could build their skill level in a particular area. Ex., having a mother wanting to work on their daughter’s balance while I already have a lesson planned out for the entire tumbling class that required more skills than just balancing. This is when I really learned about adaptability, and that there are going to be many situations that arise that require me to be adaptive when being a teacher. This job position also required good listening and social skills as I had to do my best to achieve all the requests that the parents had/have for their child. Being a recreational coordinator and leader requires a lot of challenging yet rewarding outcomes. Having strong leadership and interpersonal skills is exactly what I need to maintain when demonstrating and teaching these programs that the district provides for the community. I am super blessed and privileged to have come across such a wonderful job where I was able to teach the future generation different skill sets. I can confidently say that through these adaptions, challenges, and achievements that I gained from this job title. I will take everything I learned to better myself in becoming the best teacher I possibly can be.