How Camp Taught Me to Be a Teacher
From Camp Counselor to First Grade Teacher
By Erin Thatcher
Recently Anna Bilton approached me about writing this post for Camp Mason. She asked me to describe how working at camp helped to prepare me to be a teacher. I had spent the 2011 and 2012 summers at Camp Mason working as a counselor as well as serving as the Apache Village Leader during the summer 2013 summer. This past summer was the first summer in three years I spent away from Mason. Although it was heartbreaking to do so, leaving Mason allowed me to move on to another exciting phase in my life: teaching first grade!
As I reflected on how working at camp prepared me to become a teacher I immediately thought of several things:
Being a camp counselor taught me that kids are hard, and being with them 24/7 is harder. Bed-wetters prepared me for the kids who pooped in their pants during recess. Camp taught me an endless supply of songs and games for when we get snowed in and have indoor recess, or just when my students need to get their wiggles out. It taught me what the best kind of insoles for your shoes are, and that although your feet may be killing you now, you will eventually build up your stamina from being on your feet all day everyday.
Camp taught me that your voice may be gone today but it too will one day stand the test of talking and singing all day. It taught me that even though you may be having the worst day in the world, if you can put a smile on your face it will make all the difference to the kids. I learned that we are severely underpaid and that trying to factor in all the outside hours of work to figure out how much you make an hour isn’t worth it; the kids that you are doing it for however are worth it. Camp taught me that nothing will compare to the pride of tying on your first camper-made bracelet of the summer except for the receiving your first scribbly drawing or handwritten letter from a student.
Although camp taught me all of these superficial things and how to endure the physical demands of teaching, it also taught me the deeper things. It taught me that the kids are always on your mind. Even when I was on a night off at camp they were on my mind, and when I come home from work now it is the same. I can’t stop thinking about them and hoping that they are safe and doing well. Camp taught me that although not everyone may see it at first, every child has an irreplaceable and endearing side to them. I learned that if you can work to uncover that quality, it makes everything worth it. In some children that quality may be immediately apparent, but in others it may take some work to find. Camp taught me that there is no such thing as a “bad kid”, but that some kids just might need some extra love in their life. I definitely was not thrilled to get woken up every night to a homesick camper, nor am I thrilled when I come in on my day off to spend hours prepping for next week’s lessons. But if camp taught me one thing about being a teacher, it would be that it’s all about the kids, and the kids are worth it.
