For the past five years, I’ve been spending my summer’s working at a summer camp. I got this gig from a close friend who used to work at this camp. It was interesting starting this work the summer after Ollie was born. I didn’t really get a chance to end the school year with paternity leaving with a feeling of a lack of closure. The summer camp was a great way to keep help me work on my teaching and have time with my baby.
For this camp, I wasn’t a counselor, I taught a music exploration class. This was an interesting thing to do, that I had never done before. It wasn’t teaching a class because I wasn’t giving grades, but I was still charged to teach them something and give them a fulfilling musical experience.
My class that I taught has evolved into an experience that is part after school special, general music class, and my own crazy experimental music education ideas. I would teach the students silly camp songs, transform “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain,” into an epic tale, improvise songs during our “nap time,” teach African drumming, do composition projects, and share with them a great selection of picture books with musical themes.
Each week, I have two different groups. I see each group for about 50 minutes Monday through Thursday. The groups are by grade level. The schedule rotates so some weeks I teach first graders and other times I’m with sixth graders. I don’t know these kids at all. They all come from different schools. This situation provides an interesting challenge as a teacher that I have embrace for the past five years.
In only four sessions, I don’t really have time to establish classroom rules or have a conversation about expectations. Instead I rely on my “force of will,” to move things a long and use “teacher-face,” and ability to create a vibe in the room to create the classroom environment. This strategy doesn’t work for very long and would not be a good idea in a regular classroom setting.
I’ve had the opportunity to experiment with different curricular material and try different lessons and projects. I’m able to let the students direct what they want to do during our time, and we’ve had some very cool moments over the years.
I would not want to teach this type of class year-round. I am more of a teacher than an entertainer. However, in the summers, this different format of a class, with different students is a refreshing challenge that I look forward to every summer.
Camp is done. Now it's time to start mentally transitioning into the school year. I am excited to get to work, but I am also grateful that I have a couple weeks to prepare myself. Next week I’m going to a teacher conference, then some time family, and then before school meetings. Time for Mr. Kingsley (what my campers call me), to take a respite, and time for Mr. Tang to get warmed up.
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