Personal Narrative Essay: Working With Children

I come from a military background which required me to do a lot of traveling as a child. I lived in Sicily, Italy for about four and a half years before moving back to the United States. Living in two different countries made me flexibility and tolerant which allows me to adapt and respect others cultures while maintaining my own. These qualities proved to be beneficial this previous summer while studying abroad Japan. I find these qualities essential especially for someone seeking to teach abroad, I feel any great teacher should first be a student themselves. Emerging while also regarding someone else’s views and culture is the first step into becoming a leader both in and outside of the classroom, by demonstrating these qualities I will be a great asset to my host community.

and intrigued by the mind-body connection as well as the importance of human activity and occupation in maintaining mental and physical well-being. At the same time, my desire to work directly with people and be able to make a positive and lasting change to their lives by empowering them and helping discover their strengths and confidence in themselves to achieve their goals, led me to a realization that a career in occupational therapy would be a perfect fit for me.

As the days progress, there are always new adventures waiting each day. I constantly learn new skills, meet wonderful educators, volunteers, and most importantly, assist children who have the potential and enthusiasm to achieve different goals. My day started on a rainy, Monday morning, no different than any other Monday, so I thought. I traveled to Johns Island on this day; Angel Oak Elementary School happened to be my morning destination. When I arrived, I did not expect any additional duties, other than observing tutors and students throughout sessions. Appears that life had novel ventures awaiting me that day. After settling in the Reading Center, I engaged in a morning check-in with the Site Coordinator, Kelly and the Literacy Lead, Katherine.

Last March, I came to realize that all of my focus was only on school, sports, and work and I didn't take the time to help out my community in enough ways as I should. I wanted to do something that I would enjoy and knew that I loved kids so I decided to email our elementary school principal and see if there was anything I could do to help out in the school. So ever since then, I started going in every Thursday to volunteer with whatever he needed me to do. Sometimes I would work for him, other times for the librarian, secretary, or other teachers. A lot of the time, however, I would pull kids out of class and help them on a paper that they didn't understand or we would read books together. I loved to help them because it put a smile on their

The biggest takeaway I received from my NAR shadowing experience at Three Links was just how vital the staff who works with the residents truly are. If you would ask anyone if the staff at a medical facility is important, the answer would be yes. However, until you physically observe staff perform crucial tasks for their resident, one cannot truly comprehend the impact staff makes on residents. The staff at Three Links helps residents perform essential, everyday tasks such as feeding, bathing, and toileting. The staff not only provides personal care, but also acts as the resident’s family by forming strong relationships with residents. My experience shadowing at Three Links reminded me that caring for others is truly a challenge, but can be miraculously rewarding and essential to the well-being of others.

Whether it’s babysitting, volunteering with children, or spending time with my three younger siblings, I have had a lot of experience working with children. I began my babysitting experience with my siblings, then family friends and neighbors. But, my best and favorite customers have been my parents that frequently have me care for my two sisters (ages 10 and 3) and brother (age 7) and we enjoy playing games, reading stories, and making art and crafts; also, I help them do homework, feed them meals and put them to sleep. Having younger siblings, I’ve truly grown to love working with children, and especially teaching them. At school, I am the vice-president of our Kids in Science and Engineering club, which is dedicated to spreading passion and knowledge of science and engineering to elementary school students. We work with after school programs and every other month take a group of 20 club members to conduct experiments and demonstrations with students. My fellow club members and I always look forward to these trips as we have loads of fun with the children who are

For this assignment, I interviewed my mother Elaine Meskouris. Director at Evlavia Doulavarous Preschool in Flushing, NY.

In the beginning of the school year I started to seriously think about what I wanted to spend my thirty hours on. I really wanted to do something that would help others, I wanted to give back to my community. So I made my decision based off of my person experiences. I learned at a young age how unpleasant it is to not have when you truly need, especially when kids of all ages can be very mean.

As I was walking through classrooms today it became apparent, again, how well our teachers and aides provide such a wonderful education.  Mrs. Vandebossche had students looking through microscopes examining pond water to pick out paramecium and other simple life forms. They were excited to find new specimens swimming around and interacting with each other.  Mrs. Lyons was describing novels and their story lines to her students getting them excited about reading.  Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Pfister, Mr. Wilcox and Mrs. Coon were discussing the upcoming Veteran’s Day ceremony to teach kids and honor our vets.  Mrs. Cushman was leading a small group of first graders in a reading lesson as she does every day.  The fourth and fifth graders were getting ready to go on a field trip to see educational but exciting things only an hour away.  Mrs. Swisher and Mrs. Tucker were working with kids who came in their pajamas because they had earned a reward for meeting their reading goal, twice.

My son kevin has been having bad dreams lately, there is supposedly a man in his room at night. He tells me they arent dreams,

I chose to pursue the teaching field because of my experience training new nurses and C.N.A.’s at the nursing home I previously worked at. There were students that would come to observe and learn the procedures and skills needed to work in a nursing home. My bosses knew to send them to me because they saw the passion I had for teaching skills in the nursing field. So when I knew that I was going to have those students, I became overjoyed because I knew that as they learned, I was actually making a difference in their careers in the medical field. The passion for teaching began early for me in life. I can still remember my Health and Science Technology teacher, and how passionate she was in teaching her students, and that lit a fire for success inside of me. I would not have been able to get through my college nurses classes without her teachings, and having confidence and perfecting my skill makes me the nurse that I am today.

From then I volunteered to work with the local Special Olympics group. For me this was a rewarding time in my life. The group had a range of children from five to adults. From this experience, the love to work with children grew for me. It also helped further develop my patience skills as it would take longer for the children to learn. From this it aided my communication skills and you have to explain activities in a simpler and easier manner. This experience has led me to want to peruse a master degree in intellectual ability after I finish my PGDE. It would be a dream of mine to work with special needs children on a daily basis in the local special school. I would find this job a rewarding and fulfilment one.

One of my favorite memories growing up is how much time I spent reading. Whenever I got a new book I couldn 't put it down. I remember that I would always read on the bus ride home. Reading was something that I liked to do. As I’ve gotten older my choice of books has changed alot, a different genre for each of my phases. Today the books that always manage to get my attention are usually the books based on true events.

One of the unique aspects of the Department of Child Development and Family Relations is that many of the department’s large core courses offer teaching assistant opportunities to undergraduate students. Teaching assistant opportunities are valuable for undergraduate students to decide whether to apply as a graduate teaching position, great addition to a resume, and for a letter of recommendation. From my teaching assistant experience, I was able to fully grasp the concepts of middle childhood development, form a new appreciation for professors and teaching assistants, and reflect on myself as a student. In addition, I had the opportunity to strengthen several essential skills such as organizational skills, leadership skills, and communication

As I began my field experience journey, I learned many roles and responsibilities as elementary teacher. My duration in the field was nine weeks. I began training at E. R. Dickson. I developed a great working relationship with the staff and parents in the community. I always knew teaching is my passion. It is my responsibility to be organized, willing to work well with others, takes initiative, and having a positive attitude. During my time in the field, I had a pleasure of working with 3rd graders. I learned to be a long life learner. Everyday, I was challenged my students to learn something new. It was important to me to make a difference. Throughout my training, I implemented various strategies for engaging students in small groups and rigorous lessons. My role as a teacher is to communicate effectively, be respectful, and have self-worth and confidence. I did fear making wrong choices throughout this field experience. I set high expectations the students to achieve high goals.