Primary School Workshop Leader

As part of their holiday celebrations, the teachers at De la Voliere School organized workshops for their children. They . They needed many volunteers to lead the workshops. When I arrived, the organizers explained the program for the afternoon and what was expected of me. Throughout the afternoon, the children and their teachers moved from one room to another, where different activities were taking place.

My activity did not last as long as expected. I therefore had to think of new games in order to fill up the time allotted for my workshop. Over all, the games went well, but some classes were unruly. I tried to maintain order and calm, but not always successfully. Before this project, I had never worked with children, and I had never considered how hard it would be. I have always been a fairly impatient person and I realized that working with children, especially such young ones, requires a huge amount of patience. I saw really turbulent and troublesome children, and I saw both patient and exasperated teachers. I came to understand the very important role of teachers not just in academic education, but also in the socialization of children.

 Photo by Scott Ableman, Flickr

Honestly, I didn't really enjoy this activity. I realized that I probably don't have the right personality to work with school children. Nonetheless, I was able to develop my patience and my workshop leader skills. I also learned how to interact with children, how to capture their attention, and how to achieve order and calm in the classroom.