Since I have always wanted to work with children, I have a lot of experience doing so. Babysitting was the first job I had working with children. I started doing this when I was 12 years old, and I am still babysitting now.

When I was 14 years old, I started volunteering at the Daycare that was in my elementary school, and I did this throughout the summer for three years. That was the first time I worked with children in groups. Although it was sometimes chaotic, I really enjoyed it and I think it is one of my experience is that pushed me to become a teacher. I learned a lot from observing the staff and from helping the kids.

I also have quite a bit of experience working with children through my synagogue. I started by doing childminding where I supervised, played with, and fed snacks to the children that came every Saturday morning. I also was a leader at a day camp over a holiday when I was 17, where I had to take care of children between eight and 12 years old. I ran activities, gave snacks, kept them safe, and watched over them throughout the day. The third experience I have with my synagogue was at a family weekend camp, when I was in charge of a group of girls between eight and 13 years old. I had to make sure they made it to all the meals, were in the cabin at the right time, and that they made it to where they were supposed to be and the activities they were supposed to be at throughout the weekend.

Next, I have two different experiences working with day camps. First was the cooking and baking camps where I volunteered and assisted the children with the steps for making the food, and I made sure they were being careful and staying on task in the kitchen to keep them safe. I also volunteered for a month at another community centre with the summer day camps. I assisted with running programming and activities for children between five and eight years old. I helped provide care for the children and kept them safe while out on field trips. I also had to help mediate behavior and conflicts.

In the start of the summer in 2020, I had a job at my old elementary school. I went in a couple times throughout the week and watched different grades for one or two blocks to give their teachers a break. This was at the beginning of the pandemic so there were not very many kids in school, but I still planned some activities, both inside and outside, based on what they were learning.

Two of my most recent work and volunteer experiences with children are both tutoring and have both been while at the University of Victoria. During my first year, I volunteered with Horizons Tutoring, and tutored a grade one student in reading and writing, so I had to plan different activities for our weekly sessions, as well as keep the student focused and on task throughout the sessions. Currently, and I will continue again next year, I am a tutor with CORE Tutoring at UVIC. This organization provides free tutoring for children with learning challenges. I tutor four different kids during the week and help them with a range of different subjects. This year, it is over Zoom, so I have had to figure out how to work with the students online, as well as finding good resources that I can use with them while sharing my screen. There have been lots of struggles and challenges to work through, but it has been going well and I now have a large list of online resources I can use to help my future students. All of these experiences I have had, have helped me grow and have taught me so much that will benefit me as a future teacher and with my future students.