Training Week
Thursday marked the end of my training. This week was my actual on-site training with kids from K-8th grade. I feel like I underestimated my job. The littler kids are nice and energetic, but the 6th-8th grade kids are fucking mean as hell. I don’t know why, but I get so intimidated by them. I feel like they’re mugging me by just looking at me. The little kids are extroverted and want to talk to you, but the older kids are getting into their rebellious phases and just side eye you the whole time.
Not to mention, this is my first time ever in an authoritative position. When I was younger, I’d have to listen to a parent or teacher (and even when I was at home, my older sister would be there and she’s equally mean as fuck), in college I’d still be taking directions from my professors, and even in my other jobs, since they were customer-service based, the customers would be the ‘boss’ of me and I’d have to go running around for whatever they needed. For the first time in my life, it’s me in charge of a sea of people. Oh and it’s not just like 30-40 kids. No… there’s 101 KIDS on the roster. It’s only been 5 years since I’ve been out of high school, but I feel so out of touch. It’s embarrassing, but I have to do ‘call backs’ to get the kids to quiet down. AKA “one, two, three all eyes on me”. It’s slightly embarrassing, and I don’t have the voice/assertiveness to do it without cowering away. Depending on the day, you’ll have 150-200 eyeballs on you with you being the main center of attention. All my life, I’m used to being on the sidelines nor was I ever a ‘popular kid’ in school so this is a very sudden change. Oh and if you do screw up, you can bet for sure they’re gonna laugh at you.
But… it’s not too bad. To be fair, it’s not like I went in ready to take charge. For the most part, I stood on the sidelines very awkwardly, making no initiative to talk to anyone, and was kinda just a hanging piece of squid on the side. The company divides the children into 3 sections: K-2nd, 3rd-4th, and 5th-8th. We do rotations like ‘class periods’ where the hours are split between an Academics class, an Enrichment class, and a P.E. class. The staff also has walkie-talkies to communicate to each other from the separate classrooms, but I was so closed off and chicken that never even touched one.
Some of the smaller kids that did open up to me were very sweet. On my last day of training at the school, before leaving, I gave them a My Melody and Kuromi pin (secretly as a ‘thank you’ and to make them happy). I was able to learn some of their names, but it’s a shame that my progress will be for nothing.
Next week, I get placed in my permanent site. I heard from other staff that have been there before that the school I’m going to is very out of order. As soon as they heard the name of my new site, they all froze up with tense smiles and said, “good luck.” Also, I did try opening up to the staff to be friendly with them, but I think that since they knew I was just there for the week for training, they didn’t bother trying to get close to me. I don’t blame them, but that did leave me hanging in silence a lot. OH AND I'M THE OLDEST ONE THERE. EVERYONE OTHER THAN MY LEAD IS 18-21.
TLDR: Younger kids are nice, old people are mean.