Two weeks ago, I had my last classes at Tyner, my favorite school. (I know teachers aren’t supposed to have favorites, but I can’t help it. This was the school where I spent the most time, so I got to know the kids really well.) It was also my first time leading a lesson that I had planned by myself. Usually, we have a set curriculum that we follow, but since there were so few snow days this year, we finished everything we needed to with a couple weeks to spare, and I had the opportunity to do a lesson on whatever I wanted. I decided to focus on “Conscience and Character.”  One of the most nerve-racking things about making your own lesson is that you have no idea how it’s going to work when used with actual children. My lesson was a combination of various games that I had found online or in various resources at camp, but since I had never played the games myself, I wasn’t positive that they would work the way I wanted them to.

Luckily, my games worked really well, and one worked even better than I had hoped. There is no amount of planning that can prepare you for the individual personalities and dynamics that make up a classroom, a lesson that I relearn every week. The first game we played was a little like “Hot and Cold.” After giving the students definitions of “character” and “conscience” I sent one volunteer out of the room. I then told the other students that I was going to hide one of the dry-erase board erasers and asked for a few students to be the consciences. These students were to tell my volunteer where the eraser was – but they weren’t allowed to talk loudly or point. The rest of the class was allowed to talk as loud as they wanted and point in all different directions, but they had to try to mislead the volunteer. I then brought the volunteer back into the room, told him what he was doing, and then let the kids go. Naturally, the room erupted in noise, and the volunteer looked everywhere but where the eraser was actually hidden. Now comes the part I couldn’t have planned if I wanted to. In one class, one of the people who was a conscience got up and started following around the searcher, who ignored him for quite awhile before finally listening and finding the eraser. This perfectly illustrated the point of my game:  it can be really easy to ignore the quiet voice in your head that’s telling you the right thing to do.

The part of my lesson that I am most proud of was my creation of a Giving Tree. I decided that a story was a great way to end the school year, so I read the students Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. (If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. You can find it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZCP6OqRlE) I then asked the students to think about something that they could give, and had them write their ideas on a leaf, which I used to create a tree. It was really wonderful reading all their ideas – some of them were very simple, like gum or old toys, but others were a little more creative, like a smile or a hug.

As the last class got ready to leave, one of the students announced that everyone in the class should give my a hug, so they had me stand at the door while they left, and everyone hugged me as they went by. I felt like I was in a receiving line at a wedding or something. I feel so lucky to have gotten to spend an entire year with those students, and I am definitely going to miss them. Thankfully, the after-school reading program continues for another couple weeks, so I still get to go into the school. Last week when I was there, one of the students saw me walk by and came running out of her classroom. She was immediately followed by half her class, and I had about 10 students mobbing me with hugs. It’s such a great feeling to have impacted them so much that they missed me after only a week.

I really think that the most important thing we offer the children is our presence. Sure we’re teaching them about budgets and bullying and peer pressure, but what they remember isn’t necessarily the information, but the stories we share and the games we play with them. I can tell that my presence is important by the way the after-school kids are excited to see me, even though I only see them once a week for a couple hours. And sometimes it’s the littlest things that mean the most to them. A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with some of the kids outside. The one little boy had a hula-hoop and was pretending he was driving a bus. I was sitting next to him, so I decided I was going to ride the bus. I got him to take me to Dairy Queen and Pizza Hut and the mall. I even got a couple other kids who were just sitting around to come “ride the bus” with me. I didn’t think much of it until the next week when that little boy wanted me to sit next to him at snack and asked me why I hadn’t been there since the week before. This kid had been coming to after-school since the beginning of the year, but I had never spent much time with him until we played bus driver. It was probably only five minutes of the day, but it stuck with him.

My time in the schools, and especially at Tyner, has taught me how valuable time and attention are. It’s really amazing how much difference a little special attention can make in the life of a child.

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” – Mother Teresa

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Programming. She is a member of Jackson Volunteer Community.