Hello everybody. I was just looking at blogging history and I was disappointed in myself to see that I have not had a blog post since March 21st! That is truly troubling. This past year was a busy year as I made the change from St. Cloud State University to Bemidji State University. Between working, driving, and taking college classes at a clip of at least half-time, it has sucked the oxygen of most of my free time. It gets quite frustrating some days, and seeing that I haven't really had the time to blog since March 21st, it kind of enhances that frustration.
Earlier this year, back in about February, the conversation at my work about the upcoming summer school session came up as it does every year. Right now, I am a paraprofessional, and if you know any paraprofessionals, or any school support staff for that fact, you will see that we are always trying to get as many hours as we can. The reason for this is because being a nine month employee with your main employer really doesn't do much for the idea of getting rich. Anyways, for the past seven or eight summers, I have elected to work our summer school session at the school I work at in Onamia. So, in February, it was decided that our summer school session was going to be different this upcoming summer. The short of it is that instead of all 90 students attending summer school, only about 19 students were going to attend this year. It sounds like a cut, but actually I was one of the individuals who was fully supporting this idea. It truly was going to be a more effective educational experience for the 19 who are attending this summer. With some other logistics going into the decision about working the summer school session this summer, I had decided, in February, that I was not going to work this year's summer school session.
I am not sure if many or anyone was surprised, because I like to work. I like my job that I do and I feel that I am good at what I do. I am not wanting to toot my own horn here, because all of my experiences of working with youth has molded me into the employee that I am today. So, with turning down the option of working the summer school session this summer, I was a temporary free agent so to say.
Despite turning down summer school, I still wanted to work. It was kind of a tough spot to be in. I say this because the school year at my school ended on June 15th. I have a family vacation in the middle of August, and right after that, workshop week for the new school year in the fall is upon us. So I was in a position of trying to find work for nine weeks only, and I kept asking myself, "Who is going to hire someone for nine weeks?" Then it came to me...
I decided to utilize a contact that I have known for a long time and had not yet used. I figured it was kind of a long shot because I didn't know if my contact even remembered who I was, because it has been two decades. My first experience in working directly with youth was in 1995, when I was 17 years old, when I helped co-create Youth Action Force, an organization with a focus of getting youth involved in the community. Youth Action Force - click this link to my blog post about Youth Action Force. In 1997, I took another step in working with youth, this time with younger youth, with the School Age Child Care program at Rockford Schools. I was eager, and I felt very passionate to help others. If you know me, you know this about me. During one of the conferences I attended I met my contact from the Brainerd Schools School Age Child Care program. A couple of years later, when I attended Central Lakes College in Brainerd for a year, I worked the after school program for Brainerd Schools. So with that being said, I decided it was time to make that contact and see if that networking from a long time ago still had any life to it. I am happy to say it did.
I made my decision with making this contact that I was going to be getting back into the School Age Child Care game for the first time in about 11 years (I also had a brief stint with Bemidji's School Age Child Care program). I was ready to do this. My contact got back to me and wanted to meet to see if we could work together to figure something out. We did come to an agreement and being half way through the summer, it has been a great change of pace.
Professionally I felt stuck prior to this summer. I won't lie, part of me wanted to take a break from the same thing that I have been doing for the eight years. Nine weeks is a good break. With my job at the school I work at during the academic school year in Onamia, I have taken on a lot of extra roles and wore a lot of extra hats as the years have gone by. Don't get me wrong, this is my own doing and I don't regret any of it. So I am not whining here or looking for sympathy. Instead, I just wanted to step away from it for a bit, and with being a nine month employee, I could do that.
So after my meeting with my contact in Brainerd, we came to terms on an agreement for me to get back into the School Age Child Care game this summer. The program is called Fun-N-Friends. After agreeing to terms in the middle of May sometime, I started to go to Fun-N-Friends everyday to work for about an hour and half after my work day with Onamia Schools. With college on top of this, I had to be careful with making time for everything including my family.
This summer at Fun-N-Friends has been great, because it has been different. On my first full day with Fun-N-Friends this summer, I was offered the opportunity to be promoted to a Supervisor role. This was unexpected and flattering, and I am glad I have had the opportunity to be a Supervisor this summer. This position has allowed me to work and dust off the leadership skills that have been idle for a very long time. It has been great working the the elementary age level students again. With this new summer opportunity, I have been able to join a new team of staff. Some of whom are doing great things with these children. It is nice to have another professional family as an additional resource and to further develop my networking that has also been idle for a while before this summer. There have been some challenges this summer with my new role, but there also has been a lot of positive, and this was an absolute right decision. I want to be able to be effective and do my part in helping Fun-N-Friends continue to be a high quality program for children. This position also will allow me to be a better employee during the school year at Onamia. I say this because my Fun-N-Friends position has allowed me to have a voice, and I have been using it. If you remember my blog post from back in January about Resolutions for 2015, one of them was speaking up more. I have had an opportunity to do that this summer and I think this will help me become a higher quality employee year round. I also feel re-energized for the upcoming school year. The break from Onamia has been a good one professionally. It feels good to step a way for a while and work with children in a different element. I also have been running my ass of this summer :) I usually walk between six and nine miles a day in one day of work at Fun-N-Friends. The nice thing about this is that I have dropped 26 pounds since the first of April and that is also helping me feel better and re-energized. So, lots of positives this summer.
Now the one remaining question that looms from this decision to make a change for the summer. "What happens with me and Fun-N-Friends when the summer is done?" I won't lie. The program wants me to stay and they have made offers. At this time, I will be returning to Onamia this fall. There are several factors that have gone into this decision. However, that does not mean that my time is done at Fun-N-Friends. I have informed them that I would be more than happy to help them out on full day non-school day events when our school calendars cooperate. I don't want to be done with Fun-N-Friends after the summer, I want to continue to be involved with Fun-N-Friends and the Brainerd School District. I live in the boundaries of the Brainerd School District and it has been refreshing being involved in the community that I live in. So, this is the beginning of my Fun-N-Friends journey and I hope it continues for quite a while.
#sacc
