At a time when the teaching profession in the United States has come under a great deal of scrutiny, a group of Plainsboro teenagers is reaffirming what is best and most noble about the calling.
It was about five years ago when Drew McClendon, who just started her junior year at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North this week, decided to end the tedium of a hot summer day by running a one day “wizard” camp with activities built on the theme of Harry Potter. “It was all about making potions, playing games outdoors like Quidditch (a wizarding sport played on broomsticks), and arts and crafts. I like kids and Harry Potter was a great theme,” says McClendon.
As with all things that are fun and popular, the word spread, and the one-day camp grew into a one-week camp with almost 30 attendees this year ranging from kids going into first grade to kids going into fifth grade.
Along the way, McClendon recruited her friend, Jaclyn Wemple, also a junior at High School North, to help out. “We have them use their imaginations, we play games, and we invent new things,” explains Wemple. “The kids have different personalities and just like being around each other. We enjoy being around them, too.”
Hannah Lohr-Pearson and Shweta Ravichandar, juniors at North, and Erin Kouridakis, a freshman, rounded out this summer’s counseling staff. Kouridakis says that working with the kids gave all of them good insight into the real world and what it’s like to be responsible for kids with different backgrounds and certain challenges.
“Some of our kids have allergies,” Kouridakis explains, “and some have learning disabilities like dyslexia. We have to be patient when we’re working and playing with them and really understand their needs.”
It’s interesting to note that McClendon, Wemple, and Kouridakis do a lot of babysitting and each have a younger sibling. Drew’s sister Darrah is an eighth grader at Community Middle School, Wemple’s brother Stephen is also a CMS eighth grader, and Kouridakis has a sister, Megan, who is a sixth grader at CMS.
“So we know how to play games with them and be inventive,” Wemple says. And then she adds, with a big grin, “and we know the tricks they can play. We also have experience fighting with them ourselves so we know a lot about how and why kids fight and then we have some insight on how we can help them resolve their differences.”
Another common denominator the three girls share is that each wants to be a teacher some day. McClendon’s role model is her mother, who is a second-grade teacher at Wicoff Elementary School in Plainsboro. McClendon thinks she would like to teach at the elementary level as well. “My mother loves to teach so I know first-hand what an awesome job it can be,” she says. “Running this camp and having the experiences I’ve had will definitely help make me a better teacher in the future.”
“I know how to handle situations that are not perfect and still be calm about it,” adds Kouridakis. “To be honest, there are some days and some times I have to hide my true feelings, but I love the kids and I love working with them.”
“I get to work with a wide range of kids,” observes Wemple. “They’re having so much fun and they love getting out of the house and being with each other and doing new things.”
The camp, which just concluded this year’s session, runs toward the end of August. The timing is strategic, designed to fill that often awkward end-of-the-summer gap when most people are home from vacation and the kids have gotten their teacher assignments. The summer is pretty much over, but school has not yet started.
“We have some structured activities so they can get used to having a routine again before school starts,” explains Wemple, who also has a part-time job as part of the bounce staff at Jersey Jump in South Brunswick, helping run parties once a week. McClendon also works as a part-time party host at Laser Park in West Windsor.
The campers are divided into the four Harry Potter “houses” with one counselor heading up each. Wemple is in charge of Hufflepuff, Kouridakis is the leader of Ravenclaw, Ravichandar runs Slytherin, and Gryffindor is assigned to Lohr-Pearson. McClendon is the reigning master of all as Dumbledore, who is the headmaster of the Hogwarts wizarding school in the Harry Potter series.
The older kids in each group help out with the younger kids. It’s all a big learning lesson for them, too, an opportunity for them to mentor other children and get that experience themselves.
McClendon says that she and her fellow counselors plan to keep going with this camp every summer “until the kids don’t show up any more.” And judging from the excitement and laughter, that is not likely to happen any time soon.
With young women like these planning to head into teaching, the future of the profession looks bright and promising indeed.
