Hello, my name is Nathan Whitwer and I am the newest member of the ММЦ team. I am from the city of Eugene, in the state of Oregon, in the United States. Oregon is located on the west side of the country, just north of California. I am very excited to be joining this group of talented people and helping them achieve their goals.
Last summer I spent two programs as a teacher, teaching the children English and one program as a counselor. During that time, I gained the experience necessary to take this position as a teacher for the year. Being a counselor taught me how to interact with the children and keep them under control while still having fun with them. Finding out what they enjoy doing and making it a part of the program is essential to connecting with the children and gaining their respect. Being a teacher showed me what needs to be done in the classroom: how to plan a lesson, how to teach that lesson, and how to see when something is not understood and needs to be explained in more detail.
Two summers ago, I worked at another summer camp in America. This camp has been in operation for nearly 60 years. My time there showed me many things that will help improve camp life in general, not just the English program. Methods of training staff, organizing programs, and interacting as a group were all shown to me and I hope to bring that experience to this team to help improve efficiency as a team.
Outside of camp experience, my other jobs have all been in the retail service industry where I would work many different people each day. This experience taught me how to interact with anyone in a respectful manner. Also, the team I worked with was a large and varied group of people and required everyone to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each other and help whenever possible.
While I am here, I have a few goals that I will try to achieve. The first is to continue teaching the children when they are here. English is an important language in the world right now, and the better the children understand it, the better their chances of getting the job they want. Second, I will be building a resource center. This center will contain many learning tools for self-study of English including, books, movies, TV shows, and music. Everything will be available for both the children and teachers to use. Third, I will be continuing to improve my Russian to the best of my ability. English may be an important language in the world but, knowing only one language greatly inhibits a person’s ability to understand the world. It is one of my goals to continue learning Russian so I may better communicate with my teammates and the children. MMC Staff
