About me

My name is Samson, and I was born and raised in Portland, Maine. As a kid I loved music, making movies with my friends, theatre and playing outdoors. I went on to double major in History (I plan to someday return to school and become a history teacher) and Film at Clark University where I also produced four musicals as the Vice President of Clark Musical Theatre. Since graduating I have worked as a Behavior Technician for Marlborough Public Schools in Massachusetts and as a stage director in my spare time.

I have been caring for children since I started babysitting at 15. In high school I nannied and taught guitar to an 8 year-old girl for over a year, regularly sat for a family with two boys ages 7 and 13 for two years, and worked at a summer camp for three consecutive summers with kids aged 4-14. At the camp the kids would split into smaller groups based on age at certain points of the day. I spent about half of my 3 years there in charge of the 4-5 year-old children and the other half with kids ranging from 8-11 years old. In college, I volunteered at an elementary school in Worcester, MA to run a literacy group with 7 and 8 year-old kids. Once a week I’d meet with 5-10 kids and run reading and writing exercises and games with them. As I mentioned before, since graduating from Clark in 2018 I have worked as a behavior technician in a special education classroom. In this position I worked with students ages 3-6 who benefited from learning in an ABA based classroom. Doing this gave me first-hand knowledge and experience in working with students of various needs and helping them lower the frequency of behaviors that may impede their ability to learn new academic and social skills. I would also run discrete trial training with students based on IEPs.

I believe the key elements to successfully working with and educating kids are enthusiasm and empathy. If you show enthusiasm for kids’ interests and try to approach situations with an appreciation for their point of view, I believe you can build strong rapport and respect. Nothing is more important than making sure that the kid you are working with knows that you are on their side and want them to succeed.