What Are We Here For?

It has been so exciting to begin yet another season of Jumpstart this fall. This is my third season in the Corps and my first season as a team leader. I am so lucky because my preschool site has remained the same throughout all three terms, meaning I get to see the children that I had in the past, and how they have grown and progressed in their education.
Last week, we travelled to our respective preschools to participate in classroom observations. At our program partner, we got the chance to observe how our teachers run the class and to meet all of the children we will be working with over the course of the year. They greeted us in classic 3-year-old style, with wide eyes and bright faces, curious about who we are and why we are coming into their class. After about an hour, we went outside to the playground, where I got to see several of the children I have worked with in the past. “Do you remember me?” I asked. They gave me a blank stare. “I’m Miss Becca. I was in your class last year, in Ms. Z's classroom. Do you remember being in her class?” They nodded their heads, “Yeah!” I am not sure if they actually remember me, but they definitely remember Jumpstart.

Interacting with the teachers, the administrators and the children reminded me of why we are there. The teachers work hard each day to teach the children, feed them, care for them and ensure they are learning and retaining the valuable information that is being taught. The administrators work hard to make sure that everything runs smoothly, on time and in concordance with the center’s mission and goals. Both the teachers and administrators form relationships with the parents to make sure that parents and their children are equally involved in the education process, and to provide support for the parents when they need it, through training and involvement programs. The children are the reason for all of this hard work. It is because the entire staff seeks to give the children the best they can that they work tirelessly day in and day out.

The most important thing at this preschool is the development of the children. It’s why they work so hard, and it’s why we work so hard. As Jumpstart Corps members, we are devoted to providing a supplementary program that provides support for the teachers, the program administrators, the parents and most of all the children. We are the midwives, if you will, of the students’ literacy, language and social development. We work alongside the children to facilitate the development of certain skills, to make it safe and secure for them, and to celebrate their achievements. By implementing session, I believe we also give something extra to the teachers. First of all, we give them a break (it’s not easy working with kids 5 days of the week!), we give them encouragement through our enthusiasm and energy, and we give them new ideas and materials that they can also us.

We have not yet begun to implement session, but I am so excited to see the ways in which we will serve the children, the teachers and the administrators this year. And I can’t wait to see the relationships that we will build with the new children in our classroom.

~Becca
Team Leader
Team Determination