Excitement and Intimidation

The first words that came to my mind when coming across the world of Jumpstart were exciting and intimidating. Actually setting foot in a classroom and academically interacting with the children was an interesting thought; I really had no idea what to expect. Observation was a fun time. My team, Determination, got to play with the kids and see how they interact with each other and with the teachers.  It wasn’t a super serious setting and the kids were just as excited as we were. After some observation, we got to go outside with them and play on the playground. Even though it’s only a small jungle gym with a single slide, the kids had so much to do. It was interesting to see what they could come up with. Most of these things included finding new way to go down the slide. Unfortunately a lot of those ways were not the safest and they had to be monitored. I have to say that Blaire makes a pretty hilarious slide monitor. After the days of observation were over, it was time to begin planning out our first session. This is kind of where the nerves started to kick in. I had already gotten familiar with the kids and grown to like them but instructing them felt like a whole different realm. The way the teacher conducts the class isn’t all that different from what we do in Jumpstart so the children already seemed used to how things flowed.  On the first day of session, I have to say that reading to them was by far the most frustrating. I only had two students and one of them but one of them was being so resistant that he would say no to anything I said, even if it wasn’t a question. He kept handing me other books that he wanted me to read but I told him that we had to continue with Ooonga Boonga. I know it’s not the most exciting book but c’mon man, let’s just try and focus for 10 minutes. The other student was doing fine and being involved in the reading but she soon lost interest when the boy was acting up. I don’t exactly blame her since I was trying to keep the boy focused more than I was reading the book. That experience alone made me have so much more respect for the teachers since they have greater control over an entire classroom than I did with just two students. The rest of session went fairly well and I look forward for the future sessions to come.

~Vincent Guerrero
Corps member
Team Determination