A Challenge Worth Facing

I am always surprised by the magic only children can see. Blind to these little joys by my newfound adulthood, I am reminded of this magic every time my team and I walk into the classroom on any given Tuesday or Friday. Carrying books, baby dolls, and brand new materials for them to explore, our students beam at us like we are wearing red superhero capes instead of Jumpstart t-shirts. Each new story is a portal into a magical world and each paint brush or marker is a chance to express themselves. This is not to say that their admiration and excitement does not come without its challenges.

During our Jumpstart trainings and team meetings we spend a great deal of time talking about classroom management. Getting any small group of 4 year olds to sit quietly through a whole book is challenging, but my team and I have  had an especially difficult time. In our first few months in the classroom we have come to love and genuinely care about each and every student and look forward to seeing them twice a week. However, our wonderful, energetic, wiggly kids often seem to be having too much fun. As a team and as educators we have struggled to find the balance between being fun and being effective.

As I prepare to reenter the classroom and don my red Jumpstart t-shirt I am confident that my team and I will be able to find the balance between keeping our students excited about Jumpstart and effectively managing the classroom. It will certainly be challenging to master and there will be a lot of stressful moments, but I think that it is important to remember why I wanted to work with Jumpstart in the first place: There is nothing better than the sense of pride a child gets when they master a new skill, remember what happens in a story during Read to Reconstruct, or remember all of the words and hand motions to a poem they learned during Circle Time. The look of pride, excitement, and joy on their face is worth any battle to me and so I look forward to these first few challenging, but fun, sessions that are on the horizon.

Elyse Evkhanian
Team Leader
Team Joy 2