My Jumpstart Family

 

We had been gone for six weeks after having finals and winter break. Our return was a surprise to our kids and our classroom teachers. Apparently the teachers thought we were coming back the next week. My team, Team Kindness, was taken-aback by the reactions and welcome we received. No fewer than three of our students burst into tears at the sight of us. Our classroom teachers started dancing around because they were so excited. One of our teachers was so surprised she thought that our other teacher had kept our return date a secret. Some kids ran up to us and grabbed our legs holding on tight and yelling “JumpStart? JumpStart! They’re back!” while others started jumping in the air. Keep in mind that these kids are mostly four and not very tall, but in that moment  it seems as if they were jumping two feet into the air because they were so enthusiastic and excited about our return. One boy ran around the room in circles screaming about JumpStart’s return for five minutes before the teachers got over their shock and were able to stop him. Session that day was a little hectic because our kids could not calm down after the excitement of our return but they had unparalleled enthusiasm in all of our activities. Not only have our kids and teachers become attached to the JumpStart program but we have all become attached to each other. This semester anytime a corps member has to miss session their JumpStart reading friends usually end up losing it. The kids get attached to their JumpStart friend and only want to go over name cards and read with that particular person. In the last week we also lost one of our classroom teachers to another job. The kids don’t realize anything has changed but our JumpStart family was sad at the loss of one of our teachers and she was sad to leave us. We are now an integral part of the classroom environment. We are no longer strangers that come into the room to read. We have created our own JumpStart family. The kids sing us happy birthday whenever a corps member has a birthday. At the end of session no one wants to leave. Kids hide from their parents so that they can play in Dramatic Play longer or finish the book they are reading. My team knew we succeeded in our JumpStart mission when we had kids getting upset about having to leave reading and leaving our JumpStart family.

~Stephanie Dudek
Corps Member
Team Kindness