Today was a busy day!

    As a team, we are starting to prepare for session one. Materials are being prepared, Oonga Boonga and other songs are being practiced, “J is for Jumpstart” books are being created for session two, and team-planning meetings are frequent. All of this work can seem daunting, but it will all soon be worth it.
     Today was the meet and greet for our team. We traveled in the morning to meet our group and got to finally see what we were learning about in training. It felt so amazing to see what all my work was going towards; that finally all my simulations of dealing with the children that have been going on for weeks now will be the real thing. That I truly can help these children; and so begins our journey with 22 wonderful “friends” as we call them (and they definitely are).
      Amidst the chaos of preparing for session one, many of us on the Jumpstart staff are participating in the administration of the TOPEL exams. After about half an hour with the children I will be seeing twice a week for the rest of the school year, I had to adhere my testing duties. They will be fulfilled soon, and so again, it is worth it to see children progress in this learning process.

      I was talking to a colleague as we headed for TOPEL and we both agreed as soon as we left the classroom, we felt some sort of protectiveness towards the kids. This feeling of pride that this was our classroom; that those were our children we were going to teach and make sure they will be prepared for next year’s learning. All of the work will be worth knowing these children will be successful one day, as I know they will. Now to just make it happen: I am ready for session one.

Jake Jaehne
Corps member
Team Curiosity