Turning on the Light

           It is always a good day when you see that light go on when working with a student. Witnessing them overcome a problem and make the connection is the best part of the job. Due to the fact that every child is different, these days can vary. Whether they are in Jumpstart or not they have all had different experiences and some kids are farther along than others. One of the most rewarding days in Jumpstart was when I was working with a child that is farther behind than the others. She can’t spell her name yet and a lot of time has trouble comprehending the books we read in session. Although she faces many difficulties, she is very kind and curious.

            In session 11 let’s find out about it I had an opportunity to work with her more closely. I noticed that she is willing to learn, but the trick is that you have to catch her attention and hold it; a task that can be very difficult when dealing with 4 year olds that are all over the place. In session 11 we read Dog’s Colorful Day, a fun story that combines counting and our unit of color. It is about a dog that gets different colored stains on his fur throughout the day. In let’s find out about it we look at pictures and match them to color swatches, then paste the colors on to Dog, just like in the story. When this child came over to me I eased her into the center, discussing the funny names crayons have (like macaroni and cheese) and matching them with their pictures. Then we moved on to matching color swatches with pictures and then pasting them onto Dog. This part she really enjoyed. We looked at many pictures, first determining what color they match and then what Dog did to get this stain on himself. Watching this child engage with the session and tie it back to the session reading book was wonderful. Some days in Jumpstart you just have a bad day, you forget for a second why you have signed away 300 hours of your life, and you get frustrated, but days like this make you remember again. This child and so many others like her are the reason I do Jumpstart. They make every day worth it and rewarding. My class as well as my Corps Members truly uphold our team name inspiration. Every day I am inspired in a new way, and I am so grateful to be a part of something that touches so many lives.

~ Loren Grier

Team Leader

Team Inspiration

BAROOOM!

Our Jumpstart friends never cease to amaze our team members (Team Kindness). The moment we stepped foot into our Jumpstart classroom coming back from winter break, we instantaneously heard “Jumpstart!!!”; a sound that we all missed ever so dearly. The kids still remembered the songs we sing, all eager to go to Center Time, and all so excited to learn and play with us. They even knew how to spell their names perfectly on their name cards! It was such a huge improvement, I was so proud of them! Definitely a warm welcome back to something we all missed so much over the break.

            Recently, our Jumpstart kids switched classrooms in Appletree, which at first was a big change for the children and us. It was a little disorienting to have to accommodate to our surroundings, switch our reading spots, and set up centers in different places than we were used to. But after a couple more sessions, this room became a nice Jumpstart bubble; a place where all of our anxieties were blocked out of. We come into the classroom ready for Jumpstart, ready to read and play with our children, and ready to get our kids excited about all we have in store for them.

            I have recently understood the capacity that our children’s brains have for learning new material, and how much it sticks in their brains. While reading One Dark Night to my Jumpstart friends, I allowed the children to say “BAROOOM” with me when the thunder rolled in the book. It was the first time I ever did that kind of strategy; allowing them to read with me instead of me reading the whole book to them. They instantly loved it. They would sit patiently and listen intently while I read them the book, and couldn’t wait until they could say “BAROOOM” with me. They even said it while they were at Dramatic Play; pretending to be thunder and making a huge thunderstorm like the one in the book. It was amazing to me how quickly they caught on once they felt directly involved in the story. I will definitely use that strategy more often!

            Jumpstart has definitely allowed me to expand on how I interact with children and help them learn. By practicing different strategies while reading and switching classrooms, it has allowed me to be more flexible with how I teach the kids while still teaching them the Jumpstart curriculum. It has definitely allowed the kids to grow as students, and me to grow as a future educator. It’s been quite a journey!

~ Maria Lewis
Corps Member
Team Kindness

The Burn Out

            If you talk to anyone who has worked or currently works with children you will hear them talk about “The Burn Out,” the period of time a little while into working that they began to feel overwhelmed, a little tired and just burnt out.  Well the same thing happens in Jumpstart, not because we don’t love working with the children, session or teaching but because around midterms everything begins to weigh on you.  The combination of school, work and social life becomes a little much to balance, you begin to crave spring break, and lose sight of why you serve.  I had recently gotten close to the “Burn Out” and found myself desperately craving a break from it all.  I begin to find myself in the midst of a thousand things to do and no idea how I  was going to complete them all. One of the things on my list of “things to do” was what Jumpstart call a Self-Study.  It is a variation of training that you do on your own.  These trainings tend to be extremely helpful because you can set your own pace and go back to certain aspects that spoke to you.  However, this time I was having a hard time finding time to do the training with the level of concentration that is necessary.  I was eventually able to find some time and as I began the training and begin to learn more about how we as corps members should position ourselves to work with children I began to feel my passion returning. 

            I had almost forgot that Jumpstart is more than playing games, reading and practicing writing with children.  Its the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these children that we have grown so attached to.  Working on the Self- Study made me rethink the approach I was bringing to Jumpstart, my strategies for classroom management and how I generally interacted with the children. It gave me new ideas on how to keep my kids engaged.  It reignited my passion for working with children, teaching and serving.  Yes, working with children can be hard at times and balancing school and work can be difficult but Jumpstart has given me the opportunity to leave those cares behind me.  I get the opportunity to escape the college domain for a couple hours a week, revisit my childhood and make a difference at the same time: nothing could be better. 

~Jasmine Hardy

Corps member

Team Learning

Embrace the Messy!

The most important lesson I have learned from Jumpstart thus far is embracing the messy moments. From the time the children enter the classroom in the morning, a routine is expected of them. Breakfast, to reading, science, math and lunch. All leading up to the anticipation of Jumpstart session, not just for the preschoolers, but for the American University Corps members.

My Jumpstart friends are learning to be neat in the classroom as the teachers are training them to become more organized and orderly. Last week I was working the art center during center time when I noticed getting messy in the classroom teaches creativity and responsibility. We happened to be painting with primary colors, when my Jumpstart friends decided using paintbrushes were, “lame” and. “boring.” Instead, they rather paint with their fingers and hands, and within minutes, paint was everywhere: on the table, on the floor, and riding up the arms. And it was at that moment that I looked over at our teacher, her face was priceless! Furious with the mess the kids were making, she stood up and walked over to the arts table, when I told her I’d handle the messy situation. “Jumpstart is allowed to be messy!”

My Jumpstart friends continued to paint with their fingers and started to look at the patterns their fingerprints left on the paper. Although paint was everywhere, they were learning. “Look at my fingers!” “I’m making shapes with my hands!” Their creativity grew as they started to make pictures of animals, friends and family. But I didn’t leave them messy. The next step was clean up.  And that’s when they learned to be responsible for their messes. They were full of paint, but were able to contain their excitement without getting paint all over the classroom, and the teachers were happy about that.

You see, its being messy that brings out our best. And learning to be messy while cleaning up afterwards will help children clean up clutter in the future. So embrace the messy. Paint with your fingers

Bobby McCabe

Corps Member

Team Joy

Jumpstart is a powerful thing

            Jumpstart is a powerful thing, not only for the children, but also for the core members and team leaders. It has to be one of the best jobs in the world. Who wouldn’t love the opportunity to go into a classroom and play and laugh with children twice a week. Sometimes it is hard to tell who is having more fun, the children or the Jumpstart core members. The memories made during Jumpstart are truly one of a kind.

            One of my fondest memories is when we came back from Winter Break. The children went crazy. They jumped up and down and screamed “JUMPSTART!” as loud as they could. They were beside themselves that we had finally come back to be with them. Each child was eager to tell us what they had done over break and their newest accomplishments.

            One day while playing in Dramatic Play, a child looked up at a core member and said, “I want to be a Jumpstart when I grow up.” Every core member stopped what they were doing and looked at him. We couldn’t believe it. He wanted to be us when he grew up. It was a truly touching moment that helped us grasp what a difference we were making to the children. Afterwards we asked the child why he wanted to be a Jumpstart. His answer was simply priceless. He said, “Your red shirts are really cool and I want one.” Although we were still touched, his answer had us in stitches. We never knew how “cool” our red t-shirts were. Nonetheless, it still meant the world to us that he would want to be like us in any way.

            Another great memory was in the Writing Station. We were drawing stories about pets after reading, “One Dark Night.” A child was at the station drawing an elaborate story. When we asked about his story he told us something that amazed us. This child tended to be one of the more wiggly children that we had. He was outgoing and was always the first to make statements about the books during Reading. However, in the book he was drawing he had a cat named “Dark Night,” a baby named “Baby Lousise,” a boy named “Peter” and another baby named “Noisy Nora.” We had though he hadn’t been absorbing the stories the whole year, but he knew every detail of the books. It just goes to show that everyone learns in a different way and he paid attention more than we thought.

            I have made many memories during Jumpstart. Each day there is a new story, a new bond forged, and a new moment to smile about. I truly cherish the time in the classroom with the students. They are all special in each and every way and I am thankful that I have gotten to spend the time with them that I have.

~Mary Elder
Team Leader
Team Hope

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

Best Kind of Difficult

Participating in Jumpstart for Children has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life thus far. The first time I walked into the classroom it was clear that these children are not on the best track to becoming successful individuals. But with my skills and their excitement, I knew I was going to be able to impact their lives. Each of these kids have the biggest smile on their faces as soon as their Jumpstart friends walk into their class. With their smiles come the smiles of my Jumpstart team, ready to tackle any obstacles that will arise during that day’s session.

            Every session is difficult; but this difficulty is the best kind because once it is worked through there is only success and happiness. Helping the children achieve something that they did not know how to do beforehand is beneficial for everyone. Having something that the kids can tell their parents about with pure excitement brings joy to my life. These children and their families may not be as close as some other families in more affluent neighborhoods, maybe because the parents are out working multiple jobs, but when they can hear about what their kids did in Jumpstart it brings the family closer together.

Many of the kids I work with are clearly not getting enough attention at home so it makes me happy to know they are getting some attention from my team and me.  One girl in particular constantly needs one-on-one attention from one of the corps members on my team. Most of the things she does to get attention gets her in trouble with the teachers, so it has become important for me to continuously say her name and ask her questions so she can be engaged enough to misbehave. I want her to be able to enjoy everything Jumpstart has to offer, but when she is acting out to get attention she usually has to leave the classroom, which is not fair for her or us.

Jumpstart for Children has taught me so many new life skills and has given me more confidence in myself. I know now that I have the capacity to change a life, and to help a child accomplish the smallest tasks like writing their name. While the goal of Jumpstart is to give these children the tools they need to succeed in life, these kids are giving me even more. 

Judith Snyder-Rothman

Corps member

 

What Jumpstart taught me

Throughout my time in Jumpstart, I’m not sure who has learned more, the children or me. Each day there is a new obstacle that my team and me go through together. Whether it is a child who decides to roll away or a child who is just overly excited for Jumpstart. The beauty of Jumpstart is that every day is new and different. You leave each session feeling like you made a difference.

Jumpstart has taught me more than I ever though was possible. I have learned how to manage time better. I have also learned how to work effectively as a team. My communication skills have drastically improved. I thought Jumpstart would just be teaching preschool children, but it turned out to be much more than I ever imagine. I have made very close friendships that would not have been possible if I hadn’t joined Jumpstart. I have also positively impacted our classroom full of children, and that alone makes it worth it.

The children we work with are truly unique. They each have a different personality that shines through more and more each session. During the session, I smile so much that my cheeks hurt afterwards. The children are too funny and have such imaginations. For instance, during one of the science centers a core member was using a hairdryer to see how objects moved differently. One of the objects was a stack of post-it-notes. While the child was enthused about the hairdryer, he was awestruck by the fact that the post-it-notes acted very much like a slinky. He played with the post-it-notes for 30 minutes, affectionately calling it Lou. Lou was a girl. It is things like that, which is really an eye opener as to how a child can take a simple item and turn it into something magical.

Jumpstart has changed my perspective. I may be having a bad day, but when I get inside the classroom all of my problems are gone. It is impossible not to smile and laugh with the children when singing songs or doing different activities with them. I may be impacting the children by doing Jumpstart, but I think they are having an even bigger impact on me. 

~Mary Elder

Team Leader

Team Hope

Piece of the Puzzle

            At training during second semester we learned about classroom management and it made me look at our children in a new light. Some children are more engaged while some can’t sit still for four minutes. Will these features continue throughout these kids life, or is it just a phase? I can picture Adam squirming around in his chair even as a high school Freshman or Tom skipping around his chemistry class in twelve years.

             One of the children in our classroom, David, once told the after school teacher that Jumpstart and Grandma were his favorite. He didn’t like his mom, dad, or anything else, just Grandma and Jumpstart. This one statement sent a shock through my spine. Jumpstart makes that much influence in these children’s lives. We are foreign to these children,  how many times have they seen an eighteen year old college student so up close and personal. We are reliable and consistent  twice a week, no matter what. As we become more attached to these children however, it scares me. When we leave in April, what will happen to our children? I would hope that they go on to have bright futures. I can see David as an accountant, Natalie as a librarian, and Tom as a computer programmer. I wish that our Jumpstart team could follow our children throughout life, to see if what we have done makes any difference, or what these kids become capable of doing. Alas, this is not realistic, especially given the age gap. If one day I was to friend Derek on Facebook, I would surely be rejected, and understandably so. Will they remember Miss. Alexis a year from now? Even if they don’t remember my name or face, I hope that they remember Jumpstart and all the fun they had with us. As hard as it will be to say goodbye in April, and I try not to think about it, I also think about the great times we’ve had with our kids and I tell myself that they will certainly look back one day and remember their preschool days. I’m convinced that our Jumpstart kids will have amazing futures, and I’m proud to have been a piece of the puzzle in developing skills they will use throughout their life.

~ Alexis Maxwell
Team Leader
Team Kindness

Making a Connection

            The moment when you are able to get through to a student and make a connection is by far the very best one in my book.

            In Jumpstart this session, I was ready to play Go Fish with my students and was looking forward to seeing them learn the game and enjoy playing with each other. Puzzles tends to draw in fewer students in comparison to the other centers in our classroom--it doesn’t have the cool materials from dramatic play or the creative outlet that art or writing offer--but there are always a few students who enjoy solving puzzles and playing games. As I headed over to my center, I was slightly disappointed but not at all surprised (there were snowflakes in dramatic play!) to find that there were no students who had followed me over; I was going to have to go grab some friends from one of the other centers. As I was standing up to go invite students to come play with me, I heard a voice behind me.

            “Can I play Go Fish with you Miss. Morgan?”

            As I looked and saw who the voice belonged to, I was excited and shocked to realize that it was a little boy who had been pulled out of my reading group earlier by his teacher for behavior. This little boy,although smart is easily distracted and is often taken aside by his teacher to regroup.

            “Of course!” I grinned, exceedingly enthusiastic, “We are going to have the BEST time playing Go Fish because this is my very favorite game EVER!”

            We sat down on the colorful carpet and he picked out the yellow deck of cards to play with “because yellow is the coolest,” and once we were settled I asked him if he’d ever played Go Fish before. He responded that no, he didn’t know how to play but that he was going to learn. Yes you are, I thought, because this is Jumpstart and we help you learn and you help us learn and it’s AWESOME! I explained how to play and we began to play our first game.

            After we had played multiple rounds of just the two of us (all of which I lost) two other students decided to join us.

            “Can we play too?”

            I glanced in front of me to see a half played game of Go Fish and a little boy who was beginning to look extremely unsettled. He pulled his cards in closer, and defensively declared that “these were all his Go Fish cards.” Oh no, I thought, he was doing so well and what am I supposed to do now they need to share but I can’t tell them to share oh no what should I-

            “These cards are mine, but if you take ones from the Go Fish pile, I can teach you how to play!”

            These three students played Go Fish for the rest of center time; this connection,these moments: this is why I am a Jumpstart.

~Morgan Taylor

Corps Member

Team Determination

Dramatic Play

The golden rule of Jumpstart is the importance of not making a kid share. I know that if I talk to other corps members and team leaders, they’d disagree. On a personal level, it’s the most important because it’s the one that I most often forget.

I stand at dramatic play, a smile plastered on my face. Reading went extremely well today, more than well… It was amazing. Standing at dramatic play with that smile plastered on my face, I can feel it in my bones…today’s session is going to be great. Watching them literally sprint from circle time to dramatic play, I can feel my smile falter a little. My scholars are extremely smart and perceptive. I wonder if they can sense the fear radiating from my body.

Cooking was the name of the game that day at dramatic play, well ideally anyway. The extent of my scholar’s imagination is unlimited. Making pizza quickly became a session of washing dishes, which quickly led to playing house. My job in the game was pretty simple, I sat while they took care of me. As a general rule, the pizza was not allowed to be eaten until all of us were sitting at the tiny table, with tiny chairs that I struggled to fit in. If not pizza that was on the table, then it was pasta with honey on it, or a burger with ranch.

Dramatic play, no matter how prepared the center is, is always a complete chaos. It was on days like this that I wished I had 5 sets of eyes and 3 pairs of arms. The fights that occurred in dramatic play always involved the subject of sharing. There weren’t enough pizza pans, dishes, or aprons. Some girls would hold on for them for 5 minutes, put them down, and soon forget them. Other girls would hold on to them as if their dear little lives depended on it. When the argument would eventually make its way toward me, and believe me, it always made its way towards me, I would cringe inside. A part of me wanted so badly take the cop out, tell the fighting scholars to share, then quickly turn my attention elsewhere. It was so easy. All I had to do was say it. But somehow I just couldn’t. Of course, saying that went against guidelines, but my reasoning went beyond that. It wouldn’t be really fair to make them share. Not only that, it would deprive them of one of the few rights they have when it comes to playing.

I lean down, and I say that I will help them work this problem out. I give them options on what else they can do, or an idea for a game that we can play together. Seeing their eyes brighten at the options, I smile. Crisis averted. 

~Erica Rodriguez

Corps member

Team Compassion

Jumpstart is a Way of Life

It was two AM on the morning of our Thursday session, and I was up practicing Circle Time and Let’s Find Out About It for the hundredth time. I should be sleeping, I thought. But I’ve come to find over that last couple of months that this has been a common occurrence. I’ve chosen to work on Jumpstart materials over sleep, homework, etc. Why? I love crafting and it’s fun, of course. But it’s also become one of the most important parts of my life.

It’s obvious to me that I’m not the only one who’s noticed. When I go home for a weekend, my mom shows me a pile of things she’s collected and asks me if I need any of it for Jumpstart before throwing it away. When I start collections of things in my room, my roommate already knows it’s for Jumpstart. And when I get on the elevator in my Jumpstart shirt, my friends have taken to saying, “have fun saving the world” before I depart. I know that I’m not saving the world. But what I do know is that I’m making a difference in the lives of children.

I’ve seen the same changes in the Corps members on my team.  Now that we are starting new sessions, I’ve seen more interest, enthusiasm, and dedication from them. And that has doubled the excitement of our children.

And boy, are they excited! We walk into a room full of squeals of “Jumpstart!” despite their teacher telling them to quiet down every week. That alone is reward enough for all we do. They have memorized our songs, and start “it’s time to put the books away” and “Goodbye Jumpstart” before me. They look excitedly for the bunny on my Intro to Center Time box every week, and try to guess the centers based on previous ones they’ve played in. They remember us, and they are learning our routines. But that’s not all they’re learning.

Our children are young. As of the end of winter break, they are all now 3. But it’s almost easy to forget their age because they are so smart and well behaved. They are naming letters easily during circle time. Many of them can spell their names. Last week, while we were making groceries lists in art, one of our students told us that she was putting pizza on her grocery list because “the little red hen made a pizza.” Another student put mozzarella sticks on his grocery list, and called them that by name. A student who usually has a hard time focusing sat down and finished all three alphabet-matching boards, with cheering on by a Corps member.

We have good days and bad days, but we focus on triumphs like these. It’s easy to see how a job this fun and rewarding could take over our priority list. The successes we see everyday with our children are the reason why we stay up late, go through recycling bins, and constantly search for ways to improve. It is fun, and it is worth it.

~Victoria Donnelly

Team Leader

Team Learning

Center Time

The children disperse to various sections--eager to get involved in different subjects. I take my place at Puzzles. Laying the cards name-side-down on the floor, I preset some puzzles for the children. This week’s puzzle is memory name card matching. Every child has two cards with his or her name on it. The goal of the puzzle is to find a match by flipping over two cards at a time. With this puzzle the kids are able to practice memory, name recognition, problem solving, and many other beneficial lessons.
    Soon, three boys visit the Puzzle area. Two of the boys, friends tied at the hip, work together on a puzzle with great enthusiasm and many giggles. I interject when help is needed. We exchange laughs and smiles as more and more matches are found.
    One boy, a regular at the Puzzle section, becomes immediately submerged in his pre-set game. Looking for a match, he flips over one name card and another. No match. He looks to me for reassurance. “Keep lookin’! And try to remember what names those two cards were!” I tell him. He keeps at it--determination shows in his furrowed brow and glee shows in the small smile on his face.
    After a few more turnings of the cards he finds a match. “I’ve got one! I’ve got one!” he declares, as he holds the two name cards high in the air above his head. The matched pair shakes with the contagious energy radiating from the boy. We celebrate the match by swaying back and forth--an odd ritual of sorts--while we continue to sit criss-cross-apple-sauce on the tile floor. He then focuses back on his puzzle. With patience, endurance and persistence, he eventually matches all the names. He beams at me as I collect all the matches. “I did it! I matched them all!” he proudly states. “You sure did! I knew you could do it!” I reply, beaming as big as him. “Wanna do another?” I ask. “YES!” he practically yells. I set up a new puzzle. Excitement building in both of us after the second, third, and forth round.
    The confidence he is building for himself is visible as I watch--and occasionally help--him with his puzzle. This particular puzzle has been repeated in previous sessions. And this little guy who is a regular, well, he’s done it before. But the first time wasn’t so smooth. He found matches and enjoyed the puzzles as always, but frustration would bubble up too. After spending ten minutes looking for a match an exasperated sign would surface from his frustrated demeanor. I would help enough to keep the game fun, but not so much as to make it deliberately easy. He continued on. With help, he was able to find more and more matches. His frustration slowly changed to confidence. When he got all the matches we of course did our celebratory sway dance ritual. It was an important moment for him--a moment where he and I were both proud of his accomplishments.
    So, when I was placed at the Puzzle section, with the memory card matching game, and our regular at the puzzle section walked over again, dominated the puzzle with minimal help, and had no frustration what was I feeling? Well, it is safe to say I was immensely proud--and infinitely touched. I feel honored to be able to be a part of his growth in not just learning, but personal discovery. We get the privilege of working with these children twice a week. At first glance, that isn’t much, but when it comes down to it, watching the confidence in a little boy grow with every card flip, it’s everything.

~Tara Weixel
Corps member
Team Kindness

What Jumpstart Did For Me

Growing up in a big family has made me believe that I knew tons of facts about small children. However, when I came to Jumpstart I obtained novel informations about pre-school children. Also, this job has revealed various talents that I did not know I had in me. Apart from our kids being so adorable, I can say that I acquired new traits about small children that I did not know about. I learned that our kids are very intelligent, observant, and unique. Furthermore, our kids are very self-centered because each kid has a carving for personal attention and does not comprehend the idea of sharing. Basically, kids do not understand the concept of taking turns and letting other kids have a chance too. Recently, in my reading group one of my kids was angry at the fact that I was giving the other kids a chance to answer the questions I asked during reading to reconstruct. She made a statement about me calling on one particular kid more than her. Well, I told her that she already answered most of my questions and it was time for the other three children to have a chance too. The reason why I decided to mostly call on one girl was because I was not sure if she was engaged in the book, just like the others were. Nonetheless, I felt bad that the little girl was angry but I knew that she ultimately will have to learn how to take turns.

Continuously, my experiences so far with Jumpstart have revealed various talents I did not know I had in me. Before Jumpstart, I hatred art or anything that required me to be artistic. Eventually, I discovered that I had multiple artistic talents that I did not recognize about me. I knew I was a unique person but I did not know how and I eventually discovered it during session six of Jumpstart. I was in charge of the book center for session six but since I needed extra hours for jumpstart, my group leader told me to create the materials for dramatic play to gain more hours. Not knowing what I was expected to do in dramatic play, I agreed and it turned out that I was supposed to create party hats. I was troubled by the thought of creating party hats because I was scared that I would not know how to make them. Additionally, I did not believe that I was creative and artistic. In the process of making the hats over the weekend, I asked my roommate if they looked nice and she happily said they did, but I did not believe her. Even with me being scared that the kids or my teammates would not like the hats, I still decided to bring them with me to session. When I arrived to session my teammates loved the hats and each of them was excited to try them on. They asked me how long it took me to make them and I told them that it took me a while. My team leader was happy that I devoted my time into making the hats. I was happy to see that the other people saw how creative I was and it made me realized that I actually had an inventive side of me.

~Astou Talla
Corps member
Team Compassion

Feeling Like the New Kid

The new semester brought with it a new experience for me at Jumpstart. Unfortunately, due to schedule changes I was unable to keep my team or classroom. I started over with new people at a new school, but the biggest change was the children. Instead of working with 4-turning-5 year olds, I was now working with 3-turning-4 year olds. The difference was HUGE. Their level of maturity, how they interact with each other, attention spans, letter recognition—everything seemed different. I felt like I needed to learn and implement new strategies in the classroom in order to adjust.

More than anything, I felt like the new kid. The children weren’t familiar with me, and I didn’t have a place in their classroom yet. For the first couple sessions, they were hesitant in engaging with me and coming to my center. (Incidentally, I also had books, which is one of the less glamorous center time activities.) I had to prove myself—so when they did come around I went over the top. I was loud and silly as I read in weird voices, built suspense and laughed as at the stories.

I wanted to build relationships with these children. I loved my old team and classroom, and the thing I missed most was the sense of comfort and confidence I had with the kids. I loved the fact that I knew all their names, their weird tendencies, which centers they liked, who they could and could not cooperate with—this knowledge felt empowering, it made me feel like I was doing my job right. Needless to say, I was eager to reacquire this confidence in my new classroom. For the most part, by session plan four I felt I had it down. This classroom, in comparison with the 26 girls in my original one, was small. On a good day we had around 12 kids in session.

But there was still one boy I had yet to connect with. He wasn’t in my reading group, didn’t sit near me during circle time, and never came to my center. I was determined to fix this during session plan five. I was the puzzles and manipulatives center—the activity was uppercase alphabet matching boards. Puzzles wasn’t the most popular center time activity, but it had potential, so I sat patiently at the table.

The boy had just been removed from Dramatic Play and was nowhere near pleased when the team leader led him to Puzzles, but I dove right in. I presented him with the first board, “Are you ready? This one is really really tricky, but I bet you can solve all four boards.” He nodded and I started cheering him on. By the time he got to the fourth board I was chanting his name. “The crowd’s going wiiiiiiiild!” I whisper shouted. He was laughing, but so intent on finishing and so proud of himself when he did. “Can I go again?” he asked at the end. I think I smiled even bigger than he did. 

~ Laurel Cratsley
Corps member
Team Learning

Lessons for Success

When I looked at session six and saw that dramatic play was shopping for a birthday party, I knew it would be easy. The girls love the idea of birthday parties especially when their birthday was closely approaching. The enjoyed reading A Letter to Amy which consisted of a boy, Peter, inviting a girl to his party. I did less materials creation than I normally do because I knew how much their imagination thrived even when there was little to use for play. Obviously this was not enough to have the greatest birthday party or shopping event, and my team and I revamped all of the materials for that session. Through this, I learned some lessons for success as a Jumpstart Corp member.

Lesson one: do not be afraid to ask for help. Within a span of four hours we worked on materials for three different sessions. They looked awesome, and we were able to bond as a team. It’s important to bring in materials that we could be proud of and the children love. The materials complement the curriculum and without high quality material we would be doing a disservice to the children.  Working with others on materials brings together a myriad of ideas and extra hands to put together materials, so there is no real downside to working on materials with your team.

Lesson two: Even when you think you’re doing enough, step it up. There is nothing the girls love more than us acting silly. When we step out our comfort zone and read with enthusiasm they pay more attention to the book. When we bring in a lot of materials that are great they have more fun. They loved wearing the birthday hats that ranged in colors and design. Shopping for the birthday supplies was a blast, and they had fun carrying their own “money” that they would spend on their supplies. The best moment was when they were baking the cake together, and they agreed on the cake being “funny chocolate.”

The kids had the time of their life pretending to shop for all the supplies needed to have a birthday party. Without putting in time and effort for this session, they would not have had as great of a time as they did. The children we are with are precocious and absorb everything that they come into contact with, so we need to constantly have the mentality of whatever we have it can be better. I definitely know now, more than ever, that the materials you have make the experience for the children a lot better. 

~ Iashai Stephens
Corps Member
Team Courage

The Jumpstart Effect

Jumpstart is always a series of ups and downs, success and failure, both in the classroom and personal. Recently I was able to see a success in the classroom and it reminded me of the reason I do Jumpstart, to help the children. A young child in our class struggles with letters and his simple day to day interactions and most likely has a learning disability according to our teachers. He usually runs around the classroom in his own little world. However, recently, we were able to help him break out of that world. Since Jumpstart began coming to the classroom he slowly started to come out of his shell; we tried to work one on one with him as much as possible, and include him in all group activities. The other day we had a breakthrough. He sat next to me as I observed centers and spelled out and wrote every single letter of his name, with no hesitation and without prompting. I was stunned, somehow throughout all of these Jumpstart sessions, he had been listening and in the back of his head it was all making sense. It was the first time that he had been able to spell or write in the classroom.

In that moment, I remembered why I am Jumpstart. I am Jumpstart because I spend every moment of free time trying to figure out how to make my session better. I am Jumpstart because each time I walk into the classroom I leave my stress and worry at the door. I am Jumpstart because I want every child to be prepared to succeed in kindergarten. Jumpstart has become a family for me, and in every family there are good days and bad days. Sometimes we are a little off and cannot focus ourselves enough to give our best session, but we must remember that we are there for one reason and it does not involve us. We are there for these children and every little thing we do will help. Jumpstart can be difficult but it takes the small successes to remind us why we are where we are. From a child’s garbled retelling of a storybook, to the first moment a child can spell and write their name; we are there for the big and small successes. In Jumpstart I have learned to look at the little things and how they affect me, not the big things any longer. When a child can successfully spend a whole day without crying, it has been a successful session. If every child learns one thing during Jumpstart, we have had a tremendous success. We are there for these children to both support and bolster them through developmental years that are some of the hardest. As much as we support the children, they support us too; with their small successes, they remind us why we spend 300 hours of our lives dedicated to early education.

~Reka Keller

Team Leader

Team Connection

Hello Jumpstart!

When I first began Jumpstart I did not really know what to expect. I sat in each training session listening and reading all the different material my site manager handed out. All I could think about was all the information and pressure that came with being a Jumpstart Core Member. The minute I walked into my classroom for the very first time, however, all the stress and all the pressure seemed to fade. The students do not focus on how well you read the story or how well you interact with them during dramatic play. They look at you and see a new toy or plaything that can keep their interest for the next two hours. Although we are there to help the students with new vocabulary words, interesting new concepts and their alphabet comprehension I feel as though our goal is so much more. Our goal is to provide the children with two hours where they are the center of attention, something that some students always get in their own homes.

Since the first week or two in our classroom every time my team walks into the classroom we are bombarded with hugs and “Hello Jumpstart!”. They know the routine of having to sit down do their names and books before being able to sing and participate in any of the activities but they never seem to mind. One of the best feelings I have gotten in the world during a Jumpstart session was after two of my children were upset that we had finished “Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza”, they wanted to keep helping me knead the dough and chop the vegetables. I never realized that the book was so fun to them, I thought I was forcing them to make the pizza with me as I did the motions throughout the book. It made me realize that I have the power to show these children that reading not only can be educational with the new vocabulary we go through but it also has the ability to be fun.

As we wrap up center time and begin to sing the “Goodbye Jumpstart” song I always find it hard to leave the room after the suggested minute and a half my Site Manager told us during those long, strenuous information sessions. The children keep saying good bye to you and keep coming up for more hugs. It is hard to leave the classroom, yes because the students are too cute but also because for those two hours I was able to escape my own life. At the beginning of my Jumpstart experience I could feel the pressure and information weighing me down, now Jumpstart is my escape from the “real” work that always awaits me the minute I leave the metro station. The students may think that we are there for them, however, sometimes I find myself needing them more than they really need me. 

~Brittney Thompson

Corps member

Team Opportunity

Read to Reconstruct

In “Reading with Young Children” training, Jumpstart Corp Members are constantly told that children can be paying attention, even if they seem like they are not. During this training, I accepted this research, but often found myself doubting the attentiveness of my Jumpstart friends during the more rowdy reading sessions. 

One day in particular, I was reading Peter’s Chair during Read for Enjoyment, when one of my Jumpstart friends spent the entire fifteen minutes distracting her peers from the story.  I tried all of the classroom management techniques, saying her name to engage her in the story, using large hand gestures to captivate her attention, even touching her arm slightly to have her shift her focus. I was convinced that, not only did she keep herself from learning the content of Peter’s Chair, but that every other child had also tuned me out.

The following session, I entered the classroom with a slight feeling of dread.  I knew my Jumpstart friends would not remember any part of Peter’s Chair, much less be able to answer open-ended questions about the content. The child who had been so distracting in the previous session acted extremely tired, so the challenge of the day became having her participate more, instead of distracting others less.

When I would address questions to her, she would just look at me and sigh.  To my surprise, though, the other students remembered Peter, Willie, and Peter’s sacred chair very well. We worked our way through the story, and the students reconstructed the plot through observations and answers to my questions.  But then we arrived at the page where Peter tries to sit in his chair, and none of my Jumpstart could remember the punch line. 

I knew they knew the answer, so I tried rephrasing my question to jog their memories of Peter’s Chair.  To my delight, when I repeated my inquiry “what was wrong when Peter tried to sit in his chair,” my Jumpstart friend who had been completely quiet, and was so distracting during Peter’s first read through, stated loud and clear: “HE DON’T FIT.”

Since she stated those three emphatic words, I have no longer doubted her attentiveness, and am experimenting with different methods to keep her hands busy so her mind can be even more engaged.  I have learned to focus on the content of the Jumpstart curriculum, and less on how I think the students are receiving the information. 

~Deborah Carey

Corps member

Team Opportunity

By Chance

              Joining Jumpstart was something that just kind of happened—I needed an internship opportunity for the Washington Mentorship Program, and as I came across Stacia’s table at the involvement fair at Eagle Summit, I realized that this might be the kind of volunteering I would want to do with my freshman year in college.  Her eagerness, the smile on her face wide and bright, was enough to sell me into working in preschool classrooms two times a week, especially when the program itself is held on my own beliefs of the importance of childhood reading, and the fact that it overall sounded like it could be a really fun experience.  I applied to be a Corps member just weeks later, and never realized how much of an impact I would make on the adorable children at Cedar Tree, but also, what a lasting impression being a part of Jumpstart would mold onto myself.  Each time I enter the classroom, small children scamper over to me and the other Corps members, waving their tiny arms excitedly, and I cannot help but mirror their own smiles.  Every session has become increasingly more enjoyable, as well as rewarding, as I watch the vocabulary, imagination, and enthusiasm spurt out of the children’s mouth, their skills constantly expanding.

            I am a writer myself, and have always had a love of books and the millions of words that one can use to express themselves—but I wasn’t always up to par with my classmates.  At the age of five, my twin sister and I, whom were very premature babies, were unable to thread the letters together of our own names, and were suggested into doing an extra year of preschool to compensate.  I was once a few steps behind, but am happy to have been able to catch up with my peers, and I closely hold this same wish by my heart for the children we have developed bonds with at Jumpstart.

              I find myself having more and more fun each time I arrive in the colorful classroom in Anacostia, enjoying the company of the children and their amusing anecdotes [“Today I went to the metro and then my mom got my fish and then the storm came and then we went back in my house and then my dog licked me and my T.V. wasn’t working and then I oh my gosh you’re hair is so pretty what are those words on your shirt I wanna be a superhero—“], as well as bonding with the other members of my team, whom I have developed close relationships with.  Being a part of Jumpstart is something that has not only managed to surprise me in many aspects, but will also be a time in my life that I will never forget.  It has made me realize the importance of early childhood education and communication, and I will definitely carry this over into other components of my life. 

           

Kelly McNamara

Corps member
Team Determination