Jumpstart smiles

At the beginning of the year, Stacia told us that even if we went to Jumpstart in a bad mood, we would leave the classroom smiling. I didn’t buy it. I couldn’t believe that being in a roomful of three-year-olds would make me less stressed and/or annoyed. I was so wrong. It’s impossible not to smile when a student excitedly tells you they made it through the day without biting anyone.

I think the coolest thing about preschoolers is that they change and grow so much each week. This means each time I walk into the classroom I’m delighted and surprised by the progress each student has made.

Yesterday, my shyest Jumpstart friend sang and danced while playing with stuffed animals in dramatic play. At the beginning of the year, they wouldn’t even look me in the eye. Getting a one-word response was like pulling teeth. But this past session I rocked out with him to “That’s The Way Uh Huh Uh Huh I Like It”.

Yesterday, one child who has had a particularly difficult time learning the letters in their name read the word “Jumpstart” on my shirt. At the beginning of the year, the letters in her name were unfamiliar symbols. Now, in addition to reading everything on my shirt, she begs me to let her spell everyone else’s name in the class as well as hers.

But even though I get to watch my kids frequently grow, there are constants too.

I will always be greeted with a hug by one little boy.

One friend will always run around screaming “JUMPSTART!!!!!” when we walk into the classroom.

My kids will always tell me about the super awesome amazing things they did in school that day.

I will always leave Jumpstart with stories to tell and a smile on my face.

~Faith Ferber
Corps member
Team Opportunity

Tales of a Jumpstart Corps Member

As we get closer to the end of the semester, it gets very easy to forget how much I love Jumpstart. When papers start to pile up, I have presentations to make, and there’s a test the next day, it’s truly hard to sit down and find the time to prep a Core Story Book for Jumpstart, or prepare materials for center time. Even finding the time to write a blog post can become impossible. Stress seems to pile up.

But on Wednesdays and Fridays when we enter the classroom, I find that all of that stress tends to fade away. By our third Jumpstart session, the children began to greet us with squeals and shouts of “Jumpstart, Jumpstart’s here!!” My four-year-old Jumpstart friend who I read with each session yells “Miss Lauren’s here!” from their classroom across the hall. The children are so young and grasp on to tradition and continuality very easily. They know when to expect us, and they are genuinely excited to see us.  They memorize the order of our sessions and anticipate when we are going to switch stations. Most of them can even sing along with most of our songs! It’s truly exciting to see how accustomed the children grow to Jumpstart.

There were so many reasons that I love Jumpstart: I love children, I love teaching, and I love that proud smile a child gets when he or she understands a new concept for the first time. Being in Jumpstart has been a very fulfilling experience. It is a large time commitment, and it takes a lot of dedication, but it is worth it to work with these children and to help make a positive influence on their lives. 

~Lauren Evins

Corps member

Team Kindness

A housewarming

As I made my way toward Mary Graydon Center with my timesheet in hand, I had no idea what to expect the new Jumpstart office to look like. I went through all of the possibilities in my head, going through all of the potential pluses and deltas like a good Corps Member would do. I thought to myself, is it going to be smaller than the old office in Gray Hall? Is it going to be less festive, or less “Jumpstart-y?” Is it going to be too out of the way from my dorm room? Or, on the more positive side, is it going to bigger? Is it going to be worth going up all the stairs that lead to it? Is it going to be a place that I enjoy going to every time I hand in a timesheet, every time I need materials, or every time I need to ask Stacia or Alisha a question? By this time I was already walking up the stairs, following the circles on the walls. Here goes nothing!

I entered the office, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was “wow!” The first thing I noticed was how big the office was with Alisha in one room and Stacia in another! Their smiling faces really showed me how proud they were of their new space, and I could see why. Boxes upon boxes of materials were in the corner of the room, a tree was starting to be painted on the white wall, and each office had a personal touch from Stacia and Alisha; the beginning of a new home. After I congratulated Alisha and Stacia, handed in my timesheet, and left the office, it felt as though I just left a house-warming party. I can’t wait to go back and see the progress that will have been made, how many things will come out of the boxes, how decorated each office will be, and how much the tree will grow. It will definitely be an office to remember, and I will definitely enjoy climbing up the stairs to see it and say hello!  

~Maria Lewis

 Corps member

Team Kindness

Doctor's orders

Over my time at Jumpstart I have learned one very important lesson when it comes to taking care of children, do not take anything they say to you to heart. Kids do not have filters, what comes to their mind is not thought through they simply state what they observe. Since the beginning weeks of the classroom, my team and I have made it a tradition to share the funny little quotes we heard throughout the day. Sometimes after a rough day in the classroom, the little anecdotes give us a little giggle before we head home for the day. One of my favorite stories comes from my experience after returning from a cold.

Luckily due to snow days I did not have to miss any sessions because of my cold, but I still was plagued by my left over raspy voice. I thought that I had almost recovered from my voice until one of the little girls came up to me after center time and nicely told me I sound like a man. She said she heard me during Bingo and then told me “I think you should go home and have your mommy make you some soup, you sound like my daddy.” I thanked the little girl and waited until she left to break out in a small laugh. She truly looked concerned for my health and was serious through the whole time she was talking to me. Later in session I saw her again in my station, books. The child wanted me to reread our core story book of “Oonga Boonga”. With her she brought her stethoscope and every time I turned the page she would take her stethoscope check my heartbeat then allow me to continue to read. She did this for the whole story no matter how many times I told her I thought I was going to be okay. When I finally finished the book and she started to walk away she turned around and said, “Don't forget, doctor’s orders are to go home and drink your mommy’s soup”. As I broke out in a laugh she scolded me telling me that being sick was not a funny thing.

Walking out of JumpStart that day, retelling my other team members the story of my little doctor I almost completely forgot how stressed I still was with all the work I missed. I was not going to be able to go home and have my mother’s soup like my little doctor wanted but she still was able to make me feel better. The little laughter she gave me that day was the little stress reliever I needed to finish out my day.

~Brittney Thompson

Corps member

Team Opportunity

Life After Jumpstart

As summer quickly approaches, I have been thinking about what I want to be doing this summer and applying for a few camp positions. Applying for jobs obviously includes creating a resume and writing about prior work experience and in doing so I have realized just how much I have learned and gained from volunteering for Jumpstart and serving the preschool children I have grown to love. I really appreciate that Jumpstart includes training, hands-on work in the classroom, and experience working as a team. All three of these components of Jumpstart are essential for the volunteering experience and also generalize to important strengths outside of a Jumpstart environment.

The training is really intensive and teaches the corps members and team leaders the exact expectations that Jumpstart has for them as they work in the classroom. We learn the proper way to run the classroom and to read, but we also learn about early childhood education to help us better understand the little people we are working with. Being trained in early childhood education creates a really strong basis for all volunteers to use to interact with the children and understand what they are and are not capable of. In addition, volunteers are trained in communication with families which is really important for working with the children and seeing their parents after session, but also provides us with strong skills for interpersonal communication in other areas of our lives. The training also teaches us the proper way to work as a team member in our groups so we work together cohesively and easily. This teamwork is incredibly important since the groups spend so much time together. Our site manager even encourages us to have team bonding time to learn more about each other and work even better together. As a team, I think we work really well and it helps us when we are working together in the classroom. Furthermore, the team work I have learned through Jumpstart will strongly benefit me as I move on to other work experiences. Most of all, I think Jumpstart teaches flexibility. We learn to be flexible with the children we work with so we can mold the lesson plan to match the child’s abilities. In addition, since we are working with a public charter school, we sometimes have to be flexible with the schedule and the people we are working with.

I really appreciate Jumpstart and AmeriCorps for creating such a strong program that really gives their volunteers experience and skills to implement Jumpstart’s values in the classroom and in the outside world.

~Sophia Suarez-Friedman

Corps Member

Team Learning

Perception of Others

I used to think children were such narcissists, only capable of thinking for their own good. But, it was the day that Jane was having a difficult day did I figure otherwise.

Jane is typically one of our "star" students She’s always enthusiastically engaged with the Jumpstart curriculum. She’s very attentive and responsive. Most importantly, she’s cooperative; she gets along well with the other students and the Corp members. But, recently, Jane hasn’t been herself. When the tide started to change, she opened up to Quincey during Center Time at the writing station. While she was drawing a picture, Jane told Quincey nonchalantly, “My mom left us last night.” Although we never understood the entire story, we understood that troubles at home were distracting Jane; it was affecting her behavior. I think the other students could pick up on it, too, because Jane is usually a delight for everyone.

The other day during dramatic play, we were pretending to keep from the rain. There were rain hats, umbrellas, and ponchos. The ponchos were a hit, but there were only a few to go around which caused some conflict. Jane had started at another station before coming to dramatic play. So, when she joined, she immediately went to a student with a poncho and demanded it from her. Jane had been super fussy that day. Her hair was frazzled, and she looked tired and sick. When she demanded the poncho from Ann, she tried to snatch it from her. But, Ann wouldn’t budge. Before I could settle the conflict between the two, I had to send Jane to another station so that they could both settle down. Because Ann already had a chance with the poncho, I tried to convince her to give Jane a turn. But, she still wouldn’t budge. So, I told Ann to look at Jane. I asked her, “Doesn’t Jane look sad today? She doesn’t seem very happy, huh?” Ann nodded in full agreement, suddenly conscious about her behavior. So, then I told her, “Maybe we can make Jane happy today if we gave her a turn. You had fun with the poncho maybe Jane will, too.” When Jane came back to the dramatic play, Ann immediately took off the poncho and gave it to Jane. Ann had momentarily stopped thinking for herself to make someone else happy.

I’ve realized that children are naturally inclined to be ego maniacs. But, I’ve also realized as a Corp member that children are so malleable that they can be taught to be perceptive. So, I’ve come to understand that Jumpstart can be a time that children can learn to think outside of themselves. 

~Katie Kuy
Corps Member
Team Courage

Take Two

As we progress through this Jumpstart year, the books we read to the children have naturally grown more difficult. This fact has not gone unnoticed by the kids, who don’t hesitate to express their distaste. More than once, my reading groups have been interrupted by an eager chorus of “it’s time to put the books away” three pages into the story. But we always plunge on, sometimes winning the kids over, and other times struggling to even finish.

That’s why I’m always a little worried when I return for second implementation. There’s always a chance that the questions I ask won’t register with them. If they could barely pay attention through the first reading, how can I expect them to reconstruct the book with me? There’s nothing I dread more than the idea of sitting with three adorable children, answering my own questions as they stare idly around the room or pick at their nametags.

But they always surprise me. In utter despair, I’ll think to myself, “There’s no way they’ll remember why Samson had to buy Clara a new piñata.” And yet, I pose the question aloud and one of my kids shouts “Her don’t understand that her dog is fake!” Though it may seem to be a small victory, it never fails to make me happy. It’s amazing to me that they can recall these details days after the fact. They manage to retain more than I do with my own classes. People always refer to children as sponges, and in these moments when I realize how true that statement is, I’m simply impressed.

In my opinion, the most interesting part about read to reconstruct (and Jumpstart for that matter) is when you get the opportunity to see how children think. Obviously, I can’t remember how my thought process worked at that age. I don’t recall how I chose my friends or how I felt about school or how I talked about my sister and brothers. It’s amazing to have the opportunity to go into a classroom twice a week and try to figure it out. So in sessions I talk and play and ask questions until my heart’s content because they’re a mystery to me. And this classroom provides the closest, most genuine insight I’ll have into the mind of my four-year-old self.  Read to reconstruct has the capacity to delve into their feelings and thoughts. And there’s nothing I enjoy more about Jumpstart than listening to the kids convey their opinions in a way that’s both simple and genuine. 

~Laurel Cratsley
Corps member
Team Learning 

A Breakthrough

When you give a moose a muffin, he’ll want some jam to go with it. When you give a child a book, he’ll want nothing to do with it.

Or so I thought.

It happened last Thursday. I was in the Writing center, drawing colorful dots on a print-out dog when one of my Jumpstart friends placed her tiny little hands on my picture. I looked up. My green eyes were met by large brown ones and a shy, sweet smile.

“Where’s the book?” she said.

“What book?” I asked.

“The book that we read today,” she said, pointing to my drawing. “About the dog.”

I looked down at my drawing for a second, then back up at her.

“Oh, you mean ‘The Dog’s Colorful Day?’” I inquired.

She nodded excitingly, recognizing the book by its name.

“Hmm, well it was here a second I ago…” I said as I started looking under uncapped markers and crinkled papers.

I poked my head under the table to see if it had accidently fallen there.

“What did you say you needed it for?” I asked as I came up empty-handed.

“I want my dog to look like the dog in the book,” she replied earnestly.

“Ok,” I said.

Although I remembered bringing the book over with me to the table, I concluded that one of my team members must have put it back in our supply box by mistake. Thus, I left the table to go fetch the book from the box and brought it back to her.

“Here you go,” I said, holding the book out for her to reach.

She took it in an instant, laying it flat on the table and flipping to the page with the picture of the dog she liked best. Using her tiny elbows to hold down the book’s corners she begins to draw…

At the time, I didn’t realize just how groundbreaking this moment was for my Jumpstart friend. I didn’t realize that a connection was being made. Most kids her age, if given a print-out of a dog to color spots on, would have just scribbled ambiguous, red tornadoes on the paper and swiped it off the table. But she, she did something different. She used that book as a reference. As adults, we do this all the time. We look up words, we verify facts and we write essays using books as our tools. But in a four-year-old’s world, books serve no purpose. To make a book worth looking at it, someone has to read it to them, someone has to fight a child’s disinclination to sit and pay attention…

Since last Thursday, I can’t stop thinking about this girl. Something magical had to have happened inside of that little brain of hers. I don’t know if it was the dendrites branching out, or her little neurons firing in a sequence never prescribed before, but something very special happened that day, and I got to bear witness. I bore witness to a rare, isolated moment of childhood development.

I bore witness to a breakthrough.

~Leila Nasser

Corps member

Team Joy

Married to a Myriad of Many Wonderful Things

            Every time I enter the realm of Dramatic Play, I always come out as a married woman.  Yes, married. In fact, sometimes I come out married not to just one man, but many.

It all happens so fast. Just seconds after setting up my center, I turn around to find several Jumpstart kids at my feet ready to role-play. Some of the girls scream they are fairy princesses, others kindergarten teachers. The boys, on the other hand, all want to be one thing, and one thing only: “da fawther.”

 “Ms. Leila, Ms. Leila!” several boys would yell while tugging on the seams of my T-shirt.

“Yes?”

“I’m goin be da fawther,” one of them would say, standing proud and tall.

“Ok, sounds great,” I reply with a smile, admiring his alpha male instincts. Turning to the other boys I ask, “And who are you guys going to be?”

“We goin be fawthers too.”

“Oh?”

“Yah, and you da wife,” one of them chirps. “Yah, youz all our wives...”

Now. I have to say, I’ve never been one to jump into a relationship, let alone a polygamous one, but I couldn’t help but beam at my little Jumpstart boys, my little Jumpstart men, who have taken it upon themselves to tend to their pretend wife. Already, I see a boy darting to do laundry while another races to the grocery store, stuffing Frosted Flakes in a shopping bag in preparation for tonight’s dinner.

It is thus with sincere gratitude that I say (more to myself than to them),

“Wow, aren’t I the luckiest girl in the world?”

It never ceases to amaze me how Dramatic Play can create such a warm dynamic between children. Kids that I swore hated each other are suddenly best buds, working together to get babies dressed, dogs fed, and dishes washed. As a wife, I couldn’t be happier. And as a Corps Member, I couldn’t be prouder.

But in addition to being married to the best husbands a girl could ever ask for, I’m also married to the best job a college student could ever dream of. I am married to reading books, and reciting poems; to singing songs and playing games; to acting silly, embracing spontaneity, and laughing, laughing, laughing.

Marriage is such a funny thing. Today, it seems so formulaic: first the ring, then the dress, the ten-tier cake, the lilac flowers, the opulent wedding.

My marriages, however, are different. They require no pizzazz, no sparkles, no frill no fluff.

No. Just love. Just love, and my red Jumpstart T-shirt.

           

Leila Nasser

Corps member

Team Joy

 

Disgusting!

Jumpstart has definitely involved a lot more work than I originally anticipated, but material creation has also evolved into my weekly therapy time. There is just something, oh so relaxing and de-stressful about siting on the floor of you room and cutting things out of construction paper. However the stress might return when it comes time to laminate and you keep getting the laminating paper stuck in your hair. But jumpstart is not only about the material creation, actually being in the classroom has taught me a lot about myself, and the way I react to situations. In the beginning, keeping the level of enthusiasm for learning high in the classroom was a struggle. The children were either too enthusiastic, wanting to hold and grab everything, or completely uninterested in the totally awesome thing I was trying to demonstrate.  As time went on however I began to understand the children a lot better and I could tell what was going to become a huge distraction and what was going to work.

Probably the proudest moment of my time in Jumpstart (and probably also the most Disgusting!), was when we read Max’s Dragon Shirt.  Disgusting was one of the key terms that we were supposed to introduce to the children and my group member Amalia showed us the eww way of saying disgusting, so that the children would pick up on the word better. Suffice to say, it worked, or I thought it did, I couldn’t be sure because I had yet to hear them put the word into action. Later that day, during my CAT hours, I was lining the children up for the bathroom. Although I never help them go to the bathroom, it was my job to make sure they stood in a line outside of the bathroom until there were stalls available. From against the wall I heard an outcry of squeaky voices screaming, “DISGUISTING! DISGUISTING! DISGUISTING!” When they came out of the bathroom and told me what they were screaming about I had never felt more proud and disgusted than at that time. What was important to me about this experience was the fact that the children had learned a vocabulary word and understood it to the point of being able to use it accurately in a real-life situation. It is for moments like this that I feel all the work and time that I put into Jumpstart is worth it, because they are actually learning.


~Sinead Brennan
Corps Member
Team Inspiration

Dream Big

Last night, Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Patsey, in 12 Years a Slave. In her speech, which was filled with such joy and gratitude, she reminded the audience both at the event and across the world, to dream big, and do what may seem impossible. It is this energy that I try to take into my classroom at each session, this notion that anything is possible, no matter where you grew up, what your circumstances are or were, or what you have been told by others. 

For the most part, the students Jumpstart serves are extremely disadvantaged, living in high-poverty neighborhoods, surrounded by violence, and often forgotten by the people who live within the same district lines. For those of us who do notice, and who choose to support them, the response we get from others is often a superficial “Oh wow, you’re such a good person!” While that may be true, that label, whatever it means, is so far down the list of reasons why I want to serve, that it might as well not be there at all. I rarely get the chance to tell those people the real reasons I serve, so I will lay out three of them here:

1.     I serve because these children have seen more in their short lives than I may ever see in mine, and because, if nothing else, I can provide a break from that to sit down with a book in reading, to paint a picture in art, or to play a game of make believe in dramatic play, and remind them that they are loved and appreciated.

2.     I serve because even in a school that values each student, I know that some children slip through the cracks. Being there to spot those students, and to work with them so they learn that they are smart, hard working, and capable of succeeding in school may one day make all the difference in their life paths.

3.      I serve, because in the words of Lupita Nyong’o, “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

Our students have big goals and dreams. By serving with Jumpstart, by showing up in class twice a week and bringing the energy Lupita Nyong’o did to her performance and acceptance speech, I know that I am telling the students “Yes you can” to all of their dreams.

~ Becca Goldstein

Corps Member

Team Joy