Walmart Claims Services, Junior Achievement, and Hope for Our Future
Lessons from the Classroom – Walmart Claims Services, Junior Achievement, and Hope for our Future
On May 16, a mighty group of Walmart Claims Services associates gathers on an early morning to volunteer at Jim D. Rollins School of Innovation in Springdale, Arkansas.?For most, it was the first-time volunteering in an elementary school where we were asked to teach the principles of economics, community, and financial literacy to elementary school students.?We spent the prior week preparing content, organizing our supplies, reviewing our materials, and trying to anticipate what we would experience.?We all knew that the students – in all their honesty – would hold us to task and we did not want to disappoint.
In the end, it was an incredible experience.?The teachers, administrators, and students were kind, welcoming, funny, interesting, and above all, thankful for showing up.?We all shared so many stories afterward of what we experienced and how we were impacted.
I have compiled stories from some of our volunteers and am so excited to share them.?I hope that we will inspire you to consider volunteering in your local schools with Junior Achievement or other organizations.?
Lessons from Second Grade - Michele Adams
My volunteer experience offered so many parallels for my work life.?The following are my top 7 lessons from my second-grade class:
I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that this volunteer experience was just a few weeks before the tragic events in Uvalde, Texas.?The faces of those eager second graders I spent the day with has stuck with me as I imagine the same faces of 19 children and 2 teachers whose lives were cut short by what has become an all-too-frequent event.?My children are nearly grown now, and it has been a while since I found myself in a second-grade class.?Knowing the positive way that volunteering has impacted me has strengthened my resolve to do so more often.?
Our children need to see friendly, helpful, adults in their classrooms.?Our teachers and administrators need to see that we all care for them, want to help, and are willing to show up.?While my willingness to volunteer does not change the events, it does create a connection to what it means to be a student, teacher, or administrator.?If it’s been a while since you have been in a classroom, Junior Achievement is a great way to make a difference.
Lessons from Fourth Grade - Chip Hargrave
Volunteering for Junior Achievement was probably as rewarding for me as it was for the 4th graders that I taught. The class was really excited to have me as a sub for the day, qualified or not. They were eager to engage, and it really felt like they listened to the lesson. I tried to relate the material to real world examples and the kids really seemed to enjoy hearing about how concepts applied to my day-to-day work life. We discussed many things that day including revenues, expense, profit, and loss. While discussing, I asked them if they had heard of Black Friday, and most had. I explained why people call it Black Friday as it relates to Profit, and you should of seen their expressions. Watching them soak in basic concepts and learn from my experience was a great feeling and very rewarding.
I have a 4th grader of my own so decided to choose her grade to get a glimpse into what a day looks like for her. My daughter was so excited when I told her that I was teaching a class and she helped me run through the material the weekend before. I thought that was reward enough but teaching the class was a lot of fun and something I plan on doing again.
Space to deviate - Lindsay Rabicoff
I am a planner, always have been, always will be. I was the student in the front row who pre-read, did all her homework in advance, and came ready to participate in class. I know, it can be annoying, but it’s part of who I am. The last several decades, I have been working hard to allow myself the space to go off course, embracing a motto: “plan, prepare, but know when to deviate.”
On Monday May 16, we had the opportunity to volunteer with Junior Achievement, bringing financial literacy and education around the importance of community into the classroom. I volunteered to lead a second-grade class, and in true form spent the weekend preparing all of the lesson plans and activities. I even had the certificates pre-filled out. This was me controlling what I could in true recovering Type-A form.
When I got to the classroom, things started off strong. The students were excited to have a visitor and thought it was pretty “cool” that I worked for Disneyland in my prior life (I did make the strong argument that Walmart is pretty awesome too, but it was hard to compete with churros and attractions!). About 40 minutes into the four-hour curriculum, however, I could feel the class getting restless. Immediately, I was drawn back to my motto… plan, prepare, leave room to deviate. It was time to go “off road” for a bit.
Reflecting back on it, it’s funny how all of us as humans are wired the same, whether we are in a second-grade classroom or sitting in a meeting. We can plan and prepare but must allow ourselves color outside of the lines.
Here's to those second graders who reminded me that the most important part of a plan sometimes is knowing when you need to flex from it and try something new.
Reflections on Junior Achievement Day? - Jennifer Kappen
I had the pleasure of teaching 20 wonderfully restless, eager to learn kindergartners, 10 boys/10girls.?I have never been in front of a class of school aged students and taught or shared anything in my life, so this was a very new and unique experience for me.?There were a lot of lessons, emotions, questions, and organizing that came into play with this new way of volunteering.?
We greeted the students, some were very shy and not yet comfortable talking with us, but it did not take long for that to change.?Before heading off to the classrooms we stopped for group photos with entire volunteer group and students.?On the way to the class my nerves began to calm down and as soon as we entered the room you could feel the excitement from the students.?They were so happy to have new faces with them for part of the day to teach them something new (some knew more than others).?I briefly chatted with the teacher to define roles and start pulling out my session’s materials.?We gathered the students around in a circle and we quickly kicked off introductions and session #1.?The teacher was in the class the entire time to help manage expectations for the students.?
As we worked through the sessions, it became very clear the students already had some basic knowledge about the differences between wants and needs, how to make good choices, giving back to the community, and the best one of all, why we keep money in bank, "to keep it safe from the villains, of course!" one student proclaimed.
Armed with the basic knowledge of those concepts, the students were able to grasp the level of information I was teaching them. This whole experience was so rewarding and allowed me to be part of something that could impact the lives or our future generation, for the rest of their lives.??
I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them the next level of financial literacy and responsibility and I think it’s safe to say that I will be a future J.A. volunteer for many years to come.?
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Adventures – and Lessons - from a 1st-grade Class Loyd Day
As I received my learners kit and began to prepare for the upcoming JA event, I quickly realized that this was not a “wing it” kind of program. The content including activities, posters, stickers, etc. and stacked up to what felt like a two feet tall mountain of material on my desk. With less than a week to prepare the panic began to sink in and I started to question my ability to be successful. After all these were 1st graders I was going to teach, and they can be tough critics!
I eagerly studied the outline of materials, highlighting and marking my pages with notes, I began to gain confidence that this would be a grand adventure. I was destined to teach these young minds something that would help them throughout the rest of their lives! ?
Once through the facilitation guide my preparation continued into the delivery phase. I began to practice in my mind what I would say to these wonderful young minds, playing out the scenarios in my head as best as I could imagine. I envisioned all the students sitting in a nice cozy little circle with Mr. Loyd as he was sharing with them insights about family neighborhoods, local businesses, entrepreneurship, and more. I carefully played out all the activities outlined in the facilitation guide and had each step down.
Then came the day, it was time to head to the school for this grand adventure and bring to life what I had been preparing for. As arrived and entered the classroom I encountered better than a half a dozen young ladies and 16 highly strung first grade boys who had just returned from a field trip. Visited by that friend again “PANIC” I began to feverishly sort through all the materials I had prepared. The young learners were ready to get started and they were ready now! I soon realized this is where I needed to stop, take pause, and get to know my audience a little more before diving in.
A Few Take-a-Ways:
Know Your Audience- We do not always have the luxury of knowing our audience before we arrive at a place of presentation or in this case delivery of education to others. Despite the mounds of preparation we make, if we do not know our audience, we will likely face difficulty connecting with them. To me this means sometimes we must stop the execution of what we are doing and get to know the recipients a little better before we can be most effective.?
Adapt my Approach- I was forced to adapt my approach from covering every detail in the facilitators guide to “focus on the big rocks” approach. When the world around you is moving at the speed of light, we cannot always put a perfect bow on everything, sometimes we just need to stop, look thought the forest and pivot ourselves towards a laser on what really matters and not get lost in the noise of details.
Learning Gain- Take time to pause and make sure you are gaining something from what you are learning, if we neglect to stop and check for the gain then we likely have a missed opportunity to take the learning acquisition and apply it to our performance to make us stronger. Likewise, it is always a good idea to stop along the journey to check the pulse of your audience to see if they are gaining something from what you are sharing with them, is there an acquisition of information occurring.
Clear and Detailed Instructions- If you want to avoid frustration for the folks you lead, pay attention to this one. It takes a lot of practice to be great at giving clear instructions and the first graders were teaching me that I still have a long way to go. I cannot recall the number of times I have neglected to give proper guidance or instruction when assigning projects. This has led to many frustrated moments for the associates I have tried to lead and is one of those flaws that can cause a lot of re-work.
Small Voice in The Back- Our first-grade experience today teaches us that sometimes the most powerful voice in the room is that small, meek, hidden gem sitting in the back waiting to blossom. It is a true challenge for leaders to ensure that we are fostering an environment that brings out that “small voice that may not otherwise be heard”. This is where some of our richest ideas and contributions come from.
Coach Up & Hold Your Leaders Accountable- One of my favorite lessons of the day came near the end when an eager little first grader came to give me feedback and hold me accountable for something he felt I had missed. The interesting part about this was the absence of fear, he was fearless, but respectful at the same time as he delivered his message to me. How often are we afraid to point out to our leaders when they miss? Even more so I noticed something about myself that was equally surprising. As I received the feedback and was being held accountable by this young student, I was totally open to what he had to say and clearly in my mind and heart heard him. How often do we wrestle with receiving feedback, if we could just learn to be open and as “pure” as this moment was for me the world would be a better place for it?
The lessons I learned were surprising considering the tiny teachers I had. This goes to show that if you can learn from a first grader you can learn from anyone! Be a lifelong learner, it’s good for the soul, and keep on learning! ?
Lessons from the 5th Grade - Bert Solis
JA-in- a-Day was a two-way teaching experience, as I took away as many lessons as I taught to my 5th grade class. The school environment we were introduced too was entirely different then what most of us recall as our grade school days experience. This new, open learning and collaborative mindset is deeply rooted into the structure of Jim D. Rollins and correlates with the way the business world has transformed.
The school allows for individual thinking and personal strength development and really nurtures the fact that we each bring something special to the table.?Just like when we are building teams and project groups at work, the students do the same, with an understanding of what strengths are being presented by each of those team members.
In some of our exercises, the high performing teams appear to be the ones that utilize each team members’ strengths, such as Sally’s organization skills, or John’s time management skills, and Sam’s technological skills.?I was really encouraged as I interacted with the 5th graders in my assigned class, seeing how each of their differences made the group stronger.?The learning format they employed allowed them to lean into how they best learned, and not how the collective thought they should.?What a great lesson we can apply to our work environment.
Fun in the Classroom - Melissa Gajeski
Top lessons from volunteering with JA:
·??????Having a flexible space is so important.?Having a good environment improves engagement?
·??????Preparation is essential!??it allows for adapting material to the level of interest being received and to be seen as a teacher not a reader
·??????Take the plunge and embrace the experience! I was so nervous but had a lot of fun! The kids were excited and very welcoming
·??????Giving back is a great feeling!?Around their same age, I was in a similar program, and it was lifechanging. JA is an opportunity to hopefully do the same for one of them
·??????I picked up some great skills.?Once a week I lead a small group of 3rd and 4th grade students and attention-getting and maintaining focus has been a struggle with my wild bunch; however, this week I applied the same tactics the teacher I worked with uses on her students and the response was amazing!