J Life Magazine October-December 2018 oct-dec-18-jlife | Page 13

NAOMI FOSTER
30 YEARS
N
aomi Foster stared working in the JCC
Early Childhood Education program 30
years ago! She saw an ad in the paper,
called, and was hired over the phone
to help teachers in the classroom part
time. ECE currently has 19 classrooms, 30 years ago
there were only four. They were located in the old Jew-
ish Federation building that no longer exists.
In 1988, Naomi was taking classes at Pima Community
Center. She was working on a degree in social services
and needed a part time job that was flexible. Naomi
found working with children at The J very rewarding.
During the summer, she was a lead camp counselor in
ECE and loved the responsibility. She took on more
hours during the school year and eventually became
a full time assistant teacher. Shortly after that, a lead
2-year-old teaching position opened. She finished her
degree in Early Childhood Education, moved to the
3-year-old room in the mid 90’s, and the rest is history.
Naomi has so many wonderful memories throughout
her 30 years of teaching. She says the things the chil-
dren say are her favorite. She has collected their quotes
all these years. A recent word from the wise:
“It takes 30 minutes for a kid to
be turned into a grown-up. That’s
when they get the key to all the
locked doors.” – 3-year-old child
Naomi is blessed with watching many of her children
grow up. The J provides a place for people of all ages,
so she sees children come back for summer camp and-
some eventually return as camp counselors. She’s even
By: Joline Riddle
witnessed people become staff members, who were
once in her room as a 3-year-old.
On her 30th “workiversary,” Naomi made a post on her
Facebook page to document the milestone. She nev-
er expected the response she would get from family,
friends, past students, colleagues, and random people
in the halls. Naomi responded to this attention with a
big smile, “I didn’t expect the recognition. It was a big
deal to others and that’s really cool.”
In a 3-year-old classroom, you see and feel the emotion-
al and social growth that is typical for this age. Many of
Naomi’s “kid quotes” embody this development. Here
is an example:
A child was crying and walking toward me rubbing the
top of his shoulder. Another child was following close
behind, looking very concerned but confident. As I
bent to hug the first child, the second child placed her
hand on my arm. “I was holding this toy and swishing it
around in the air. But I didn’t look close around me and
I didn’t see him. I accidentally - not on purposely - hit
him with it. But I know what I can do before you hug
him.” Then she turned to him. “I bumped you when I
wasn’t being careful. I wasn’t trying to hurt you, but I
did. Can I hug you?”
Naomi is happy to have stayed at The J in education for
all these years. She often gets the question, “Don’t you
get burnt out?” She doesn’t know how to answer that,
but when she wakes in the morning she says to herself,
“Today I get to go to work.”
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