The 2021-2022 school year is the first year Middle Creek is offering its Early Childhood Education course. Currently, the class is made up of ten students who spend Tuesdays and Thursdays at school learning different techniques and methods they can use in the classroom, and Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays assisting at internship sites such as local elementary schools and daycares.
This class is a great opportunity for those who hope to work with children in the future. Paola Estrada, a senior at Middle Creek, says that she has enjoyed her experience thus far. "I want to go into education in the future. It's been helpful in deciding what grade I want to teach."
Students are allowed to pick their preferred grade they'd like to help out in and are assigned to help out with their students' day-to-day activities. Paola's internship site is at Middle Creek Elementary, and during her time in the classroom, she helps small groups of Kindergarten students with their reading and writing skills or cuts papers and cleans tables while the teacher is giving a lecture to the students.
Channing Queen, who is also a senior, helps in a third-grade class at West Lake Elementary. Like Paola, she has also had a great experience. "I love it. I find it so fun. Going into it I was super scared but now that I have a schedule, know the students' personalities, and how they work, I'm excited to see them because I know what they need help with, know where to pick from the previous day and how to help them." When they're not at their internship sites, the students are in the classroom with Ms. Sherman, learning about different teaching strategies and methods they can apply at their internship site. Currently, the students are learning about positive and negative reinforcement, which they can use to guide the behavior of their students.
This class not only gives students experience working with children, but it also comes with academic benefits. Next year, Early Elementary Education and its subsequent class, Early Elementary Education II, will be worth community college credit. Currently, the state is still in talks of making the courses count as honors classes.
When applying for this course, there's no guarantee that you'll be selected. Students must be 16-years-old, and factors such as a student's attendance, behavior, and grades are also taken into account.
Early Childhood Education is a great opportunity for those who are interested in working with children, but also teaches life skills that anyone will be able to use in the future.
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