The Child Development 2 class is a class any student can take after finishing Child Development 1. The class focuses on the early stages of a child’s life, from early childhood to preschool age. Included in this class, Jefferson students have the opportunity to have a daycare class full of four-year-olds come to Jefferson to play. And the Jefferson students get to see firsthand in person what they have just spent the first half of the semester learning.
While this is exciting for the Jefferson students, it is just as exciting for the daycare students. They get to spend their morning playing in a fun new environment with all these new “teachers,” as their actual daycare teachers get to have some time to step aside and observe. 4-year-old Elinor is a part of this daycare class. When asked what she likes about what she does in her new class, she said, “ I wear a red shirt over my dress, and go to Jefferson to play.” She was then asked what she does in this class at Jefferson, and she exclaimed, “I play in the kitchen with my pink wand.”
The class isn’t just watching and interacting with the kids as they play; the students in the Child Development 2 class have the chance to create lesson plans and teach the younger preschool students. This ties in closely with the teacher pathway class, as they also have to make lesson plans and teach them to the students at their practicum, which they go to once a week. Both of these opportunities give students at Jefferson much more insight into the real world of teaching, and could help them determine a future career they’d like to have.
As the school year comes to a close, it will be interesting to watch how this program will continue over the following years, and if this will expand beyond Jefferson, possibly into other high schools.
