This school year, students in the Early Childhood Development pathway at Turner High School are taking what they’re learning and putting it into practice in our USD 202 preschool classrooms!

This early childhood field experience is part of our real-world learning initiative, which centers around providing students with hands-on experiences that best prepare them for their future career. Early Childhood Development teacher, Maudie Starcher shared that this field experience is important for students so they can make an informed decision about their future career path before committing to studying it in college.

After a successful first quarter, Starcher can already see the impact. “Most of the students are finding out this is the right career for them, and the experiences the students are gaining in the classroom is only further pushing their excitement and eagerness to get to college and become an Early Childhood teacher.”

The Foundations of Early Childhood Education students began the semester with a visit to Turner Human Resources at the district office where they received district badges identifying them as being in the field experience program. Students were then assigned to specific buildings and preschool classrooms, which they visit each week during a 90-minute block class period. This semester, students attended preschool classrooms at Turner Elementary and Oak Grove Elementary school, as well as participated in Toddler Tuesday.

Senior Melanie Estrada-Quintero shared what a typical day in the preschool classroom is like – they play and talk with the preschoolers, and they help the teacher keep everything neat. “We help the children learn to share and how to play together,” she said.

Walking into the preschool classrooms, you’ll see the field experience students sitting patiently with small groups of preschoolers helping lead them through an activity.

As the course teacher, Starcher visits the preschool classrooms to observe the field experience students. She noticed that experience is beneficial for both the early childhood student and the high school student.

“The early childhood students are excited to spend time with their high school students. The high school students read to them, they give them complements when they do something in the classroom. The high school student is getting real world work experience. They are building professional confidence and a strong work ethic,” said Starcher.

Estrada-Quintero shared that the experience has changed the way she understands early childhood development. “It showed me so much more than I thought I would ever learn while in the course,” she explained. “We get to interact with children to understand and learn how it is like to be with them and get the real-world experience instead of just reading from a book about how to help them.”

Junior Brooklyne Tomasevic shared that she now knows for sure that she wants to go to college and major in early childhood.

“I love how I get to meet these amazing children! My favorite part is seeing how Ms. Rivera teaches them, and getting to help with the kids, like help them color or cut papers!”

So far, this experience has been overwhelmingly positive for all involved. And in USD 202, we hope that these students return to be early childhood teachers in Turner once they graduate from college!