Early Childhood Education CTE is a career tech program geared for students who are interested in learning about children from newborn to nine years old. They are taught how to be effective teachers and how to work at preschool centers.

Level one starts out in the early learning center, working hands-on with children, and level two involves running the preschool in the afternoon. Level three starts helping at the elementary school and runs the preschool in the morning. 

The levels are based on age groups. Level one studies infants and toddlers. Level two studies preschoolers, and level three studies children from five through nine years old.

After this CTE, most students either become elementary school teachers or work at a daycare. 

“You want to be here, so I get really good kids,” teacher of levels two and three, Mrs. Jill Farr Bodnar said. “It’s not like an English class where you have to be there.”

Mrs. Farr Bodnar enjoys how much the students value working with the children. 

Level one teacher Mrs. Beth Pavinich introduces the CTE to students who begin to gain experience with children and teaching techniques.

The Early Childhood Education CTE has been an option for students for 15 years and has had significant interest. 

In the future, Mrs. Farr would like to expand and have more than one preschool class and  have more infant hands-on experience. 

The class takes up a lot of time and requires students to have the drive to spend most of their day learning about early childhood. 

The hardest part for students is making up for missed work because the class takes up three periods a day, so missing two days of school work feels equivalent to missing a week of work for other classes. Students can not make up for the experience they miss when they are absent for a day when they would be in the center working with kids.  

“I think the hardest part is keeping up with the workload,” junior Emma Wentworth said. “It takes a while to get used to all the work and stay on track when you miss a day.”