Welcome Back! We are so excited for this year to begin. You can find monthly updates here on the site as well as the great accomplishments that are happening in our program. Lets celebrate our students and our goals!

The ECP class has also been working on expansion of early childcare vocabulaury in the area of "Guidance" and "Ages" and Stages" of development. It is amazing how these young ladies and gentleman are picking up on the educational jargon of our trade.

Way to all work together and make such a door with uniqueness and creativity!

We here in Early Childcare like to keep students interested and engaged and to keep their knowledge thriving. A few ways we do that is to have a guest speaker, visitor, or to go on field trips that are of interest to the Childcare Industry. The students really gain a lot of knowledge through the power of watching experts in their fields.

Be assured these however are not free days for students and attendance is required. Academic growth is the purpose of these activities. Please encourage your student to be an active participant.

In our classroom we do not hold Parent/Teacher conferences. Instead we hold Student-Led conferences. They are required for the class. Student swill call and invite you to their conference n will actually lead their own conference. We do this so students (potential teachers) will gain "hands on" work experience with this process. We would like to thank all the students who participated and the parents/guardians for coming.

Also coming this month we will begin our "baby stimulation" unit the week before Thanksgiving Break. This is one of the highlights of the year. Guardians please note that students do not have to bring home the baby, but all students will be required to care for the "stimulation baby" during their class time. More information with regard to the program will follow in the next few weeks. Super exciting time for the students!

The following students are busy working n their "Pyramid" training every Wednesday evening. Thanks for going above and beyond in furthering your early childhood education. Congratulations Dakalya Schutz, Jesse Ynojos, Kenzie Morton, and Veronica Bennet! Your dedication and passion will get you far!

The Early Childhood Program would like to thank parents who supported our CTSO'S recent staff breakfast, our cookie/coffee sale and those parents who have supplied snacks to our hungry students! Thanks for supporting our Program and students, we couldn't do this without you!

What a way to start the year off right. The class began the first week with a guest speaker who spoke to us about prescription medication an their affect when taken improperly. This is an important subject as we want all of our future teachers to be in the best health they can be in order to care for young children properly.

We are still very much involved in our "simulation baby program". If you walk by our classroom you will see and hear the babies and their caretakers in full caregiving mode. Diapers are being changed, feeding schedules being met, and how important it is to take the best care of your self in order to be a great care giver! Some students have even experienced the "change of gravity" has on the body of a 7th month pregnancy belly. the live birth of a baby video gave all insight into what actually happens in the womb during pregnancy.

This month will end with all students having a polished Resume thanks to the cooperation of the SWAP team who will guide us through the process of writing and then interviewing for jobs. All of this in preparation for the Job Fair at the Career Center in March of this year.

Our CTSO's are preparing "Gratitude Notes' for some in the early childhood community as well as in our own building. It is a great way to improve classroom/community kindness. We are proud of our students who want to remind people how much they are needed during this stressful time in our history. Remember kindness is free!

A new collaboration has been started between Shelledy Elementary and the Early Childcare Program. the idea of "real life" experience took on a whole new meaning when ECP students were expected to create a board and assemble it within the time frame that a "real teacher" has. Students learned time management, accuracy and measurement skills that were important as they designed their product. Students and staff at Shelledy Elemantary were impressed with the boards the students had created and the skills they taught and implemented. We will continue this collaboration through the months of March and April and into the future!

The students in the ECP are hard at work. This month we are proud to announce two students who have applied for and received the scholarship for the Community Child Development Associate Program CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Jocelyn Snow and Ashley Kennedy!

Their formal online class will being this month and will continue through the end of the school year. This past month they have been volunteering in the Colorado Preschool Program at the Career Center to earn hours toward this certification. In addition to earning their CDA they will also receive a $300 stipend to use they wish upon completion. Congratulations for a job well done! Way to take advantage of the special opportunities' we have to offer, to help you on a future career path!

We remember to play as we enhance our skills sets in early childhood. This month our CTSO celebrated the end of the quarter playing a few "team building" games.

Shelledy Elementary also benefited again from our three bulletin boards. We helped the school celebrated Dr. Seuss with one of our boards along with celebration of spring. We love helping out at the elementary school!

This month has been full of information regarding founding fathers of education and theory. We have learned about Maslow's Pyramid and Piaget's Cognitive Theory. Students have a firm foundation of these theories and how they apply to modern classrooms. Advanced first year students and second year students are working on a research paper in which they will apply some of these theories with the children in the Colorado preschool to see what type of data they can find to support or disprove the theory.

This month we are also working on a disability slide presentation in which we are looking not for the definition of specific disabilities, but also how we can apply teaching strategies to enhance learning within the integrated preschool setting. Students will be presenting their slides not only to their peers but also the Career Center's Advisory Board as a capstone for the class toward the end of April.

Students' presentations to the ECP Advisory Board were done with pride. Advisory Board members enjoyed learning what the students were presenting and were excited to see the upcoming workplace potentials in the field. Pictured is Bo Tobin, WBC Coordinator who was being tested on the State of Colorado's Rules and Regulations for changing a child's diaper. Stephani Schwetman tried the "pregnancy belly" to experience some of the effects that pregnancy has on your body and ability to do activities during pregnancy.

Students also have been working actively on a science lesson to be presented to the preschool program later this month. Students have to create a hypothesis statement and then prove that statement through an experiment with the preschool children. They will be collecting data and sharing responses with each other after their presentation with the preschool children.

Two of the Early Childcare Program students are in the thick of working on their CDA certificate. It has been a difficult process for both their instructor who has been ill and the students who still don't have the necessary books for instruction. They continue to work through these areas as true professionals. They are utilizing Ms. Deb's expertise as well as some old books to continue their learning in order to receive their certificates by the end of May. Way to go, Jocelyn Snow and Ashley Kennedy!

As the month closes we will be presenting certificates of achievements to all Early Childcare students at our annual "Businessman's Luncheon". This year it will held at Berna B's Restaurant. We would like to thank them for their support of our program and this important event.

As you all know this will be Ms. Deb's last year. We want to thank her very much for her years of dedication and instilling her knowledge into young people minds. We want to wish her the very best of wishes on her next chapter in life. Thank you Deb for all you have done and we will miss you here at the Career Center! Enjoy retirement!