Ava Riina, LaNasia Anderson and Daniella McGann, students in the afternoon Early Childhood Education class at the Career & Technical Institute, will attend a speech given by First Lady Jill Biden at DAY ONE Early Learning Community in Poughkeepsie on October 6.
The center is a not-for-profit training school for day care workers who learn hands-on techniques, while its students receive high quality education. The students complete their site work at the center three days a week.
Riina predicts the talk will be a great experience and shared what questions she has for Biden, an educator herself.
“It would probably be just some tips about what it’s like to be an educator,” Riina said. “I’m just very excited.”
During a typical day in the field, Riina and her classmates learn about how to take care of children assuring they get the correct education before entering kindergarten and beyond. She has always wanted to be a teacher and has so far enjoyed her CTI experience.
“I’ve loved working with little kids ever since I was little,” Riina said. “I wanted to pursue that dream.”
Teacher Shawn Prater-Lee considers the students lucky to be able to hear Biden speak at DAY ONE, which he describes as being on the leading edge of some possible national change.
“We are very lucky, but remember that luck is when preparation meets opportunity,” Prater-Lee said. “There's a great deal of work done by teachers and by students to prepare them for their off-site placements.”
Students are placed at six different early childhood centers in Poughkeepsie that range from a Montessori school to an urban day care center.
“This variety covers almost every type of center covered in our textbook,” Prater-Lee explained. “With this breadth they not only read about the different types of centers, they experience them first hand.”
Prater-Lee simply encourages the students to be in awe of the experience.
“You are among the first generation of early childhood educators benefiting from the work that Dr. Biden and sites like Day One are involved in producing,” he said. “It might not seem like a big deal now, but ten years from now it will.”
