Preschool opens on campus

By Nathan Gamble

Reporter

This fall, the Early Childhood Center at Crowder opened its doors to children ages 3-5. Children will be attending Monday-Thursday from 8:30-11 or 12:30-3. Children can go one to four times a week.  Throughout the year high schoolers will be helping with the preschoolers and working towards getting their Early Childhood Setting license, which will allow them to work in preschools or with young children.

“The program is beneficial for both high schoolers and preschoolers,” said Dana Cobb, CTEC Early Childhood Instructor. “It helps the high schoolers be better prepared for continuing on their education and it helps the preschoolers be better prepared for kindergarten.”

The next step in the program is to grow the program past its current 29 students, so more high schoolers can volunteer.  They would also like to grow the preschool size, have two classes per day and reach out to special needs kids.  This program differs from other high school classes since the class is on site.

“This program has been very beneficial to me, it’s helped a lot with my public speaking skills,” said Chelsea King, a senior at Neosho High. “I’d recommend the program to anybody wanting to become teachers.”

The Early Childhood Center at Crowder is still taking preschool applications for this semester.  They are also taking applications for more high schoolers to help with the fall 2017 semester.

preschool-photo

From left to right: Fabian Lopez, Nicole King, Victoria Scrivener, and Alyssa Goddard helping in the Early Childhood Program at Crowder College.