What’s recently happened?
From lesson plans to conferences to competitions, early childhood education (ECE) has been taking the world of education by storm. The Hammond Area Career Center (ACC) snatched up a whooping third place in the Indianapolis SkillsUSA ECE competition, helping to shine a bright light on the importance of early childhood education.
“A child without education is like a bird without wings,” Classmate Fredrich Frobel said. “Early education is the foundation for everyone who exists today.”
This course takes the cake in curating future teachers to teach the future leaders of the world. Teachers spend their time learning it all, from singing popular nursery rhymes to understanding neuroscience in adolescents.
Trying to foster a love for what teachers do within others everywhere they go by promoting their program with two thumbs up. Doing so while creating connections at open houses, congratulating their classmates on their homeschool accomplishments, and ending the day with smiley faces at their weekly internships makes every second of this class memorable for them.
What’s coming up?
Movie night at the Hammond ACC is brought to you by SkillsUSA champs. The career center has a history of fundraising magic. This fundraiser is all about helping to send SkillsUSA champions to state in the summer of ‘23! The career center is wishing them the best of luck in Atlanta, Georgia.
Staff spotlight:
Introducing the teacher of early childhood education, the teacher who teaches students how to teach more students: Gianna Mirowski.
Setting each of her students up for success is her biggest goal as an educator. Being a kindergarten teacher for five years, she decided to take on a classroom full of older students who share a love for education like herself. She has said that it has definitely been an experience like no other.
On many occasions, she has referred to her students at the ACC as taller kindergarteners as they not only open their hearts to her but welcomed her wisdom with open arms.
Being a teacher is no easy feat, and her students would like to give a special thank you to Mirowski for being a phenomenal educator. She’s rewritten the way of education for young people and stresses the importance of education as a whole.
She wants all of her students to continue to inspire the next generation. Balancing it all one day at a time never stops Mirowski from following her own dreams and continuing to pursue greater knowledge in the world of education.
She’s currently attending Purdue University, earning her Master's degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.
"Now at the ACC, I get to teach future educators how to be that caring adult,” Mirowski said.
As the school year comes to an end, Mirowski will be celebrating her first year teaching high school and hopefully many more years to come.
Student spotlight:
One of Mirowski’s students carried ECE to victory at the SkillsUSA competition on April 15. Juliana Garcia’s ambition and creativity never fail to bring a smile to her classmates' faces. Her compassion for teaching, helping others, and sincerity in whatever project she takes on is one of a kind.
“Teaching will always be way more than just ABCs and 123’s. Understanding the development of a child as a whole is just the beginning.” Garcia said.
ECE is a non-trade course offered at the ACC. In this course, students take Introduction to Teaching and Child and Adolescent Development as a dual-credit course through Ivy Tech Community College.
At the end of her two years in this program and 480 hours of working experience with children, she will graduate from Whiting High School with a Child Development Associate. ECE has provided a great opportunity to learn but also be hands-on in a classroom setting early on. Interacting, creating, and working with kids to enhance an understanding of a true classroom environment.
“This class is full of surprises and every day is a new day. There is no day that is the same as the last,” Garcia said.
She is class president, secretary of the student council, and a National Honors Society member. Garcia is persistent in doing her best to promote all things good, speaking alongside her classmates about the importance of ECE and the fundamentals of the career.