“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I come from a long line of teachers.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I come from a long line of teachers.
I’ve worked in early childhood for seven years. I worked as a temp for New St. Paul Head Start the last two years. Then, I was hired on as an assistant Head Start teacher this year after I earned my Child Development Associate (CDA).
I started my bachelor’s degree, but I ran out of money. That was disappointing. I worked at several private child care providers, a nonprofit parent group and the temp service. When I found out New St. Paul was going to offer the CDA training program, it was such a blessing.
I went through the training program from November 2016 through March 2017. I completed my classroom observation hours and took the exam to receive my national CDA. With that, I can teach anywhere in the United States.
I’d worked in early childhood for several years before I went through the CDA training, so it was all pretty familiar to me. The CDA gave me concrete knowledge and reinforced what I was doing in the classroom. I got strong reviews from my observation, which felt great.
I’m grateful to New St. Paul for the opportunity to complete this accreditation. I hope to keep going and finish up my bachelor’s degree.
Teaching is a passion of mine, so it’s not really work for me. I don’t have children of my own, but the 18 children in class are my children. I like working in Head Start specifically. The other centers that I worked with just targeted the child. Head Start targets the whole family. For example, I had a child who lost a sister at the beginning of the school year, and Head Start provided counseling services for that child’s family. When the family is affected it affects how the child is going to perform in school. I think if people realized that they’ll probably gravitate more toward Head Start.”