Teaching Teens

South Eugene High School

South Eugene High School would like to continue to fund an early childhood educationally trained individual to serve as a mentor and instructor of our teens who work in our on campus child development center. We would like to hire an assistant for 2.5 hours a day, two days a week.

Why is this project important?

This project is important for a number of reasons: our teens working in our center are planning on entering the teaching career and will be earning Certificates of Advanced Mastery in Human Resources, these teens have had one successful year of working with this assistant and another year of funding for this person will lay the foundation for an excellent practice teaching education for our students. Our teens serve as role models for younger teens entering the child development courses we teach here at South, and serve as teacher assistants for the instruction of the community-served children attending the preschool. Therefore, we need to provide knowledgeable adults to serve as educators and mentors for our teens. The high school students are instrumental in implementing curriculum designed by adult staff, which includes literacy and numeracy instruction. Their input is encouraged and they serve as teachers assistants in the preschool setting. All staff works closely with one another and with the families to provide care that is supportive, nurturing, warm, and responsive to each child's individual needs. Our staff members are positive role models. In order to maintain these high standards we need to have an adequately staffed center.

The need for and importance of additional staffing can be emphasized by further understanding of our center. Kids Down South, a Eugene District 4J childcare center located in South Eugene High School, has been in operation since the fall of 1992. We are an exceptional child development laboratory preschool with a strong reputation for exemplary preschool education. We are recognized by the State Department of Education as a model high school early childhood development program. We operate a five day a week morning program during the school year and a five week summer program.

We serve both typically and atypically developing children and we have a partnership with the early intervention agency ECCARES. We serve as a practicum site for University of Oregon Master level program students as well as South Eugene High School students who are enrolled in our Child Psychology and Advanced Child Psychology classes.

The 4J District provides us with two student paid positions and Kids Down South pays for two student positions, for a total of ten hours daily. In order to adequately supervise our preschool, we are requesting an addition of 2.5 hours a day of instructional assistant time.

Who, and how many, will be served?

15 children aged 2.5-5 years of age
34 teenagers
22 parents

How will you evaluate the success of the project?

Pre and Post Teaching Data
Video documentation of teens to critique their teaching experiences
Career Related Learning Standards Assessment
Annual Performance Records for Professional-Technical Students
Teen portfolio notebook evaluations
Formal & Informal feedback from teens and parents of our preschool children

Does this program build upon existing programs at your school?

It will enhance our Human Resources area of study by providing South teens with continuous adult modeling of appropriate teaching strategies. Also it will strengthen the self esteem and boost the confidence levels of the teens as they acquire more technical teaching skills. It will also insure the safety of the preschool children as their will always be highly trained staff in the room throughout the day.

How will the funds be spent?

Salary for an early childhood education instructional assistant.