Students at Round Rock High School are helping create future leaders while gaining valuable experience for their anticipated careers.
These students are part of the new Learning Leaders program. The program is designed to give members of the Child Guidance class first hand knowledge of what it’s like to work with children on a daily basis by assisting teachers at District elementary schools.
This is the first year the program has been implemented and it was created by Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher Monica Oliver to bring relevance to what they were learning in the classroom.
“Child Guidance is a unique course in that we are preparing students to work in early childhood centers like preschools and daycares,” Oliver said. “They were learning about the development of two to five year olds, without actually working with that age group in any sort of way. I decided to try and come up with a program to give them that experience.”
Once a week students will visit an elementary campus, where they are paired with a Pre-K teacher, and offer their assistance and support to help facilitate a successful lesson. Students assist with anything from reading stories to helping facilitate a social environment during lunch.
“It’s been a short time, but a lot of the students have already developed relationships with the elementary students,” Oliver said.
The experience has also helped some students get a better idea of what they want to do in the future.
“This experience has definitely shown me that I want to continue in the field of education,” Round Rock Senior Erin Hurley said. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to spend time with the kids. You can see the impact you have just by being there. I love getting to work with kids of different ages. It’s so much fun and totally worth it.”
Students are assigned throughout eight elementary schools and will continue to assist their respective campus until the end of the semester.
