Pascack Valley High School offers a wide array of electives covering many aspects of creativity and skill-based learning. Last year, the Early Childhood and Family Education class was revamped and brought back for the first time since COVID-19 by PV teacher Nicole Alpern.
The Early Childhood and Family Education course was established at Valley in 1970. The course was designed to allow high school students to engage in a hands-on setting to learn about child development.
Prior to Alpern’s instruction at PV, she had been an elementary school teacher.
When Alpern first applied for a job 31 years ago, she planned on becoming a Home Economics teacher, now known as Family Consumer Science. However, there were no jobs available for this course in the area. Nevertheless, Alpern was offered a job at an elementary school in Closter where she spent her last 31 years teaching.
Last year, Alpern saw an opening for an early childhood class at PV and left her elementary job to fill the position.
“It was a big decision, but this was my dream job,” Alpern said.
Noting on her prior experiences, Alpern stated that “the nice part [about the job] is having the experience and the knowledge from where I was in elementary [school]. She also expressed that coming in with a similar background “makes a big impact for me, and I’m hoping it makes a big impact for my students.”
In terms of the class, for the first few weeks of school, the high school students engage in studies that cover the “domains of childhood development” to prepare them for early October when the preschoolers start their school year.
“In the beginning, I do the teaching and they [the students] observe me, and then as the year goes on, they start to take over some of the responsibilities,” Alpern said.
According to Alpern, one of the unique aspects of the Early Childhood and Family Education class is that the preschool students receive a lot of individualized attention. Alpern said this poses a benefit to the kids as they have someone “talking to them, helping them work through conflicts and encouraging them to try new things…every period [of the day].”
“If it were me by myself [with the preschoolers], I would do my best to manage and move around the room, but it wouldn’t be the same,” Alpern said.
Another positive impact of the course is that it provides high school students with the ability to explore what it’s like to have a child-centered career, providing them with real-world experiences.
Alpern stated that the class can be valuable for students who maintain “jobs outside of school where they work with young children” as they can utilize “the skills they’re learning in here, only [enhancing] their skill set for what they’re doing.”
PV senior Olivia Mattessich discussed her experiences taking the class as a second-year Early Childhood and Family Education student.
She commented on how the preschool students are “just so wonderful” and how as a “student-teacher”, a term used by Alpern, you are able to see each kid’s “progression that they have throughout the year, which I love seeing.”
Mattessich also highlighted Alpern’s unique ability to switch from teaching high schoolers to preschoolers, calling it an “amazing [quality] about her.”
While Mattessich plans on going into the police force later in life, she notes that she wants to be able to work with kids in her career and hopes that “with what I’m learning [from the class]…if kids come in, I’m able to help them.”
As the class continues to run at Valley, Alpern hopes to promote the preschool and increase enrollment for the upcoming years.
“It’s really an amazing program,” Alpern said.
