Kidding around
PV senior aspires to be a teacher after the Family Living class
Vanessa Pikulski stands at the front of the dance room, watching the children practice their tumbling. She stops at each one, fixing what they do wrong and encouraging them to continue practicing. The next day, she uses the same patience to guide the Family Living children in writing their names.
The Early Childhood and Family Education program at Pascack Valley is available as an elective for students to start taking their sophomore year, as well as a preschool option for local families. It is an opportunity for young children to expand their social skills while the high school students learn about what it would be like to start their own family someday.
Pascack Valley senior Vanessa Pikulski is the only student taking Early Childhood and Family Education III, the option for third year students.
“I took this elective because I love working with little children and I want to be a teacher when I get older,” Pikulski said. “It helps me get in the mindset of working with them and how to teach them correctly.”
Pikulski teaches gymnastics, tumbling, and dance to young children at Aeon in Hillsdale and Perpetual Motion in River Vale. She is also currently interning at Ann Blanch Smith Elementary School with the teacher cadet program in a kindergarten class.
“I think that it is nice to get the children out of the classroom, allow them to move around, and have fun rather than sit in a desk all day” Pikulski said.
Pikulski’s experiences with the Early Childhood and Family Education elective, her jobs, and her internship have taught her different methods to deal with problems that she may be having with her students.
Pikulski feels she has found her calling through this elective and looks to a career teaching children in the future.
The Early Childhood and Family Education elective was created by former PV teacher Ms. Aileen Williams in 1978. It was designed as a way to give sophomores, juniors, and seniors the opportunity to teach preschool children various skills before they go into kindergarten.
The curriculum is primarily based on learning about the children and how they grow and develop, while also incorporating aspects of family into it. From the time that this elective first started it has evolved more electronically and physically.
“We have Pinterest now and different resources on our laptops so I feel like we incorporate more technology and more up to date projects that we do with the little kids,” Ms. Jessica Andersen said, the current teacher of the class.
Many people taking this elective have been inspired to continue their education on working with little kids for a career in the future. In addition, there are a handful people who come back and take it again the following year. For those students, the content changes each year and are expected to work more independently.
There are currently 20 preschool students and between 17-20 high school students enrolled in this elective.
“By the end of the Early Childhood and Family Education course my goal is to see the high schoolers apply what I taught them in real life situations,” Andersen said.
