 | | Photo by Bailey Pethoud | | BUBBLES! - After senior Megan Pierce walks into the Occupational Child Care Classroom at the Childrens Village West on West Locust Street, she sits down to have a good time with a little boy blowing bubbles. |
As senior Megan Pierce walks into the preschool room at the Children’s Village West, she immediately smiles at all of the kids, and says hi to almost all of them by name. She sits down and starts blowing bubbles with a little boy.
Being in Occupational Child Care since last October, Pierce realized how much she enjoyed being around and working with kids. "My favorite part would definitely be the kids, and watching them go from being shy to running up and giving you a hug, that’s the best part," says Pierce. After being in the Occupational Child Care class, Pierce was hired at the Children’s Village West to work at the Y last October for an after school program, and next August Pierce is being hired full time at the Children’s Village. Working there, she will have to do a lot of the same things that she did as a student there such as disciplining the kids, dealing with tantrums, and working with them on just an average day. "On an average day (during the Occupational Child Care class), you would go to the classes you were assigned, and help with lunch, and after lunch they would go and nap," says Pierce. There is a classroom for kids who don’t take naps would go to play and learn while the other kids slept. "Instead of sitting there awake, they will come down here and have fun," Piece says. The students in the Occupational Child Care class stopped being high school students, and became the teachers. "Half of the class would teach, and half would plan the next day’s activities. Each teacher would be assigned different centers, such as art or science," says Pierce. "Then after the activities, we had a large group with a song and a story, before they went back to their class when nap time for everyone else was over." During the time when she had to teach, she also had to discipline the kids if they were doing something wrong. "Discipline was definitely hard," Pierce says. "Trying to find a medium with what’s right and wrong, but you also don’t want to hurt their feelings. Discipline was even harder in the autistic rooms, because they don’t know one-hundred percent what they’re doing, but you also have to keep them safe."  | | Photo by Bailey Pethoud | | SAY CHEESE - Megan Pierce takes time for a picture with her three friends Alexa, Daisey and Anna from Children’s Village West. |
Another thing Pierce has to deal with is tantrums. She says she could easily experience five tantrums a day just in her Pep class, an after school class at the Children's Village West. "That’s the number one thing I have learned, is just to ignore tantrums. The kid will stop eventually. Why frustrate yourself when you can’t do anything about it?" says Pierce. After working with the children at the Children’s Village, Pierce is looking forward to working full time there. "Before this class, I wasn’t even going into this profession, I was going into healthcare for medical assisting or nursing," says Pierce. "Then I realized how much fun this was, and how much I loved kids. It also helped that I happened to get a job with the Y." Because the Occupational Child Care class is also a college credit, to get a CDA (Childcare Development Associate Degree) you only have to go for a year and a half instead of two years. Along with that credit, Pierce is also taking classes on weekends at Scott to work towards her CDA. This will result in her only having to go for a year for her associates instead of two years. "I’m lucky, because not many people know you can do that," says Pierce. After earning a CDA, she could become a teacher’s aide, because a CDA is the minimum requirement to be hired as one. "Making a difference in the life of a child is the number one thing anyone can do," says Pierce.
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