Lavinia Beatty remembers how she felt when she first applied to the Northlands College early childhood education program.
“I didn’t think I’d be accepted. I was so scared,” she said.
Beatty saw an ad for the program while serving as a youth worker in her hometown of Pelican Narrows at the local elementary school.
“As I was working, that’s when I found I wanted to continue teaching kids. When we saw the ad for early childhood education, me and my friend applied,” she said.
The fear paid off. She, along with a pair of other students from Pelican Narrows, got in. Now, the trio is taking their next steps into early childhood education through a course at the Creighton campus of Northlands College.
Beatty, Charmaine Ballantyne and Charlemayne McCallum were all interested in education when they came to the program for the first time. Ballantyne was working with special needs children, while McCallum worked as a teaching assistant.
“I’m glad I came here,” McCallum said.
Rhea Michalak was the group’s instructor through the early childhood education program this year. The course consists of two parts, each about a year to complete. The first year involves learning the basic tenets of teaching young children - child development, language skills, programs, lifespan development, role play and others. If it sounds like a lot to learn in a short time, there’s a good reason for that - it is.
“It’s not an easy program. It’s a lot of work and they need to be dedicated,” Michalak said.
“I’ve taught for many years and there was a lot of work. They were very determined and they made it here and did very well.”
While the first semester serves as a crash course in the basics of educating young kids, the second semester is a slight change of pace, Michalak said.
“This semester is really fun. We do a lot of things, a lot of activities while they’re working with children,” she said.
The students have also served a practicum through the program, working in Pelican Narrows at Wapanacak Elementary School - the same school Beatty worked at before applying to the program - and in Creighton at Smiling Hearts Daycare.
“They had a pretty heavy semester last semester. This group has 100 per cent attendance and they’re very determined and dedicated to their profession,” said Michalak.
Some of the touches brought into the classroom were measures to improve literacy for young students in Cree, sharing songs with kids teaching them how to count, say hello and identify different animals in Cree. Another touch is the student information board outside the classroom used by the three members of the class - Ballantyne, Beatty and McCallum have been tasked with using and updating the board every month throughout the term.
“We’re going again in June and they’ve had several courses from child development to programming and language skills to roles and factors for early childhood educators,” Michalak said.
At the end of this semester, all three students will receive a certificate, qualifying them for the second year of training. All three plan on returning for year two, then going back to work or continuing education in education. Some of the new subjects that the students will learn include promoting cognitive development and teaching creative arts.
Each of the three students has eyes on coming back to help kids in the north. Beatty intends to take another year of early childhood education through the Northlands program, then going for another two years of study to earn a bachelor’s degree in education. Both McCallum and Ballantyne want to go back to Pelican Narrows to work in child care.
