Capstone:The Importance of Early Adolescent Learning

Lillian Megibben 2020
House	STEM
Advisor	Ademola Adeyemi
Plans	TCC, Nursing, Common Good
Advice	Don't rush your Senior year! I was so excited for Senior year to start so that I could be done with high school. When my last year ended abruptly due to Covid-19 I realized that I wasn't ready for it to be over. I yearned to walk down the halls one last time. So, enjoy your last year in high school as a Phoenix! Hang out with your friends, chat with your teachers, and attend TSAS events as often as you can.
Type	Presentation

I've always loved working with kids! I've been volunteering at Mark Twain Elementary for years with my previous teachers and with my youth group. I decided to do my capstone on early childhood learning. I volunteered weekly with Joyce Hembree, a Pre-K teacher at Mark Twain. I assisted her in teaching her class necessary skills to be successful in their future classes. I observed student behaviors and ability at the beginning of the year through the end of this school year. Later, I started volunteering at the Common Good which is an after school program for grades Pre-k through 6th. I started by volunteering with 3rd and 4th grade. Shortly after, I was offered a paid teachers assistant position. I accepted the job and worked with 1st and 2nd graders.

How It Began

I decided to volunteer with elementary school kids at Mark Twain Elementary and later on at the Common Good.

How It Changed

For the most part my project went as planned. I went weekly and volunteered at Mark Twain. I also received a job offer after volunteering at the Common Good. The end of my project did not go as planned. I was going to take videos of some of the teachers and students asking about their experience throughout the year. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do so thanks to the Corona Virus.

Reflection

Early childhood education is often overlooked as an easy babysitting job when in reality it's far from it. Early educators have the responsibility to prepare their class to be successful learners in upcoming years. It's crucial to have achieved such skills as: knowing the abc's, counting, reading, as well as learning how to behave by the end of the year. If such goals are not met the student will struggle and be behind in the following grade.

When students come to the next grade without needed skills, it makes the year harder on the student and the teacher. The student is left feeling frustrated and behind his peers. The teacher also feels frustrated because they often times can't help the student get caught up without being unavailable to the rest of the class and where they need to be.