Hays High School launched a new Career and Technology Education pathway for teaching this fall.
The school is offering a new year-long course that helps high school students explore the teaching profession.
Jennifer Olt leads the teaching/training and health sciences Career and Technology Education pathways at the high school. Ott has 16 students enrolled in the class this year.
"We have had a little theoretical with practical," she said.
Olt brought in Chris Jochum from the Fort Hays State University College of Education to discuss the coursework the students would have to take to earn degrees in education.
Students also attended the teacher's education day at FHSU where they were able to speak with FHSU education students.
"Once a month, we have what we call a professional learning experience," Olt said. "We have a speaker, and then we go out into the community and work in a school."
After Wilson Elementary School Principal Anita Scheve visited the high school class, the HHS students created and presented three units to Wilson kindergarteners. They included math, science and literacy units on fire safety.
In November, the HHS students visited Lincoln Elementary and led Thanksgiving activities for second graders. The high school students were learning about child development, so the activities focused on fine and gross motor skills.
In December, the HHS students designed a social/emotional learning lesson for their peers at the high school, which focused on handling stress during finals.
Next semester the students will meet with special education director Kyle Carlin and visit the STAR program at Roosevelt Elementary School. The students in the teaching/training class also will be learning about the role of paras and technology in the classroom.
"The whole thing is to make them have experiences they truly would have in the classroom. I make them lesson plan. We practice the lessons," Olt said.
Olt said she thinks students need opportunities to explore professions.
"I think it's important to let them have a taste of it because a lot of times we get to college and we realize what we wanted to do is not at all what we wanted to do," Olt said. "I started out as a chemical engineering major. Joke's on me. Now I'm a chemistry teacher. I'm teaching kids to be really great teachers."
The high school also provides students with opportunities to spend part of their school day as seniors working in internships in the community.
Addy Belle Birdsall, HHS senior, interned at O'Loughlin Elementary School in Anne Dinkel's first-grade class.
Birdsall assisted students during their reading centers. She sometimes works with a student who has advanced to a second-grade reading level.
Birdsall wants to teach younger children, K-2, with a minor in special education.
"I like the one-on-one connection with them," she said.
Birdsall said she thinks the internship will be helpful for her as she embarks on her teaching career.
"I got a lot of connections with the school, so if I want to do student teaching there, I have that connection. If I stay in Hays, I have a connection to where I could work there possibly. Then I get a lot of one-on-one connections with the students."
She also was able to experience the day-to-day duties of a teacher, which she said helped her solidify her decision to be a teacher.
Emma Anderson, HHS senior, also worked in an elementary school during the fall semester. Anderson is a paraprofessional at Roosevelt Elementary School in the special education STAR program.
"We work very one-on-one with students and different tasks they have to accomplish throughout the day, life skills or group work," she said.
Anderson said the para job changed her ideas about her career path.
"I was going to go into social work," she said. "I have always known I wanted to do something with kids. I went into this job. I grew such a huge connection with the kids. I really fell in love with teaching and the relationships you build. That's 100 percent what I want to do."
She intends to major in elementary education with a minor in special education.
Anderson said being a para has been challenging but also a blast.
"The kids' moods can change all of the time, but it's so rewarding," she said. "Even the kids who are in the special needs program ... when they come up to you and say hi or come up to you and give you a hug, it's so rewarding and makes everything worthwhile."
Anderson will be attending Fort Hays State University in the fall.