Ella Brinkman was a freshman when she noticed preschool-age children in a Ferris High School classroom. Already interested in a future career in working with children, she soon discovered she could begin working with preschoolers not long after earning her driver’s license.
Now a senior, she’s teaching a class of 21 kiddos under the tutelage of teacher Ashley Grow. Brinkman is part of the school’s early childhood development program, a Career and Technical Education (CTE) course offered at three SPS high schools, with plans to expand to others in the future. This program allows high school students interested in education or early childhood development careers to take a series of relevant courses before receiving their high school diploma.
Typically, students learn the basics of child development in a year-one class. They don’t work with preschool students, but they do earn their Washington State Childcare Basics Certification and a first aid/CPR card.
This prerequisite qualifies students for Ferris’ preschool classroom where they become a “big buddy” to a one or two “little buddies,” who attend part-time.
In the third and final year, students are considered “interns” and lead the class by teaching the big buddies strategies for working with behavioral issues, kids’ personalities, and more. They also teach lessons to the entire class of youngsters.
“The high school students that stay on this pathway leave with two industry-related certificates and 15 college credits,” Grow said. “Even if high school students do not pursue a career in early childhood, the developmental experience is invaluable, and the career and technical skills put our students a step ahead.”
Brinkman is among the interns leading this year’s class, and she plays a key role for her high school classmates and the preschoolers.
“We teach the big buddies how to teach and they can learn from our examples,” Brinkman said. “We go through organizational and logistical tasks and just keep the classroom running because we’re supposed to be the leaders of the classroom. Ms. Grow is there to supervise and to deal with anything that needs an adult. For the most part, we’re self-sufficient.”
These classrooms are true preschools: Three- and four-year-olds learn through play to get them ready for kindergarten. This week, Brinkman worked with on letter sounds and recognition, focusing on the letter “P.” Brinkman asked the kids what the “P” sound is, what words start with “P” and more. The kids then decorated a “P is for Popsicle” worksheet before going station-by-station finding the letter “P” through various tasks.
With 21 preschoolers at various levels of development, Brinkman used what she learned in her previous two years in the early childhood development classes to manage the classroom.
“Every preschooler is so different, so you have to quickly learn how to adapt to different personalities and how to teach and care for them best,” she said. “They’re little, so the goal isn’t to teach them how to read or to count to 100, but to teach them how to play with other children and learn self-control and those social skills that are more foundational for going to kindergarten.”
In addition to the early childhood development class, Brinkman is also part of Ferris’ Teaching Academy CTE course, where students learn teaching strategies and then spend time at nearby elementary schools as a sort-of pre-student teacher. Brinkman teaches at Hamblen Elementary.
“I help out with various jobs or I observe and sometimes I’m one-on-one with a student in case they need extra attention,” she said. “On Fridays, I go to the speech therapy classroom at Hamblen and observe speech therapy sessions. It’s super cool to participate in that.”
Speech therapy and teaching are currently on Brinkman’s potential careers of choice. She plans on getting an undergraduate degree in an education-related field—possibly special education—before considering pediatric speech therapy as a graduate degree.
Whatever route she takes, she’ll be fulfilling a dream she’s had from an early age.
“As early as four years old, what I wanted to do during the day was play school. I wanted to be the teacher and have my siblings listen to me,” she said. “It’s definitely my passion.”
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