What does the future holds for me? Well, I worked very hard for my ECE Diploma and I think we (and by we I’m referring to me and all my classmates) all did worked very hard to accomplish our goal. To finish our ECE and we did!
For me it was a great accomplishment. I couldn’t believe that I actually finished after all that hard work. It was really worth it! So the next step was to find work. Thankfully after my first practicum, the centre I was working, they offered me a position as a Teacher Assistant. So after I graduated, in September I started working at the centre as a Teacher Assistant. I also sent the paperwork I needed to apply for my 1 year ECE Certificate. To apply for this certificate, I went on the Early Childhood Educator Registry webpage and I clicked on how to apply and from there it asked me what I wanted to do and I clicked on the 1yr ECE. It’s very easy, you fill in the application and you send it to the address in Victoria. After that you have to work 500 hrs under the supervision of a certified ECE from BC, which would be your supervisor. But if you have any questions I am pretty sure that either your instructor or Career and Alumni services can help you. That’s another thing I really like about Stenberg College is that they make sure that you either are looking for a job or that you are working full-time. If you’re having troubles finding a job, I know that you can go to the Career and Alumni services and they can help you out. I know there are lots of resources and useful links in the Stenberg College webpage, it has lots of information.
So when I started working in the childcare centre, I was a little bit nervous of what to expect and what they were going to expect from me; but they established right away what was the things that they were expecting about me and the things I needed to do. At the beginning it was really hard to memorize the schedule and it felt a little too overwhelmed and because childcare is different from preschool. It’s different because there are longer hours in the childcare and you have to stretch the curriculum to last a whole day where at preschool the curriculum is not long and you have to do the same thing for the afternoon class so if something didn’t work in the morning you can change it for the afternoon but also if something works very good in the morning class then you can do it again in the afternoon class.
But I think after a week or so, I got the hang of things and they started to be much easier although I think you shouldn’t be too overconfident because that’s when you start missing things or not to aware of what’s going on.
But I love my work and I wouldn’t change it for anything even the things that are not so good, I love it and I love the children and I love to see their faces in amazement when they learn new things. I love to be a preschool teacher! : )
