Spring Break
Center provides hands-on experience
Cody Haueter
Issue date: 10/3/07 Section: News
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Located in the central classroom building in the middle of campus is the child development lab, a place where student teachers receive hands-on experience before graduating from their majors.
Jazmyn is just one of the many children enrolled in the daycare program. Her mother, Maria Febarretto brings her young daughter to SJSU four days a week for the afternoon's two and a half hour sessions.
 Media Credit: Sandra Arroyo Joann Zhang, age 3, taking a break after musical hour in the Central Classroom Building on Tuesday Sept. 25. |
"She's been through two preschools and she likes this one," said Febarretto. Jazmyn is timid and not very familiar with spending a lot of time with kids her own age her mother said. At home she is often in the company of adults.
Fabarretto found the child development lab through an advertisement in a local San Jose magazine. She signed Jazmyn up in early September and has been very pleased with the outcome.
"The staff is nice," Fabarretto said.
The daycare is for student-parents and non-student parents. Because the lab is run by student teachers, very close attention is paid to each child. The teachers track what the children do during the day and can report to the parents about the child's day.
The program has done wonders for Jazmyn's self-esteem, her mother said.
"She was so shy before," she said. "But now she knows how to say 'hi.'"
Febarretto has been able to watch her daughter's everyday progress in the viewing room, a large rectangular room with one-way mirrors.
 Media Credit: Sandra Arroyo Suzi Poston, a senior child development major, reads to the afternoon workshop children in the Central Classroom Building on Tuesday, Sept. 25. |
To the children it looks like one side of the room is covered with mirrors. Little do they know, on the other side of the mirrors, their parents can sit and watch them play, interact and even misbehave.
Fabarretto said the tuition is inexpensive at $265.00 a month. But one thing she wishes they would do at the daycare is prepare her daughter more for kindergarten. She would like them to work with her daughter more in regards to reading and numbers.
Socially, Jazmyn is thriving. It's her other study skills that Fabarretto wished were focused on more.
The student teachers at the child development lab spend a lot of time working with the children. According to the staff, they spend about seven hours a week in the lab.
Lab instructor Joy Foster supervises the student teachers and works with the children. She is also in charge of grading the students' observation papers at the end of the semester.
Foster said the child development lab is a course that students take after spending nearly two and a half years in the classroom learning theories.
"It's where they put the theories to the test," Foster said.
The students spend a lot of their time in the lab.
"It's really the only opportunity at the university to do hands-on activities," said Amanda Pavlos, a senior majoring in child development.
Most of the student teachers spoke fondly of the program. The only thing they would change would be that they want SJSU to offer more classes like the lab.
The program is one-of-a-kind, Foster said.
It's the only opportunity the students have to actually work with the children directly, and for some students, it's their first time experiencing a daycare atmosphere.
The students enjoy spending time with the children and getting to know each other as fellow teachers and students.
"It doesn't really feel like school," Pavlos said.
Regina Aguirre, a senior child development major, said that out of all the classes she's taken, the lab is one of the most enjoyable.
The students spend seven hours a week together so they really learn to rely on each other, she said.
Another less-serious complaint some students have is that there are very few male students in the course. They counted only three that they could think of, one of them being football player, Justin Paysinger.
Paysinger began SJSU as a liberal studies major but soon switched to child development after taking one of the Child and Adolescent Development (CHAD) courses. The children seemed fond of Paysinger, especially Jazmyn, who sat on his lap during story time.
At the end of each session, Foster sits down with the teachers at the child-sized tables to discuss what they learned and if they had any troubles with the children or the parents.
Many of the student teachers are passionate about their work and plan on working in the childcare in the future.
"We all want to work with kids in some capacity," Aguirre said.
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