The Fund for Excellence for Teacher Preparation at Hacc

My name is CindI Davis. I'm the program director for the education programs here at HACC. The Fund for Excellence for Teacher Preparation is going to allow our program to really give our students the experiences that they need prior to going out into the classroom to work with children. What we know from the current research is the most critical period in a child's life is from birth to three. And that is what we are preparing our educators here at HACC to deal with. The fund will allow us to establish a really innovative lab school which would attach to our *** Early Learning Center that we have here. One of the things that we don't have is a place for students here at HACC to bring their children for drop-in care while they're at class or a function or whatever it is that they're doing. The benefit of that is our education students also get to work with those children to practice what they're learning and put that practice into action in a classroom setting. In order to bring our students to the next level one of the other things that we're taking a look at is bringing technology to our Lancaster campus. One of the things that we don't have there is we don't have iPads for the classroom and we don't have a smart board in that area, and students already in our early care facilities and in our grade schools are using these items. So it's something that's really important for our students to learn how to use and how to use well before they go out there. Another innovative use for the Fund for Excellence for teacher preparation would be a mentor preparation program. So the Fund for Excellence really allows us to have our students at the cutting edge of things that are going on in the classroom or even above that, what can they bring into the classroom that's not already happening there? Please join me in giving to the Fund for Excellence for teacher preparation.