MIDLAND Santa Claus visited sixty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds at the Pre-K Academy at Midland College (MC)!
On Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 9-10 a.m. Santa traveled to each of the pre-k classrooms. He visited with the students.
The students were dressed up in their pajamas for the occasion. They also made hot chocolate in their classrooms.
“The children’s reactions were adorable,” Lori Smith, principal of the Pre-K Academy at MC, said. “Some ran right up to Santa and told him everything; others were a bit timid. There is always a lot of excitement in the air during this time of year, and Santa’s visit was the culmination of all the students’ imaginative stories.”
The Pre-K Academy at MC is a public school operated by MC in partnership with Midland ISD, to provide and expand early childhood educational offerings for Midland residents. This is the third academic year of the program. The Pre-K Academy at MC serves children who are state Pre-K and Child Care Services eligible and tuition paying students. Slots are filled by lottery.
In addition to servings as a learning environment for 3- and 4-year-olds, the Pre-K academy is also the site of hands-on training for students enrolled in MC’s Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) program. Beginning August 2022 MC will also offer a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education preparing students to teach pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade. MC instructional administrators purposefully designed the curriculum in both the current AAT and the new bachelor-degree programs to give students a unique learning opportunity that allows them to work with the children at the Pre-K Academy at MC.
Interested students should enroll in prerequisite courses and courses that lead to the AAT degree this spring. Once a student has completed those courses, he/she can then move into the bachelor’s program.
To enroll in the program and obtain information, contact MC Dean of Education Denise McKown, [email protected].
