By Norah Kelley, ’24
Staff Writer
Elementary school students have always looked up to the “cool high schoolers.” The younger students mimic what they do, what they wear, and how they act to be a little bit like the older ones that they see around town. This fall, Hanover High started sending students to work with their younger counterparts at Cedar School, and there’s no doubt that the younger students have loved every minute of it.
About 130 HHS students take part in the Early Childhood Mentorship Program. High school students walk over to Cedar one period a day and go to preschool, kindergarten, or first grade classes. The job of the high schoolers is to assist the teachers in a variety of ways, from working with students one-on-one to being a companion for snack time or play. Sometimes, the high school students will help in teacher duties, like running a quick copy.
Mrs. Rooney, HHS assistant principal and supervisor of the program, said this unique class was designed to “to hopefully spark the interest in becoming an Early Childhood Educator or a teacher in general, as we know there is a dire need for teachers. They look upon these ‘Big Kids’ as positive role models and in return it is providing our mentors with a sense of purpose.”
I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to work in two classrooms. I work with Mrs. Gill in the Mini Stars preschool one day and with Mrs. Weimman’s kindergarten class on the other. Both classrooms welcome me every day with bright smiles and a couple of hugs, and you can see the excitement on their little faces when the high schoolers walk in. It’s easy to see how much they look forward to us coming into their classes. I’m interested in becoming an Occupational Therapist or Special Education teacher, so this program has cemented my interest in this field and reaffirmed that this is definitely what I want to study in college next year.
This program is a great addition to Hanover High School and I would recommend it to anyone looking to pursue teaching as a future career or just looking to meet some new little buddies.
The Hawk 
I think this is a great passage to explain what this Mentorship Program is all about, and to get more people interested in taking part in this in following years. I agree, that the program is a great opportunity for people who are fascinated in becoming a teacher. It’s great for the children at Cedar School, who definitely look forward to seeing the high schoolers. They truly do look up to the students at HHS.
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This article helped me understand what the new Mentorship Program is about and why you should maybe consider it. The program benefits everyone involved from the high school students, the teachers and the elementary students. It also addresses the need in today’s society for the shortage of teachers as this program hopefully encourages students to go into education. This program also really helps students who think they want to go into education as it allows them to experience what it is really like to be an educator.
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This is a great article that helped me understand what the class is about. I also believe it is a great idea and very helpful for high schoolers who may be interested in working in schools later on in life. This is also very helpful for younger kids as I remember when I was that age always looking up to the high schoolers as role models so it is good for the younger kids to have positive role models. I also liked that the article mentioned the teacher shortage as this is a real world issue that is going to need to be resolved soon so having classes that give high schoolers first hand experience working in classes is a great idea.
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This article did a good job in describing the effects the older students have on the younger students, and how the mentor program benefits both the kids at Cedar and the students at HHS. I agree that the program is a good source in sparking students’ interests in jobs involving being around young children, and the kids at Cedar look forward to having the high schoolers in their classrooms every day.
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