Ferguson Welcomes Back Falcon’s Nest Students

Falcon’s Nest is an Early Childhood Education course in which high school students learn a theory based curriculum that allows them to work with preschool-aged children. Ms. Slater, the early childhood educator, has had a lifelong passion and desire to pursue this career. She was inspired by several teachers who shared the same passion as her.

“My early childhood teacher from Braddock had such a passion for early childhood, and she just put so much heart and soul into the program that I wanted to do the same here at Ferguson,” she said.

Ms. Slater has taught at Ferguson for 12 years, but before she became a teacher here she interned in kindergarten and she even participated in her high school’s early childhood education program.

“I think that the preschoolers get a lot of exposure to diversity. We have so many different students at Ferguson, and they obviously gain the knowledge of what school is going to be like for them. This is a transition for them because a lot of them come from homes where they’re with grandparents during the day and this is their first schooling experience. Therefore, they’re getting to know how to share and the cognitive development of learning numbers and letters,” Slater said.

Almost a decade later, Ferguson welcomed back students who were part of Falcon’s Nest when they were only about 4 years old. Sabrina Cuba, Isabella Shanower, and Sebastian Dejesus are all current freshmen who are excited to be back in the first place they experienced schooling.

“On the first day back here I walked by the playground and I saw the little red tricycles. My immediate thought was that those used to be a lot bigger,” Sebastian Dejesus said.

“I remember circle time and a huge blue rug with all the letters of the alphabet on it. I would always sit on the letter “I” because it’s the first letter of my name and I would get really mad if anyone else sat on it,” Isabella Shanower said.

Falcon’s nest allows preschoolers to gain intellectual and social development, as well as, language and literacy development.

“Falcon’s Nest was a good experience, they taught me a lot of basic principles that I went into kindergarten knowing and I was more aware of everything taking place,” Sabrina Cuba said.