Week in the Life of Early Childhood Education Student Emma Jensen

Mikaela Campbell

McKay Student Ambassador

Early Childhood Education

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Welcome to another one of our posts spotlighting students in the McKay School. This time we'll be sharing the week in the life of Emma Jensen who is a senior majoring in Early Childhood Education.

Emma loves connecting with people and spending quality time with them. She is also passionate about sports, especially Rugby, and has played on the BYU Rugby team. Emma still has a few semesters left as she originally planned to go into business before realizing she needed to take a different path. While chatting with her she shared her experience with switching majors. For a while she felt uncertain about which major to choose so she sought guidance through prayer. The answer she received was unexpected, she hadn't even thought about going into teaching but Early Childhood Education came to mind and she felt prompted to make the change. Through seeking the Lord's wisdom she found a path that felt right for her.

M/W: On Mondays, Emma wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for racquetball practice at 6:30 a.m.. Afterward, she takes some time to read her scriptures and work on homework until her 9:30 a.m. class for her business minor. From there she goes to CPSE 203 at 11:00 a.m. which is the intro to special education class. Although this class isn't required for Early Childhood Education she thought it would be a great class for her to take and loves what she is learning from the class. She finds it to be an awesome opportunity to be educated in special education with those that are considering majoring in it. She then has a break and works out or does homework until 3:30 p.m. when she has ECE 355 which is Language Development for Early Childhood Education. She finds it fascinating to learn how people learn and how they speak, and finds it to be very applicable to our lives. At the end of the day Emma does a couple more hours of homework and tries to go to FHE or hang out with her roommates. Her Wednesdays are similar besides not having racquetball practice.

T/TH: On Tuesdays, Emma once again starts her day with racquetball practice. She then heads to WRTG 313 at 8:00 a.m., a writing course designed specifically for educators. She enjoys that the class is focused on teaching and finds it helpful in learning how to support students to develop a love for writing. She finds this class to also be very applicable to life. Next, she goes straight to ECE 301 at 9:30 a.m., a class centered on P.E., health, and play. One of the things she appreciates most about this class is its emphasis on helping children stay active and engaged, rather than sitting still all day.

After class, Emma attends the weekly devotional, which is one of her favorite parts of the week. Then from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m., Emma works at the BYU Preschool Lab. She highly recommends this experience to anyone considering the major because it’s a great way to explore whether Early Childhood Education is the right fit. She talked about how you get taught how to be an effective teacher and get paid to do it. She appreciates the people that she works with and says they're amazing. After work, she typically works out or plays racquetball, then spends time doing homework. In the evening, she usually has some kind of fun activity planned to relax and unwind. Her Thursdays are also similar to her Tuesdays besides not having racquetball practice.

F: On Fridays Emma is at the preschool lab from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.. She is there all day prepping and learning how to be a teacher. She says this experience is highly applicable to her future career, as she receives helpful tips, practices essential teaching skills, and works on the same kinds of tasks she will eventually be graded and later evaluated on. She finds this to be such a great and valuable in-class experience for anyone interested in the major.

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