By: Robert Dutches, Karen Semet

Karen Semet

Joel Chisholm

Cynthia James

Sharon Reustle

School: Egg Harbor Township High School

Core Curriculum Standards:

The Arts(Visual and Performing): 1.2

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education: 2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 2.6

Language Arts Literacy: 3.3, 3.4

Social Studies: 6.5

Consumer, Family & Life Skills: 9.1 A, B; 9.2 A, B, C, D

Tenth-grade students in health education classes will go through Safe Sitter training,  a six-hour course in which adolescents learn essential skills for babysitting. AtlantiCare Hospital, located in neighboring Atlantic City, will provide the training. The students will learn safety and crisis management, behavior management, communication skills, and business skills. After completing the course, students will receive a certificate recognizing their training. Teachers and parents in the Egg Harbor Township community can hire these students for baby-sitting. The students will become involved in their community while developing vital employability skills.

Egg Harbor Township parents in need of qualified baby-sitters.

One day to complete training course

In-school activity. Students secure permission from other teachers. Students will also have to have a parent permission slip.

CPR mannequins, mats, desk, paper

The Arts (Visual and Performing): Students learn how to entertain the child they are caring for by being taught age-appropriate activities. Some examples of these art-based activities include painting, puppet shows, and storytelling.

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education: The class will learn how to perform CPR, AED, and the Heimlich maneuver. Students will also learn emergency preparedness such as knowing emergency numbers, keeping the house secure, and maintaining their personal safety. Pets, water safety, and sanitation will also be covered.

Language Arts Literacy: Students will learn how to confidently communicate with the parents of the child they are caring for. They will be taught to listen to parental instructions and to abide by them. The class will also learn how to gain the respect of the children they are caring for by communicating with them in a positive manner.

Mathematics: The class will learn how to create a rate plan in regard to the charges of their services. Students will take into account the rates of other babysitters, previous rates of the parents they are working for, the number of children, and personal experience.

Social Studies: Students apply economics when deciding how much to charge for their services.

Consumer, Family, and Life Skills: Students develop the necessary personal and employability skills of child care. They also develop critical thinking by learning how to prevent & to respond to emergencies. Students also demonstrate character-building skills.    

Hurdles: Dealing with large group of 35 students; ability to stay on task

Solution: Time management; several instructors for better student to teacher ratio

Performance-based Education: Students receive hands-on training in CPR, AED, and the Heimlich Maneuver. Students take practical and written exams to prove their competence in Safe Sitter training.

Cooperative Learning: Students participate in group activities that involve role-playing.

Interdisciplinary Approach: Students combine skills in performance art, physical and health education, language arts, mathematics, and family and life skills in order to become effective babysitters.

Personal Growth Outcomes:

Students learn the importance of caring for a child and how to do it in an effective way. The class learns to respect the rules that the parents of the child set. The students also come to understand that the parents are entrusting the life of their child with them, and that they must act as ethically and responsibly as possible in order to maintain that trust.

Celebration: students will have an awards ceremony with baked goods where they will receive their certificates and Babysitter Bag.

Recognition: Students receive a certificate that recognizes the completion of their training. The EHT teacher/ parents receive the list of successful participants.

Key Findings: Not only is this class beneficial for future babysitters, it is an essential parenting workshop. The majority of students state they want to be parents one day. Taking this class is one aspect of being a responsible parent.

Community Involvement: The AtlantiCare Hospital will provide the Safe Sitter training for the students

Parents and Volunteer Involvement: Parents are apprised of the list of successful participants in the Safe Sitter course and “spread the word” about its effectiveness.

Students will observe Pre-school students in action and do a journal entry. In it, they will incorporate at least five things that they have learned in the course. Also, they will reflect on what “people” skills they have developed that will help them in other life experiences.

Students will take an exam and instructors will assess skills at certain checkpoints/benchmarks.