For the last two years, Take Your Child to Work Day at Mendham High School has been a blast for the faculty kids who have attended. 32 kids came in this year, from ages five to teens. Last year, Mendham offered this day as a way for the kids to learn more about their parents’ workplace, while this year, the school expanded the program, doing the same thing, but also including more activities for the younger kids to participate in. Mrs. Kober was the head organizer of the event last year, and this year she handed over the preparations to Dr. Moccia and the Future Educators Club.
In speaking with Dr. Moccia, we learned that the kids of the faculty members could participate in fun activities planned out for them or they could follow their parents around the school and explore their job. They followed the same period schedule and would switch from activity to activity or class to class. Dr. Moccia stated that he had about “15 to 20 teachers… offer different activities over the course of the day,” and he added that there was “at least one option every period” for the kids to participate in. The faculty members signed their kids up to “do different events over the course of the day.” These events included making slime, outdoor activities, karaoke, beatboxing, 3D printing, cooking, science experiments, Jeopardy, and even more fun games. Dr. Moccia and the teachers really hit it off this year with the planned activities and overall experience. If some kids didn’t want to or their parents didn’t sign them up, then the kids would not participate in the activities, and would, instead, explore their parent’s profession. This allowed a day where the kids could have the option of either participating in fun activities or shadowing their parent’s job throughout the school day.
We can’t forget about the future educators who helped out, as they were a huge help to the event. They not only “escorted the kids around the building,” according to Dr. Moccia, but also led some of the activities that the kids were engaged in. Kaitlyn Niemczyk, a sophomore future educator club member, explained that they were doing “some stuff with learning, but it’s supposed to be more fun.” She said that she wanted the kids to “see high school as something fun” and to “see what their parents like to do, but also enjoy it in a more fun way.” Samantha Silva, another sophomore future educator club member, explained that the day was “supposed to teach them how to meet new people, how to be in a new environment, and kind of just how to adapt to it.”
Dr. Moccia added that the event was very well put together, but he wanted to expand next year and is considering feedback from the parent faculty members and students. A Google Form was sent out to gather this information. They plan to implement these suggestions next year as the event continues to grow.
Take Your Child to Work Day at Mendham High School this year was a huge success. Thank you to the Future Educators Club, Dr. Moccia, and the rest of the teachers for making the event such a wonderful experience for the students and the kids.
