Sitting Down with Mrs. Del Monico

Mrs. Del Monico is a Child Development teacher who’s room is located in B-Hall. We decided to about this popular class.

Mrs. Del Monico holding her daughter, Brooklyn.

Mrs. Del Monico holding her daughter, Brooklyn.

Isabelle Montano

Q. What made you want to become a child development/parenting teacher?

A: I went to school to become a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, where I can teach a variety of classes that include child development, parenting, culinary and more! When I was in high school, these where the classes I loved and was  passionate about. These are the classes that provided real life/hands on skills that I could take from the classroom to the real world. That is important to me and that is something I am passionate about to provide to my students. I also had AMAZING teachers in high school that taught these classes and I wanted to be just like them and make an influence on students like they did for me!

Q. What was your first choice to teach?

A: I did not really have a first choice. I was very open to all the Family and Consumer Sciences classes, but in the 10 years that I have been teaching I have taught Culinary Arts, Child Development and Parenting. I love them all for different reasons. Child Development has a place in my heart because I get to observe the high school students and preschool students. I also get to use a lot of the  creativity that I have!

Q.  What did you teach before Child Development and Parenting?

A: I taught culinary arts for the last 9 years. I have taught in different districts and have taught different levels Culinary Arts, including Intros to Foods and Nutrition and three different levels  of Culinary Arts courses.

Q. What school did you teach at before Morton West?

A: I was at Morton East last year and before that I taught at Bolingbrook High School  in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

Q. Why did you choose to change from Culinary to Child Development/Parenting?

A: Since I have been teaching Culinary Arts for SO long, I was just looking to get a new vibe and I LOVE the consent and preschool lab that Child Development has.  Now that I’m a parent, I felt that I could really relate to the parenting content and provide some great insight while teaching the class.

Q. What made you choose to teach Culinary Arts?

A: Culinary Arts is all part of Family & Consumer Sciences and when I started teaching, that is what the positions where for. All the school that had job opening were looking for Culinary Arts teachers. I was nervous, but dove right into it and have learned so much. I then went on to teach it straight for 9 years! It was an awesome experience!

Q. If you could go back to teaching Culinary, would you?

A: I definitely would, but I would love a mix of classes. I definitely miss aspects of Culinary Arts, but do not think my personality would love ONLY Culinary Arts anymore. I love the creativity and different environment of Child Development and Parenting as well!

Q. What makes you enjoy working with kids/teenagers?

A: I enjoy working with kids because I love seeing the “learning” take place. I love being able to teach kids something new and to provide students with that real world application through their education. I also love working with the little kids in the preschool to see their energy and imaginations. It is a lot of fun!

Q. Whats are the cons of working kids and teens together?

A: I would not say there are CONS, but there are definitely challenges such as trying to moderate the learning of both age groups and to ensure that the high-schoolers are providing developmentally appropriate lessons for the kids. Also, I have to ensure that appropriate behavior and language is taking

Mrs. Del Monico with her mother.

place on both levels. There are not many challenges, but a few small ones.

Q. What has been your favorite project with the kids?

A: Oh boy, I cannot even pick one! There are so many fun things you can do with the preschool students. Any of the science activities are great because you can see the kids eyes light up and be “wowed” by the experiments. Kids also love any type of art project, they get so into it and their imagination just soars!