COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES
I have been part of a collaborative teaching team over the past 10 years as an RECE in an Early Learning Kindergarten Program, in Wellington County. I have had the opportunity to be part of a Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) with the Kindergarten teams at my site in 2015. We worked on a project that involved investigating if allowing children to document their own learning would increase the student engagement in the classroom. The group sat down to discuss possible inquiry methods and models and an evaluation and assessment criteria to determine the project's effectiviness. I have more recently been involved in the delivery of the IB World School, International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program development, through the early stages, with a school in Wellington County. This work has included collaboration of a six member kindergarten team over the development, implementation and designed plan of an early learning program that incorporates both the Ontario Kindergarten Program and the IB PYP curricula design, into engaging philosopy based programming. Over the summer months of 2019, I have completed a field placement component of the Early Learning Resource Consulting program through a Conestoga/Seneca College partnership program. I have had the priveledged experience to work with KW Habilitation Services in Kitchener-Waterloo Region. During this placement, I contributed to an Early Learning Service Plan, worked along side parents and professionals to collaboratively contribute to the inclusion of children with diverse abilities. I sat on transdiciplinary team meetings and contributed to the support plans for children. I used an Inclusion Index to observe an early learning environment to provide feedback and enhancements to support the team and inclusive practices of the centre in which it was applied. I have included some examples of my work in the RC role so far.
PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS
Pedagogical Philosophy Statement
I believe that all children are individuals and they are limited only by the support and interventions we provide. I work to view each learner under their own lens to create environments to support their learning. I believe that it is never too late to learn and that children need the the support of the families, educators, environments and communitites around them in order to reach their own personal optimal development. I believe that building caring and nuturing relationships with our learners is the most important piece of supporting growth. I believe that the earlier we can provide these supports to children the better equipped they become to navigate their world. We should all remain curious about a child and look beneath the behaviours to see the underlying issues that are preventing learning if we want to aleviate those issues as a team. Families, educators, professionals and outside agencies need to work together to provide holistic supports.
Career Goals
My goal is to continue my learning in the area of supporting children with diverse abilities. I have a great desire to bring trauma informed care to the forefront of education and lead educators in viewing children with curiosity when observing, assessing and evaluating behaviours and learning challenges. I hope to find a professional agency or position that believes children are only limited by our beliefs and strives to break down those barriers to create safe spaces for children to thrive, grow and learn in their best way.