Early Childhood Educator in Mississauga, Ontario

I genuinely believe that every child has the ability to succeed and achieve. A learner's needs are evolving and require ongoing evaluation by formal and informal methods and that is why my practice is constantly informed by assessment and vice versa I also believe that providing children with strategies that make them independent learners is vital to their academic and personal success.For instance, as a Kindergarten teacher, I encountered a child who had major limitations when it came to attention and concentration in my class. Through event recording charts and anecdotal observations I discovered that he found tasks that involved sitting for a significant period of time challenging. After collaborating with my assistant teacher and principal, I implemented an exercise routine from Brain Gym at the beginning of every Circle Time to decrease hyperactive behaviours and enhance self-regulation. Since, it was a whole class activity the child didn't feel isolated and other students also benefited from the new routine and showed increased concentration. I have had the opportunity to work with students from a variety of backgrounds; and with each profile I have revised my teaching strategies to find the most suitable fit. Whether it is using Fruit Loops to teach patterning skills to a child with ASD or visual and mnemonic to enhance a child's decoding and comprehension skills, I believe each child can develop across all domains. When I was at Huron Public School, in the Gr. 4/5/6 Learning Disabilities classroom, there was a student who had dyslexia and when it came to Language and specifically writing, he tended to find ways to procrastinate. However, he was always engaged during Science and Computers since he loved interacting with the SMART board in the class. I then gave him a choice of working on the SMART board to write his Book Review and he could also pull up images from the internet to add to it after he was done with writing. Adding a simple incentive at the end of adding visuals and being able to work on the SMART board transformed a task he dreaded to one that he enjoyed. He printed his review and chose a spot in the classroom to display and show his peers.