My Professional Beliefs

Learning Through Play
Kids learn about their world by questioning everything, exploring, playing, and tinkering. Through play, kids practice executive function skills, emotional control, social skills and build their brain architecture. During play kids are constantly learning by creating hypotheses, negotiating with friends, increasing language skills and developing internally motivated learning. As their Teacher: I create an environment filled with opportunities for children to play with a variety of open-ended toys and materials that encourage exploration. The Positive Influence: By allowing and promoting play in my classroom I am giving kids the safety net they need to take risks, learn from their mistakes and have fun while learning.

Meeting All Learning Styles to Be Inclusive
Children develop at different rates and in different ways. There are four ways that children learn: visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic. Since children learn through multiple learning styles at one time many times educators must switch it up because teaching in one way all the time is leaving students behind. What I teach differently is equity and access in my classroom starts with thoughtful universal design. I make it a point to incorporate all 4 learning modalities into our daily schedules, large group meetings, and stations.I Make Sure: That no child is left out by including things like colorful visuals, catchy chants, labels around the room and more. Everyone should feel included and have the tools that they need to succeed whether that means using our bodies to learn with movement or eyes.

Modeling Kindness & Compassion
Ensuring students feel seen, heard, and loved are the foundation of my teaching practice. I radiate love, patience, and respect for my students each day and strive to develop a classroom environment where we take care of one another. Students cannot learn when they are stressed - when we love them unconditionally and treat them with kindness, their nervous systems experience complete psychological safety. As their teacher: I explicitly teach empathy, validate all feelings, and provide a safe, structured environment for our classroom community.As a result: Students experience total safety within our classroom and can focus on learning new skills, problem solving social situations, and allowing themselves to be vulnerable.

Honor Families As Experts

I believe that children benefit when educators and families establish reciprocal, culturally responsive relationships that look like true partnerships vs involvement. Research from Dr. Karen Mapp’ showcases how effective systemic family engagement needed to support student success starts by honoring families as experts. This impacts teaching by challenging me to replace one directional communication with open-ended conversations and shared goal-setting. I strive to create classrooms where I learn from families and their experiences to inform my curriculum. Social change, advocacy requires breaking down the system that was not designed with marginalized families in mind. I will advocate for policy that allows families paid time to engage with schools and access to translation so all families can share their expertise.

Access to Play is an Equity Issue and Right
I believe that children deserve access to self-directed, inquiry-based play. Play is the primary way children learn and a cognitive right. The Research: According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), play contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. Impact on Practice: Learning about the importance of play challenges me to pause the urge to push academic skills that require memorization. My short term and long term goal is to advocate for freedom-filled play and record the rich learning that happens during these moments. Social Change Advocacy: This makes me want to fight for the children who have their recess and play-based instructional time reduced due to systemic decisions made about their underfunded schools. I will advocate for all children to have equitable access to spaces and curriculum that prioritize play to close the opportunity gap from the start.

Early Childhood Educators Should Feel Safe, Healthy, and Well-Compensated
I believe that young children’s education cannot be high-quality if the adults teaching them don’t feel psychologically safe, physically healthy, and fairly compensated. Research from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment finds that low wages and high stress in the early childhood field lead to high turnover which directly impacts children’s development and ability to feel emotionally safe. Impact on Practice: Hearing this information pushes me to create a classroom environment that practices mutual care. My colleagues and I work hard to check in with each other and maintain boundaries that prevent burnout. Part of advocacy is at the public policy level. I will advocate for investment in the early childhood workforce, livable wages, and respect for educators. By improving the economic conditions of childcare teachers, we can move closer to gender and racial economic justice.

My Professional Beliefs

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