Words of Inspiration and Motivation

“My passion comes from wanting to make a difference…I’m not here to save the world.  I’m just here to make a difference in the community I work in.”

Raymond Hernandez, MS Ed

Executive Director

School of Early Childhood Education

University of Southern California

The preschool years are critical…they are the first most fundamental period when children are noticing who they are.

                                                                                    Louise Derman-Sparks

                                                                                    Professor Emeritus

                                                                                                                Pacific Oaks College, CA

                                                                                   

“The wonder of children + the wonder of learning require wonderful curriculum & teaching.”

                                                                                    Susan Bredekamp, Ph.D.

National Center on Quality and Teaching and Learning

"No matter how appropriate and comprehensive a curriculum, it will remain simply a book on a shelf unless it is used to plan the program and to serve as a focus for staff development."

Diane Trister Dodge

Teaching Strategies

                       

My Personal Childhood Web

I don't think I have enough space to display pictures of all those that have influenced my life. However I share with you my follow classmates and professer 10 people that mean the world to me.  The large black and white picture is of my parents.  They are the first loves of my life.  They told me I could do anything I set my mind on.  I have always been very tall and my parents made me feel so good about my height.  I share my wedding picture with my maternal and paternal grandmothers.  These ladies provided me great wisdom of being a wife and mother.  They shared great stories of their childhood.  They also encourage me to be a woman of intergrity and to follow my dreams.  There is another picture of my parents with their best friends, my God-parents.  My God-parents mean the world to me.  They just like my parents and grandparents encourage me in my education and in my growth as a woman.  They made me feel as loved as my parents.  I included a picture of my nursery school graduation because it was through the Mr.and Mrs. Thomas and their wonderful nursery that my interest for preschool education was peaked.  Finally, the bottom picture is of my aunt and uncle.  My sweet aunt Rochelle operated an inhome daycare for over twenty years and was a foster parent.  It was through her love of children that the seeds of preschool education was watered in my life.  This is just a few people that make up my web of encouragement and love.  I am thankful for all of the support I was given and continue to receive.

My favorite children's is Brown Bear, Brown Bear...What do you see?

I use this book for a one month theme of lesson plans. The children were introduced to colors, numbers, rhyming words, animal sounds etc.  At the end of this unit, I had one of my three year students to invite me to sit down to read the book. He read the to me from cover to cover.  I know much of it was from my repetition reading the story and his memory,but it was the most fulfilling moment of my life.  I knew then without a shadow of a doubt I was purposed to work with preschool age children. (smile and misty).

Welcome to Holland! (An inspiring story/poem)

During my time as a Preschool Director, I was given a beautiful poem from a parent in my program that had a child diagnosis with Downs' Syndrome that I will forever hold dear to my heart.  Here is....

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this…
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?" I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy. But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

Written by Emily Perl Kingsley

This very special poem embodies my experience as the mother of a child with Autism. I am able to share my wonderful experiences with my son in hopes of inspiring other parents of children diagnosis with a special need.    I am enjoying Holland!!!

My Favorite Quote

One of my favorite quotes that is truly meaningful to me regarding children is "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin

I believe teachers must be intentional when planning for classroom instruction.  They must consider children's  developmental levels, ages and cultures.  They must design the classroom to invite learning and promote a trusting relationship between themselves and the children.  They also must be willing to immerse themselves into the learning of their children; initiating conversations and being actively involved in the classroom.