My name is Laura Kelley. I am the lead teacher for the preschool class. I have been teaching at Tiny Tot since 2009. I have a Bachelor of Arts from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and am continuing my education in the field of early childhood education. I have three young sons who are the sunshine in my life. I began teaching in 1999 and took a six year break to be a stay at home mother when my children were very young. I truly enjoy teaching this young age, they are all so full of wonder, curiosity, imagination and many smiles. Teaching life skills to young children is a great reward when they say, "I can do this all by myself!"
My name is Lily Stephens and I am the morning teaching assistant for the four-year-old class. I am dividing my days this year between teaching and learning, spending my mornings engaged with the bright minds in my classroom and my afternoons in pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. I started working at Tiny Tot part-time as an aid in the four-year-old class and soon found myself wishing my summer job would last much longer than the summer. Now, four years later, I am still in love with my job and relish the opportunity to take on new challenges and responsibilities to provide your children with an education that is mutually fun and rewarding.
This year, I will be supplementing our current curriculum with the child-directed Project Approach curriculum, allowing your brilliant children the opportunity to direct the course of their education by focusing on topics of their own choosing. The Project Approach to early childhood education involves young children in investigations of significant events and phenomena in their own environments in ways that strengthen their intellectual dispositions and provide contexts for applying their developing social, literacy, and numeracy skills. In the course of their studies, children do field work, develop personal interests in different aspects of the topic, and pursue a variety of investigations.
I am truly excited to embark on this educational adventure with your children and will be documenting our journey with a panoply of photos, artwork, songs, and stories to help keep you updated and engaged every step of the way.
This year, I will be supplementing our current curriculum with the child-directed Project Approach curriculum, allowing your brilliant children the opportunity to direct the course of their education by focusing on topics of their own choosing. The Project Approach to early childhood education involves young children in investigations of significant events and phenomena in their own environments in ways that strengthen their intellectual dispositions and provide contexts for applying their developing social, literacy, and numeracy skills. In the course of their studies, children do field work, develop personal interests in different aspects of the topic, and pursue a variety of investigations.
I am truly excited to embark on this educational adventure with your children and will be documenting our journey with a panoply of photos, artwork, songs, and stories to help keep you updated and engaged every step of the way.
I'm Elizabeth Kaplan and I am a Teacher's Assistant in the preschool class. I have been teaching at Tiny Tot since the fall of 2009. I have a B.A. from NIU. I started working with children when a mentoring opportunity came up in 2007. I liked working with the girls so much that I decided to volunteer to teach for AmeriCorps: I ended up teaching at an Elementary School in Chicago for a year. I’ve been working with children ever since. One of the best things about being a teacher is watching and listening to their interactions. It’s amazing to see how every day the children get yet another opportunity to test, develop, and improve their new social skills - the skills that will affect how they experience their world for many years to come. I feel privileged to be part of their special journey!
