Three’s 4-Day Assistant Teacher

What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you? Charles Swindoll’s famous quote, “Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% of how you react to it” is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever come across, but Master Oogway’s memorable quote from Kung Fu Panda, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present!” might be even better!

What do you like about working with children and how does your background support your work at Bee Loved? I love working with children, and not only does my love for children, but also my vast experience in working with children support my work at Bee Loved Preschool. I have been around children all my life! I am second to the youngest in a family of 5 children. I started babysitting by the age of 12 and have always been a part of child centered activities for as long as I can remember whether it be helping at the local library or community center to raising both of my own children. I have taught hundreds of children throughout my life while volunteering in childcare classes for many churches for most of my adult life, volunteering in youth summer camps, serving as home room mom for both of my boys’ classes from kindergarten through 5th grade, mentoring other children at their schools, chaperoning for every field trip and volunteering for every opportunity imaginable throughout their years from preschool all the way through their last year in high school. I was an active member in volunteering for all their sports and other extracurricular activities for the past 15 years.

I have even served as a youth minister to college students! I have traveled with youth groups to many countries on medical missions and have also served in many volunteer roles for disadvantaged children and children with special needs.

I loved working with children so much that I went back to school to earn my master’s degree in Elementary Education, and afterwards, taught grades spanning from

Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade for over 19 years in private, public, charter, Christian based, and Montessori school settings. While teaching during those years, I served as substitute teachers, assistant teachers, lead teachers, and even as an enrichment class teacher. I have also tutored all ages of children in both private companies like Kumon and in less formal settings such as from my home. I even love teaching adults! I have spent several years teaching adults how to read, which has been extremely rewarding.

I have a strong passion for teaching children (and adults) of all ages and working with children in their early developmental stages especially brings me an immense amount of joy for several reasons. I like working with young children because it allows me the great privilege and opportunity to help foster and develop our next generation through love and kindness from a very young age. It also provides me with many experiences to be a part of their pure joy, unique perspectives, and authentic approaches to life. It’s a chance to make a positive impact and difference in their lives and their family’s lives, to serve God and our community, and to begin a foundation for children in which they will hopefully continue to build upon through meaningful and positive relationships with most of their first teachers! I also truly delight in being able to help the families entrusting their children in our care in any small or great way along their journey as parents.

What is a fact that most people don’t know about you? My name means sunrise.

Our mission is to provide the children in our community with a loving Christian setting; to offer a nurturing and encouraging environment; to guide children in learning about themselves, the world and God’s love; to build children’s self-esteem; and to see children, not as they are now, but as what they can become. What does our mission mean to you? I love working with children because of not only how much God loves children, but also because of how much he values a childlike spirit in all of his followers. And, in fact, he instructs us to guide not hinder children in their paths towards faith in Him. The following are a few of my favorite scriptures about children in which I consider to be a part of my own personal mission to serve God, and in which they all coincide, reinforce, and support the mission of Bee Loved Preschool:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1-3).

“Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14).

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3).

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

“And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (Mark 9:36-37).

“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Luke 18:15-17).

The school’s mission gives me an opportunity to practice and fulfill, ultimately, God’s mission for each of us as we encounter, impact, and guide children, and I’m grateful to be included within a school and community that practices all the purposes God has given for us when relating to these precious little souls!