NAEYCNEWS
Then my principal asked if I would be interested in becoming an early childhood staff developer. I became a coach and mentor, then an assistant principal in an elementary school, pre-K to grade 5. Then I became the founding principal of Learning to Play. I opened our school.
As a member of the Chancellor’ s Principal Advisory Board, you were invited to present before the Quebec National Assembly in Canada. How did that opportunity arise?
Quebec’ s minister of education came to visit our school in 2019. He invited my supervisor and me to speak to the National Assembly because he wanted to implement a prekindergarten-for-all program and was facing some opposition from home-based educators who were afraid children would leave their programs. We shared that in New York, family child care programs are part of our pre-K offerings. Families get to decide what setting they want for their children. The bill passed, and I was happy we were able to give our feedback. That was a highlight of my career.
You’ re a fierce advocate for play-based learning. How do you communicate its importance?
Oftentimes, people think children in early learning settings are only playing. But they’ re learning through play! We work hard to help families understand what we’ re doing through workshops and other activities. We also share our practices with other educators. We’ ve had teachers from all over the world visit us: Teachers from Korea; teachers, superintendents, and mayors from the Philippines. An executive for the curriculum we use also visited us to see the curriculum in action.
NAEYC is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. What does this milestone mean to you?
As an early childhood educator and school leader, NAEYC’ s centennial is both a moment of reflection and a call to action. This anniversary means continuing to fight to ensure that young children are seen as capable learners and that early learning environments are grounded in
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