Long before I was a mother and seasoned, public school teacher...I was a student studying human development within the context of family at Cornell University. It was there that I began to read all that I could about the young child, relationships, and the life-course...and I never stopped!
Abraham Maslow's work on motivation urged me to consider the emotional needs of a child, Jean Piaget opened my eyes to the cognitive process children undergo as they construct knowledge, and Erik Erikson's stages and Vygotsky's constructivism helped become acutely sensitive to the social interactions impacting development. It was somewhere very early on in my studies that I became absolutely devoted to carrying on in the spirit of these and a host of other GIANTS in the field and am absolutely certain that they are the bricks to my ivy.
As the years have passed, and I have grown from a life rich with experience...I have developed an even deeper appreciation for what all who came before me in the field knew and had the grace to share with the world. I believe that best practice in teaching always rests in on our collective
willingness to meet the learner exactly where they are and travel together on a course that becomes the curriculum itself. By tenderly meeting the needs of the human mind, body, and spirit, we honor the the learning process every.step.of.the.way.