resilient & resourced educator podcast episode #11

Melissa: Challenges as Opportunities

 Melissa has been involved in Early Childhood Education for almost 20 years. Over those two decades, she has worked at a university ECE Centre and a regionally-run facility while also spending some time as an ECE instructor at a local college. This educator is also heavily involved in a wide variety of community building initiatives in her region and has been recognized with the Mayor's City Builder Award for her work on a wide array of local interests and causes.      As an Early Childhood Educator in a pandemic year, Melissa has been learning to keep the chaos of so many unknowns to herself and exude a calmness to support her young students. This is important as working with toddlers is much different than it is with older students. Toddlers may not have the language to express how they are feeling with all of the changes so keeping tuned into them is key for educators.Early pandemic was a challenge for Melissa who is a huge planner of the colour-coded calendar variety. She has been inspired by friends who have been able to embrace the concept of leaving spaces in their calendars but admits that she’s not quite there yet.Melissa reflects on the Reggio Emilia approach from Italy that is more student-directed and where children are co-constructors of their own learning. For Melissa, this concept turned the tables on how children have traditionally learned. For her, it brings learning alive for the teacher and student.Self-care helps Melissa prepare physically and mentally for what each day may bring and allows her to see challenges as opportunities.Follow Melissa here http://www.melissabowmanward9.ca/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/m2bowman