Year: 2021 — Province: Alberta
Certificate of Achievement Recipient
Calgary Montessori School #1
Nursery school for children ages 3 to 6 years
Calgary, Alberta
Quote
“…when a parent sends their child to preschool, they can wish for nothing more than for their child to be truly loved and appreciated for who they are. This is what Ms. Sally offers. It is her legacy. A generation of students who beamed with pride at the preschool door in the morning because they knew Ms. Sally thought they were the best.”
Philosophy of care
Sally treats each child as a unique individual and is child-centred in the classroom. She approaches each child with empathy and understanding paired with high expectations and clear boundaries, while being flexible to accommodate each child’s needs and tirelessly sees the best in them. Within each child, Sally instills a love of learning and stresses the importance of taking pride and ownership of aspects of the children’s lives, whether it be tidying up after themselves or ensuring that their printing is legible. She demands nothing but the best from each child by recognizing how capable each individual child is.
Support of child development
Sally meets each child in their development journey and begins there to help them grow and learn and believes in the development of the whole child. She optimizes each child’s unique development by celebrating their uniqueness daily and providing a loving and caring environment for each child to learn. Building relationships with each child and finding out what each child’s interests is a priority to Sally to help build a bond with each child. She guides the children under her care to the right activities to help meet their developmental, social and emotional needs.
Recently, Sally has become an advocate for introducing nature into children’s lives by regularly creating opportunities for the children to get out of the classroom setting where children are free to run, jump or play in an open field. Children move among the tress to discover types of foliage, bark, and roots while nature walks also provide opportunities to discover plants, insects, and small animals that live among us.
Involvement with parents, families and the community
Sally has a gift of communicating with parents. She knows when a quick sentence at the end of the day about the child’s day is what the parent needs to hear. Parent education is an integral part of the Montessori learning environment and Sally spends a lot of time preparing and presenting parent education sessions. She also senses when a parent is struggling and needs to hear more. As many of her students have siblings, Sally is able to keep a strong relationship with parents over the years.
During lock down this past year when the child care facilities were closed, Sally called each of the families weekly, to check in to see how they were coping during the pandemic. She has mentored colleagues that are new to profession as well as the seasoned early childhood educator and is often contacted by other programs to deal with a child or classroom situation. Sally shows her leadership skills by quietly demonstrating the best way to educate young children by modelling for her co-workers.
Get in touch!
Calgary Montessori School #1
2828 -19th Street NW
Calgary AB T2M 3V8
403-289-0034
Email: admin@calgarymontessorischool.com