I began my Shady Oak journey as a parent of a Bridgeling when I enrolled my son in Bridge in 2021. I was so enamored with Shady Oak that I couldn’t resist enrolling my daughter in Sprouts that same school year halfway through the year. It was at this time I also began teaching at Shady Oak as a late stay teacher. My journey evolved as I then moved on to being an Acorns teacher, a Sprouts teacher, and now I am so thrilled to be working as the Bridge teacher in the exact program that originally won my heart. I feel that my experience in each class and age group gives me a wonderful perspective on where my Bridge students came from before coming into our Bridge classroom.

When I was touring Shady Oak as a parent, Joyce Trigger said to me, “How do you prepare a child for kindergarten? You give them the best year of their life.” This has stuck with me through my years at Shady Oak and is a founding principle on which I base my Bridge approach. Academic fundamentals of literacy and math are absolutely at the forefront of our curriculum and methods, but most importantly they are presented to our children in a fun, low-pressure, and loving environment. The kids may go home and say they only played all day, but as we say at Shady Oak, “We learn as we play,” and they are absorbing essentail social skills, academic basics, fine motor development and so much more as they go throughout their day.

It is an honor and a privilege to be able to spend so much time with my students, to teach and to love them in the ways I would want my children to be treated when they are at school. I take a hands on approach with my students, meaning I make art with them, I get on the floor and play with them, and we take our shoes off in the sandbox together. It is not an exaggeration or turn of phrase when I refer to my students as “my friends.” Developing a real relationship with my students is absolutely essential to me. They learn from me because they feel safe with me, and they respect me because I treat them with respect. These are the foundations of my teaching approach.