Because of this, I sought out opportunities to travel abroad to places like Honduras and Italy, where I taught young students like you how to speak and communicate in English!
After college, I moved to Philadelphia to pursue my teaching certification from the University of Pennsylvania. During this time, I was accepted into Teach for America where I was placed at People for People Charter School to teach kindergarten. My first year of teaching changed my life for the better, and helped me understand how important my school, my students, and my classroom is to me. Ever since then, I strive each day to perfect my craft by learning through other cultures and how they teach their students in their classroom environments!
Because I adore each and every one of you, I decided to make it my mission to learn about play-based learning teaching methods in Finland. Finland has the best education system in the whole world! This year, I applied for a Fulbright research grant, which means the U.S. government pays for teachers just like me to travel abroad to a country to learn about how education is practiced in the country of origin. I accepted the grant, and was sent to Helsinki, Finland for the year to study play and create a program to bring back to People for People next year! Now, each day, I go to elementary schools all around my new city of Helsinki and observe and help teachers in Finland incorporate play, as well as interact with the Finnish students to see how they learn.
I enjoy living in Helsinki and I am so excited to bring back all that I discover about the Finnish education system to our classroom and our school.
