Finding a Passion for what I believe in
What inspires, drives, and motivates me? Why is this mission to help people build independence and achieve success so important to me?
My Story
I became a mom a long time ago and realized that teaching was the best job in the world. At that time, I was in corporate real estate, but the passion I had to help my children develop and grow was so much more important, so I went back to school for education. I began running a successful preschool where I had my three children with me everyday, was motivating students to learn through play and had realized the need for a special education certification since so many students I taught needed speech, Occupational Therapy and other early intervention services. Soon thereafter, my children all entered schools, so I decided it was time for me to embark on a new adventure of working in learning and emotional support in the public school system.
I realized it was my calling to build relationships, make connections, and help students who presented with learning differences be their best versions of themselves everyday. After years of working with elementary and middle school students, I decided to try working with high school students since I was tutoring so many on the side and realized they were struggling the most. They were struggling to make and keep relationships, had negative behaviors in school and at home, were definitely not prepared when it came time to plan for their next chapter of life, and overall just seemed to lack the perseverance and mindset needed for success in life.
Recently, it seemed necessary to leap into the idea that there is an overwhelming need for awareness of the lack of executive function skills among students and even working professionals. Awareness that recognizes the need for a swift change in how we approach supporting one another. Students are failing in high school and college, they have little to no resilience or emotional regulation skills, parents are more reactive than proactive overall and teachers are frustrated and overwhelmed with a role that they once loved; just look at the shortages we are facing.
Having the opportunity to do this important work where I mentor and coach students and young adults to build self regulation, internal language, verbal/non-verbal working memory and cognitive flexibility, in and out of the classroom, has been an amazing gift that I have been passionate about for a long time. I have also recently seen even better results when working as a parent coach to help them build more positive relationships with their children as well as build executive functions within the home. Research suggests that the increase of technology use, standardized testing, and the world-wide pandemic contributed to the fall-out we are all seeing now and it is truly alarming.
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I am a special educator who has completed an abundance of continuing
education and experience teaching how the brain learns as well as how the prefrontal cortex develops in children and young adults. The skill set mentioned isn't something taught in graduate school and universities specifically, it is through parenting and teaching experience, studying experts in the field of psychology, as well as through the use of proven, evidence-based practices that I have come to learn how to support needs that develop in the roots of executive functions.
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My mission is to continue to empower students and young adults with the skills they need for success in all aspects of their life, and also to inspire parents to connect with their children. I would love to work with teachers in the field to educate them to understand how weak executive functions manifest themselves in the classroom while offering real strategies that can help them be better teachers. There needs to be a shift in schools now more than ever in the area of relational discipline. We have dysregulated students who had, and continue to have, trauma in their lives. This trauma directly affects student learning and until we fix this through healing, our schools will be unable to support the needs of our children.
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It is clear that a child’s success is directly proportional to their willingness to not give up, so they need the skills to help them persevere, be resilient, and work through the challenges they face daily. It is educators and parents who owe our future the chance to be supported during their years of vulnerability, but fade these prompts and support overtime so they learn to be independent.
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How do we make this happen? One word: connection. Children need to feel connected, understood, accepted and safe in their environment. I have made it my life's mission to spread awareness, impact as many students as I can and work hard to help parents and teachers learn what needs to happen in order for our future generations to be leaders, collaborators, innovators and feel like who they have become is something to be proud of!
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. If you are a school, parent, working professional or student who recognizes there is a critical need for change, let's connect.