Our Teachers

PAL Program Teacher

I want to impact a student’s learning experience in a positive way by creating a welcoming and supportive environment. Guide and support all students to learn and acquire the foundational skills to school readiness and independence. Reduce learning gaps and increase the achievement of all children. Promote a high quality early childhood education enriched and exposed to language, which is fundamental in literacy development and in all areas of learning. Getting to know a child as a whole is important in understanding a child’s strengths, preference, interest, personalities, and abilities. I believe that all children can thrive when families and educators work as partners to optimize their learning. Students of today are our future and therefore should be nurture and educated towards school readiness and independence.

UTK/CC Teacher

I love teaching the PAL program. I believe each student in my class is unique and beautiful in their own way. I provide a safe and fun learning environment for all my students. Every experience is an opportunity to learn. And the best part is that we learn through play. Playing with them is an adventure each time. My students teach me to be a better teacher every day. I learn from them as they learn from me. It makes me very happy to see my students demonstrate growth in different areas of development. Progress might look different for every child, but it makes me happy and proud to see any type of improvement my students show during the school year. Progress is progress, no matter how small. My mission is to help every child reach their highest potential. 

California State Preschool Program (CSPP) Teacher

Kindergarten Teacher

As an educator I hope to be sensitive, supportive, and make learning appealing to all children.  I believe that the classroom is a place where I can help shape young minds to grow to their full potential, not only academically but socially.  I believe in the power of education and am dedicated to helping children succeed.  In order for quality education to occur, effective communication, collaboration, and positive interaction needs to take place between students, parents, teachers, school staff and community, which we have at Lafayette Park Primary Center.

UTK

As an educator, I've found that "if a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn." -Ignacio Estrada.  I've searched high and low to find new strategies to teach students so that what they learn stays with them for the rest of their lives.  It's not just about what they learned but about how they apply the learning to everything else.

Kindergarten Teacher

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." (W.B. Yeats)  My goal as a teacher is to ignite in my students a passion to learn, be curious, resilient, and become life long learners.  I want them to enjoy coming to school everyday and succeed in learning.