An Outdoor Forest Preschool
in Maple Ridge, BC
Title. Double click me.
Lisa Campbell-Erwin
My journey of working with children began over 20 years ago, when I knew in my heart that I must be a teacher. I went back to University and obtained my Bachelor of Education from UBC and began practicing in September 2003. My teaching career began as a TOC (teacher-on-call) in schools in both Vancouver and Richmond. TOCing offered me the beauty of working with many different age groups and abilities of children, it was during this time that I realized that the younger grades felt most special to me. My first class was a Kindergarten class in Richmond in 2007. Soon after, I moved to the beautiful, green, hilly city of Maple Ridge and have taught here ever since. In this district, I have been lucky enough to have experienced both Kindergarten and Grade 1 as a teacher.
Some time ago, I decided to go back to school part time and obtain my Early Childhood Educator's certificate. It made sense to me, as a teacher, to have all the information that I could about this young age group, that I loved working with so much.
Since completing my ECE schooling in 2010 and working with children in ECE settings (while also still being a practising teacher in the Maple Ridge school system), I have realized through first hand comparison, how much more of ourselves we can offer to our students when the ratio (students to adults) is lower, as it is in ECE settings. This actually goes without saying - but to experience it is something else! There is absolutely nothing more satisfying, when working with a child, than having the time to hear them through, having the time needed to answer a question thoroughly or having the time to simply sit back and observe their joy or sense of accomplishment in a task.
Through all of my teaching experiences, my greatest joys can be found in the settings where I have had the time to give the children what they need. It is of upmost importance to me to be able to give each little individual exactly what they need to develop fully and continue to be motivated on their learning journey. I believe in a preschool setting this can be accomplished through the gift of lower student to adult ratios and the resulting time one has to spend with each.