Featured Teacher: Cindy Banuelos, Heritage University ECEAP program

Cindy Banuelos is the Lead Teacher at Heritage University’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance (ECEAP) Program in Yakima.

“She’s amazing,” said colleague, Stacie Marez. “She provides one of the most positive social-emotional climates I have seen. She provides an interesting and engaging classroom.”

Banuelos was motivated to begin teaching after spending time volunteering in her mother’s classroom.

“My mother inspired me to teach,” said Banuelos. “I tried a little bit of everything in college . . . but I think my time volunteering led me to the teaching career I have today.”

Banuelos enjoys engaging with her students who are all five-years-old or under.

Cindy teaching about space.

“I recently walked into the room and noticed that the home living area was set up as a veterinarian's office complete with stuffed animals, a changing table as an examining table, doctor's tools and pictures of animal x-rays,” said Marez.

On a cultural level, Banuelos embeds Spanish, French and Sahaptin (Yakima tribal language) into her curriculum as well as provides activities that will spark active imaginations.

“Sometimes when I teach, I get to step out of the grown up world,” said Banuelos. “The kid world doesn’t have a lot of stress or worries. As a teacher, I enjoy it because I can see their imaginations grow and go on and on.”

Currently, Banuelos is teaching her 20 enrolled students about the solar system.

“We are learning about planets, outer-space, astronauts . . . we do hands-on activities like making yucky-looking food that tastes good. We have an alien café... It’s a lot of fun.”

Thank you Cindy for using creativity in early education and for inspiring children to explore and use their imaginations!

Michael Snow & Katie Pomeroy: Engaging Pre-K Kids with Quality Interaction

In honor of National Teacher Appreciation Week, DEL would like to highlight some of the state’s outstanding teachers from varying programs and areas.

Katie Pomeroy and Michael Snow are instructors for Lewis County Head Start. The two are from the area and enjoy working closely with children in an active and creative environment.

“What I love most about teaching is seeing a child ‘get it,’” said Snow. “There is no greater joy than seeing a child’s eyes light up when they have been working so hard at a skill or concept and it finally all makes sense.”

Pomeroy shares Snow’s views and is happiest when children achieve educational goals.

“For me the most rewarding aspect of teaching is being able to help children bring out the best in themselves and meet their full potential,” she said. “We tend in our society to underestimate the capabilities of children. They can do great things if given the opportunities.”

Snow and Pomeroy are currently utilizing a variety of engaging activities in their classroom to help kids with reading, math, and logical and critical thinking skill sets.

“The kids in my preschool class have been working on a lot of math/number concepts and creating graphs to track their progress,” said Snow. “It is quite astonishing that my partner and I can show them a new concept like creating a chart or graph and moments later they are able to put their new learned skill in action during their own free time," said Snow.

Snow described the class-room activity using dice. Children roll dice and identify numbers on a chart to see which number is rolled the least. 

"30 minutes after that lesson, I caught four kids taking turns rolling dice and keeping track of the numbers that had been rolled on a chart they made themselves,” he said.

Michael Snow helping children use charts to learn numbers.

Beyond numbers, children at Lewis County Head Start are working on literacy and logic.

“Our kids are really engaged in literacy activities right now and we are supporting them in illustrating and labeling their own stories,” said Pomeroy. “All of our children can name at least a few sight works, and some are beginning to sound out words on their own.”

Katie Pomeroy teaching using "Mystery Items."

Pomeroy also noted that children are interested in solving problems and asking the “what if” question.

“We are also encouraging questioning and logical thinking with ‘Mystery Items,’ that the children have to ask questions about in order to identify,” she said.

“Katie & Michael exemplify quality Teacher Interactions through their rich and relevant classroom studies based off the interests/desires of the children in their classroom,” said Debi Hood, director of Lewis County Head Start. “This dynamic duo extends their quality teaching strategies to families through family engagement activities within the classroom with parents regularly facilitating activities within their classroom.”

Thank you Katie Pomeroy and Michael Snow for being dedicated and imaginative instructors for Pre-K children in Washington!

Noven Chiu: Building Confidence and Culture in Children

In honor of National Teacher Appreciation Week, DEL would like to highlight some of the state’s outstanding teachers from varying programs and areas.

Noven Chiu is originally from Hong Kong, China, and is a Head Start Lead Teacher at the Denise Louie Education Center (DLEC). DLEC provides high-quality multicultural early learning and family support services so that Seattle kids will be ready to succeed in school and life.

Chiu has worked with DLEC for over 10 years.

“She has been a major contributor to DLEC's success,” said Susan Yang, Executive Director of DLEC. “She has extensive knowledge about cultural competency and how to incorporate cultural values in the classroom.”

According to Yang, Noven builds and continues to maintain positive relationships with the families and children she serves. She took leadership in supervising the International District Center in the absence of a director, led a Dual Language workshop with the Center for Linguistic and Cultural Democracy, and is now a certified CLASS Observer. She is a peer mentor to all of the staff and she continues to seek out other opportunity for professional development. 

“Her passion for early education is admirable, and she is the epitome of a great teacher,” said Yang.

Chiu’s curriculum is usually two-years long and incorporates multiple languages and cultures into student work.

“After the kids come to our agency, they are confident in their culture and values. They appreciate learning and enter kindergarten with a willingness to learn new things,” said Chiu. “I really like my program. We can help the children learn about other cultures and learn the basics of other languages, and they also keep the culture and language they were born with.”

Chiu currently has 19 children in her classroom, a majority of which are Chinese speakers. The children in her classroom are encouraged to solve problems on their own, answer open-ended questions, develop critical-thinking skills, and as Chiu puts it, “gain confidence and learn to trust themselves.”

Chiu instructing at DLEC.

Thank you Noven Chiu and DLEC for teaching and encouraging some of Washington’s littlest learners!