Welcome to our Classroom Meet the Teacher Night

Introductions Please feel free to introduce yourselves to everyone in the classroom!

Mrs. Angie Gagaropoulos My name is Angie Gagaropoulos. I recently graduated from Trent University. I have a passion for teaching children in the primary and Junior level! I am very excited to be apart of this kindergarten classroom with your children. I have a strong background in Early Childhood Education, as I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator, and have a lot of experience working with children in the primary grades. I love to draw, and explore new artistic possibilities! I believe that every child is unique, and plan to keep this in mind when planning to teach your children. I look forward to the rest of the year together!

The Classroom In our three weeks as a class, we have created a list of norms and rules that help our class run smoothly, and maximizes the opportunity for every child to learn! As a class, we will: Keep our hands to ourselves Ask for help when we need it! Use our “Inside voices” when we are working inside “Respect” our selves, each other and the classroom (including materials and toys) Walk in the classroom Have fun while learning! listen to the teacher and each other. wait our turn and share the toys in the room.

The Classroom Respect: I asked the children what they thought respect was. Many had difficulty with this, but eventual we broke it up into two parts: Feelings and Actions: how we feel about someone or something. We should try to be happy, but if we see someone who is not happy, we should try to make them feel better, and not worse. We should also try not to make someone else upset on purpose. Note: The concept of respect is hard to expect children this age to grasp, as they are mostly egocentric and only aware of their own feelings. I still added this to introduce the awareness of others to the children. We did a series of activities to help children learn the rules:  We did an emotions activity to help learn Respect – the children need to recognize “sad” and “happy” faces in their peers  We did an activity where we did not follow the rules: We YELLED and walked too quickly in the room. We corrected them by saying: “That’s not following the Rules.” We go through the rules every morning! In the first week, we did two small projects to help learn the rules of the classroom:

Exploration A large part of my teaching practice is the belief that children learn through exploration and play. Everyday your children get the opportunity to explore the room that is set up with a fresh variety of learning opportunities. I have set up an example of what the room may look like, with different play, sensory and learning experiences. Also take a look at our boards that showcase many of the activities our class has been involved in! Feel free to walk around, explore and interact with the room!

Exploration and Questions The rest of the evening will be spent walking around and exploring the room. Feel free to come up to me and ask me any questions you may have.