Our Teachers
It is our goal for a diverse, professional group of teachers to provide a foundation of experiences that foster the growth and development of children's minds and bodies while creating a safe and nurturing environment. 
We consider our teachers to be highly valued professionals. Our teachers bring different backgrounds, interests, experiences, and teaching styles. We have found that children benefit from teachers with high levels of formal education, teachers with experience from other early childhood programs, as well as teachers eager to begin a new career in early childhood. We provide clear expectations and supportive mentoring for teaching staff. In addition, we provide opportunities to participate in ongoing professional development at our Center, locally, nationwide and even internationally. This ensures that their skills reflect the profession'sever-changing knowledge base. Education and specialized training is the primary component of our in-service workdays. The Center also budgets some monies to offset the cost of fees for professional trainings, workshops, and conferences. It is our desire that by providing adequate wages, benefits, and education for our staff, we will develop lasting child-teacher and family-teacher bonds.
A Growing Seeds Teacher ...
- Nurtures relationships based on respect with each child and family. Builds a classroom community that is emotionally and physically safe and supportive of each student.
- Forms a collaborative relationship with families to foster the connection between home and school.
- Is a co-researcher, co-learner, and facilitator that is intellectually engaged with what is emerging, able to live with uncertainty and wraps their head together with children, trusting that the shared pursuits will be meaningful and useful.
- Coaches children to develop negotiation and collaboration skills, critical thinking strategies, and problem solving skills.
- Closely observes and listen attentively to the children for learning connections and opportunities for deepening explorations.
- Organizes the classroom and materials to be intentional, thought provoking and are aesthetically pleasing.
- Documents the individual child and learning community's progress, by gathering evidence and artifacts of what is happening in the classroom, the reflection on the collection, and the presentation of the collection. Making children's learning visible to children, teachers and other adults. Documentation includes; photographs, tape recording, portfolios, journals, daily pages, & documentation panels.
Creating a nurturing culture of community as a starting place for learning The first and highest priority beginning a new year is to begin fostering a community of humans that will live together in a kind and mutually respectful place, one that has agreements and expectations, a common language, routines and ways of being together that shape the group's identity - the creation of a classroom culture. Teachers must pay careful attention to how their culture influences the children's dispositions and their own towards learning and caring for those around them because the culture developed by teachers sets the tone for the children and families. The culture should reflect who teachers are and what they value. The culture teachers create should express how they want to live and learn with each other.
When nurturing a classroom culture a teacher must consider the relationship and partnership with each child's family. As they build a trusting and caring connection with each student, it is equally important to build that relationship with each parent.