Amy Haughton’s Love of Childcare

By Emma Kushnir, WorkStory Ambassador

Amy Haughton has always loved working with young children. Since Amy herself was a child in daycare, she loved to see the children around her grow and develop. She realized she wanted to work with children early on, from the strong and positive relationships with the younger infants at the daycare with her. That is why she attended St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, for Registered Early Childhood Education.  After working in the field for 15 months, she secured a job at Westport Child Care, in Westport, Ontario. As a Registered Early Childhood Educator (RECE), she works with children from the age of 12 months to school age. At Westport Child Care she is working with a focus on infants. The goals of an RECE are “assessing the children’s developmental needs and stages in all developmental domains. To design programming to address children’s identified needs, stages of development, and most importantly their interests, where children can be actively engaged. To provide an enriched, positive, safe and caring environment for play and activities that help children make developmental progress. Create a positive rapport with parents, children and coworkers and always report to the parents about their progress.”

Amy says the thing she loves most about the job is that she is making a difference in a child’s life. Whether it is teaching them something new or building a positive and lasting relationship with the parents and children. “Walking into work everyday and seeing that the children have been waiting for me, with their smiling faces, is so fulfilling.” She indulges that “this career can be very challenging and mentally draining, but there is so much that makes it worth it. Watching a child grow in developmental domains that they had previously been struggling with, or teaching a child something new that they are so proud to show there parents, makes the job so worthwhile.”

She explains that through her life, many people encouraged her to work in the career. Many peers and family members would tell her she wasn’t only good with children but also bonded with them quickly, making childcare something she should do for a career. The hardest decision for her was what career she wanted to go into whether it be Child and Youth Worker, or Early Childhood Educator.            

Amy’s advice for people figuring out what they want to do is: “if you really want to work with children, consider all the types of fields you can go into, whether it be working with early years or older school age children – child and youth worker, social worker, autism and behavioural science, and so on.  This career is very challenging, mentally draining, it has its ups and downs, but it is all completely worth it when there is such a great positive outcome. This career is a learning process, and it’s different and exciting every day.” 

A Childhood Calling

By Karli Steen, WorkStory Ambassador

From a young age, Kayla Quenneville knew that she was meant to help people in some way - although she was not always sure of the form that it would take.  "When I was in public school I was a “recess buddy”, meaning I would go down to hang out with the kids in the Developmental Centre at my school. Being down there and seeing how the teachers and educational assistants worked with the kids made me want to do the same. At first I wanted to be the teacher, but then years later realized that the educational assistants were the ones who worked that much closer with the kids. Which is what changed my mind from wanting to be the teacher to the EA."

Kayla was able to make her childhood discovery into a career path when she took, and eventually graduated from Fanshawe College's Developmental Support Worker program.  When asked what Kayla found most useful from taking the program, she had this to say: "The DSW program has many great courses that prepare you for the workplace and I could list reasons for all of them, but one sticks out clearly as the most helpful. When I was in the program, we had three placements. They were usually in three very different settings. It was great to get the experience and a feel for the different settings before graduating so we knew what was out there and see what we liked or disliked in each of them.”

Kayla chose to stick to what she knew she loved, when she took a position as an Educational Assistant at The Thames Valley District School Board. As an EA, Kayla can do a wide range of activities such as helping kids with schoolwork, following a teacher's instructions, helping students with personal care, and most importantly promoting an environment of acceptance, and inclusion.

Currently, Kayla works with a girl in senior kindergarten who has feeding and breathing tubes, and a boy in Grade 2 with autism, both of whom she helps take part in a regular classroom. Regardless of who she is working with, Kayla says the best part of her job is "really getting to know the kids. I’ve mainly worked with kids who are medically fragile and don’t use words to communicate. Getting a smile or laugh, an eye roll when a silly joke is made or even a sarcastic smirk, makes the day great. It shows just how much personality each of them has and makes working with them that much better. Also being that person that the child can trust and just being there for them when they need you."

When asked for a word of advice to the people who may be interested in the field, Kayla highlighted the importance of making sure you really do like to help people, because although there are good days, not every day will be perfect, and that's when it pays to have patience and to love what you do.

To Teach is to Nurture Passion

By Vanessa Grillone, WorkStory Contributor

 A great teacher can nurture their students’  passions and help them reach their full potential.

 At least that is what Katrina DiFeo – Early Childhood Educator –  believes. Katrina works in the Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program with Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board. I’ve known Katrina for many years and know that she has the patience, passion, and determination to turn a kindergarten classroom into a place where children can learn and grow.

Katrina’s journey began at a young age. From babysitting and helping out in classrooms, she knew that she wanted to be an educator. In Grade 12, she tried out a co-op program at an elementary school close to home. This gave her a chance to be in the classroom and gain some amazing experience. After high school she enrolled in a two-year diploma program in Early Childhood Education at Seneca College. Katrina enjoyed all classes and loved learning about the ways a child absorbs information. She enjoyed coming up with teaching plans and spent much of spare time researching new ways to get children involved in their lessons. After getting her diploma she applied to the school board, hoping for a full-time position. Katrina admits that it “can be difficult to get a job with the school board but if you’re passionate, dedicated, and patient your time will come”.  Many people have to start with supply teaching before they find a full-time position. The supply teaching phase is an important one because it allows you to network, to engage with students and faculty members, and to prove yourself.

 When asked about a day-in-the-life of Ms DiFeo, Katrina said it’s busy but fun.

“In order to be successful I need to be 100% attentive to the students. Keeping an open ear allows me to document the children’s conversations and interactions, then develop invitations for learning based on their interests. An invitation for learning can be as simple as a blank piece of paper and pencil or as much as random, loose materials from the outdoors. We are sure to bring clipboards, pencils and the camera everywhere we go! I have to be prepared and on point every minute of the day in order to cover every area of inquiry the students may have. It’s important to help guide the children by offering conversations with open-ended questions to help take the learning to a whole new level”.

Katrina loves the spontaneity of her job. There is a lot of planning involved, but she also leaves a lot of things up to her students. This gives them a chance to discover their passions and learn what is required. She enjoys seeing eagerness and excitement in her students. Their enthusiasm when they see a centre of interest makes her feel rewarded. Her goal is to see her students grow socially, emotionally, and cognitively during the school year.

Katrina has worked in a classroom for three years and hopes to work at the board level and be an itinerant for the full day kindergarten program. She would like the opportunity to visit a number of different schools and full day early learning classrooms and assist in the presentation of the classroom layout and program development. She wants to be able to share her ideas and for the program based on what she’s learned through the experiences in her own classroom. 

For all of those future teachers out there, Katrina says, “Be prepared for a lot of planning and even taking some work home with you. Remember that patience goes a long way. It’s important to be loving, open, and kind to all of your students. Be a good role model, be the kind of person you hope your students will grow into. And don’t forget to have a little fun. Learning is fun.”