Teaching Staff

The Discovery Place Teachers and Staff are a uniquely qualified and talented group of professionals.  The teachers have specialty training in Child Development and Education, degrees in Early Childhood Education or related certification.  They contribute a variety of talents, from music, art, and special education to a genuine enthusiasm for learning and a love of young children. 

It is our fundamental belief that children are capable, and full of potential.  This belief influences how we teach and what we teach.  As educators, we believe in research based-methods that are highly organized with precise and consistent teaching practices.  We define our teacher’s roles as researchers, constructors of the educational environment/experience, and collaborators with colleagues, families, and children.  We believe that teachers, parents
and children learn from one another.
 
Discovery Place teachers are dedicated to on-going professional growth.  Some of the professional development opportunities in which the teachers have been recently trained include the following: language and literacy from Fundamental Learning Center; project work from Reggio Inspired Schools (in St. Louis, Boulder, and Reggio Emilia, Italy); Arts Partners Wolf Trapp Literacy through the Arts program; Second Step problem solving curriculum; and Roots and Shoots, a Jane Goodall youth humanitarian program to promote service learning and community involvement.