My name is Rachel and I’m so excited to share my passion with the world! I’ve been working in the early childhood field for six years (and counting) and I’ve learned so much on my journey. Before working directly in the field I got my bachelor of arts in psychology at Ithaca College (go bombs!) in Upstate New York. My background in psychology, development, and research gave me a great foundation as I started my career at a special education preschool. I spent many years at this preschool and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a steep learning curve. I learned more in my first year there than I could ever imagine.

Working with special education preschoolers was hard but so incredibly rewarding. Some days I was being punched in the face trying to keep a child safe and some days we were jumping up and down celebrating a child who took their first independent steps at age 3. These kinds of celebrations are what kept me going on the hard days and are still my reminders every single day for why I do what I do.

I continued my work in both typical preschool classrooms and special education classrooms (including one school age room!) before landing my current job as an early childhood training and coaching specialist in a CCR&R department (ask me about CCR&R it’s the best kept secret in early childhood). I do trainings on a variety of topics across early childhood like ACEs, sensory needs, working with children with needs, and my favorite….managing challenging behaviors! The tips and tricks I learned over the years on how to manage challenging behaviors are my absolute favorite things to share. Along with training I also spend my time in the classroom working directly with preschool teachers helping them with anything from managing behavior to room layout and learning environment.

So…my love for sharing all things early childhood led me to this blog. I’m so excited to share my tips, tricks, ideas, and more with you! I hope you enjoy the ride as we work our way through everything early childhood education.