Being attuned with children’s needs

With close to two decades of experience as an educarer, Joanne Lee has played the important role of both a caregiver and educator. She is attuned to children’s emotional and learning needs and proudly celebrates each of their milestones. For her attentive care of the children under her charge, Joanne was a finalist for the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer award by the Early Childhood Development Agency in 2021.

Lee Lai Yeng Joanne, English Teacher of Little Skool-House at Republic Polytechnic, was a finalist for the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer award by the Early Childhood Development Agency in 2021.

As children’s caregiver and educator, their health and well-being is Joanne Lee’s top priority.

In her 10 years of working at the Little Skool-House (LSH), she greets each child every morning with cheery songs and rhymes, and comforts them with hugs and soothing words when they are down. Besides being attuned to the children’s needs, Joanne also builds positive relationships with the children’s families and her colleagues.

“I believe that custodial care is a part of children’s education. For children to be able to learn, they first need to be happy and healthy,” said Joanne, who is an English Teacher at LSH at Republic Polytechnic this year.

“Children also require respect, and for adults to show care and compassion as well as develop healthy relationships so that they can be well and emotionally stable. Children’s basic needs have to be met in order for them to be capable of learning.”

Joanne displays detailed care and attention to the children under her charge. She ensures that she celebrates the children’s milestones, no matter how small they are, and goes the extra mile to make handmade cards and books on their birthdays. Once, she even baked a cake and virtually celebrated a child’s birthday which fell during the Circuit Breaker period in 2020.

Joanne Lee, English Teacher of Little Skool-House at Republic Polytechnic, engaging in a hands-on activity with the children.

Encouraging learning through play

Joanne is a strong believer in hands-on sensorial experiences.

Despite having to spend extra time off work to prepare the materials, Joanne proactively sets up interesting activities at various spaces of the school – to spark children’s learning. Often, her ideas surprise both children and adults alike. Some of the games she has devised thus far include a water ballon bomb game, an elaborate spray gun painting, and a soil play area.

“I plan and use a variety of methods to help children grow cognitively and conceptually. I also maintain a positive relationship with my students to ensure they enjoy school and are well-engaged in the environment and learning experiences that I plan for them,” she said.

A strong advocate for constructive play, Joanne regularly shares her knowledge with colleagues so that more children can benefit from such activities.

“Joanne taught her colleagues how to create useful resources using recycled materials, and how to adopt different storytelling methods such as box play. She also shared how to create an effective environment for the children. This has led to an improvement in our goal of making learning meaningful for children at our centre,” said Tan Chu Jin, who is the centre principal of LSH at Republic Polytechnic.

Observing that some children were experiencing difficulties with daily tasks like putting on shoes and drinking from cups, Joanne integrated these activities into classroom learning. To teach them how to put on shoes, she created a cardboard shoe cabinet for the children to practice putting on clean shoes in the classroom. With the support of her colleagues and the school’s cook, she also created more opportunities for the children to drink from cups during their meals.

“Children also require respect, and for adults to show care and compassion as well as develop healthy relationships so that they can be well and emotionally stable. Children’s basic needs have to be met in order for them to be capable of learning.”

– Lee Lai Yeng Joanne
English Teacher
Little Skool-House (At-Republic-Polytechnic)

Building positive relationships with the families and community

Besides attending to each child’s daily needs, Joanne actively builds a positive relationship with families.

“Sometimes parents may be overwhelmed with work such that they overlook the little things about their child. I will make sure I communicate with them about their child’s strengths, development and personality,” she said.

“I share strategies with the teachers and provide feedback to support them in building a strong and responsive relationship with the families. We discussed the management of challenging parents and provided suggestions and feedback for one another. This provided support for the teachers as most of our new teachers faced challenges in managing parents’ feedback and expectations,” said Ming Ai.

Viewing parents as a partner, she establishes good relationships with them. She does so by welcoming new parents with care packs and spending additional time chatting with them to understand their needs. She also encourages parents to be more involved in their children’s learning by attending her virtual yoga and storytelling sessions together with their child.

In addition, Joanne actively brings in community partners and cultural elements to support the learning of children. A month before Hari Raya this year, Joanne took the initiative to research and find resources to set up activity tables at the centre, which provided opportunities for children to learn about the Malay culture and be exposed to traditional Malay games, such as top-spinning, Guli and Congkak.

For her experience as an educarer and her dedication in creating a fun and interactive learning environment for the children in school, Joanne was a finalist for the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer award by the Early Childhood Development Agency in 2021.