Miss Leah Amaru
Kindergarten Teacher
J.H. Gibbons Elementary School
A native of Stoughton, I am a graduate of the South Elementary School, O'Donnell Middle School, Stoughton High School. Throughout my life I have been involved in many organizations and sports within the Stoughton community. After high school graduation I headed off to the University of Connecticut (Go Huskies!) for my undergraduate degree in psychology. I continued my education further at Bridgewater State College, earning a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education: Students with and without Disabilities. As an adult I continue to have a desire to learn and grow as a student myself. In 2007 I completed a Graduate Certificate Program for Applied Behavior Analysis for Special Populations at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. This past May, I completed a two year program earning a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Reading at Bridgewater State University. With a cohort of seven colleagues, we studied the most current and effective literacy strategies to support the needs of students and staff within the Stoughton Public Schools. Check out my applied action research project using iPads in Kindergarten!
In 2007, my first teaching position was in a specialized preschool classroom in the Wareham Public Schools. This is currently my seventh year teaching Kindergarten in Room 17 at the J.H. Gibbons Elementary School. In addition to being a classroom teacher I have 10 years of experience working with children with Autism and other developmental disabilities. It has become a growing passion in my life to become more educated and knowledgeable about Autism as well as other learning disabilities in order to serve the variety of learning needs of the students in my classroom.
I truly believe that my continued desire to learn, as well as my choice to become a teacher are because of the impact of the amazing educators I had throughout my life in the Stoughton Public School system. My mentors have inspired me to set goals as an educator to positively impact the lives of my students and their families. As a kindergarten teacher I strongly believe that I have the opportunity to impact my students’ for the rest of their lives. Kindergarten is the first classroom experience a child has in a school, and part of my job is to set them up to become life long learners. As their first teacher I hope to provide an inviting classroom that fosters the academic and social growth and development of my students, to create a sense of community and involvement for families in their child's education, to instill a growth mind-set in my students that will encourage them to believe that they can accomplish any goal they set, as well as advocate that effort is one of the most important qualities to demonstrate in everything they do in school and in life!
Kindergarten is much more than learning the ABC’s!
In 2007, my first teaching position was in a specialized preschool classroom in the Wareham Public Schools. This is currently my seventh year teaching Kindergarten in Room 17 at the J.H. Gibbons Elementary School. In addition to being a classroom teacher I have 10 years of experience working with children with Autism and other developmental disabilities. It has become a growing passion in my life to become more educated and knowledgeable about Autism as well as other learning disabilities in order to serve the variety of learning needs of the students in my classroom.
I truly believe that my continued desire to learn, as well as my choice to become a teacher are because of the impact of the amazing educators I had throughout my life in the Stoughton Public School system. My mentors have inspired me to set goals as an educator to positively impact the lives of my students and their families. As a kindergarten teacher I strongly believe that I have the opportunity to impact my students’ for the rest of their lives. Kindergarten is the first classroom experience a child has in a school, and part of my job is to set them up to become life long learners. As their first teacher I hope to provide an inviting classroom that fosters the academic and social growth and development of my students, to create a sense of community and involvement for families in their child's education, to instill a growth mind-set in my students that will encourage them to believe that they can accomplish any goal they set, as well as advocate that effort is one of the most important qualities to demonstrate in everything they do in school and in life!
Kindergarten is much more than learning the ABC’s!