About me

Hi, my name is Cheyenne! I grew up in Bergen County along with my six other siblings. Growing up as the youngest of my siblings had its perks as well as some downfall. Being the youngest of seven was truly an experience I wish many could have enjoyed. Some of my aspects of life differ from others because my siblings allowed me to explore. In other words, when I stopped to pick flowers or decided I needed to see every rock that was a different color on our way home, they allowed me to. They allowed me to explore everything I had questions about in a safe way and that’s how I look to teach children now. I want children to enjoy life differently than society says, I want them to take breaks and moments for themselves. While growing up, I always had someone to play with, but it was usually a game my siblings wanted to play. I learned to be patient, adaptable, and very easygoing because of it. But I like to say that having so many siblings prepared me for the real world, especially working with kids. I have the capacity to think quickly about making up fun games that could also be educational as well as having a great imagination when dealing with toddlers and preschoolers in their wildest imagination stage. I am currently pursuing my master’s degree in education (k-12) and received a bachelor’s degree in English. I have two goals that I would like to achieve in my life after I receive my master’s degree. One goal, I am pursuing is becoming a teacher and my second goal is to work in publishing. I got my bachelor’s degree in English because of my love for books and tied my master in with my love of wanting to teach children the greatness of reading and books across the world. Reading has always been an outlet for me when life got overwhelming and unknowingly it made me more knowledgeable about the world and what was out there, outside of Jersey. Since graduation, I have been saving to take my praxis exam as well as trying to explore the world. So far, I have been to South America and Europe, and hope to continue to explore different places and their cultures. I ultimately want to explore a lot of these places because I would like to eventually live outside of the US to teach English. I would also like to experience living somewhere outside of the US for just the experience, but mostly to fulfill the child in me that read books about Greece, India, the UK, France, Canada, and so forth.

I have worked with children for about 7 years, and I’ve worked with mostly 6 months to 4-year-old children. My typical duties were as a teacher, so I had each age group separately, but I have babysat children from two different age groups together, usually siblings. As a childcare teacher, I was responsible for 13-16 children in a classroom. I was a primary caregiver for 4 children according to the state ratio of one teacher to four toddlers, all while still having to be aware of my other 12 toddlers during fire drills and play outside. As a lead teacher, I was responsible for lesson plans, such as arts and crafts being done that week, where children were developmentally, engaging with toddler-appropriate toys, sign language for the week, music, and dance classes, as well as any events that could pop up like holidays or birthdays. My responsibilities for babysitting would be to change diapers, engage in playtime, take daily trips to the park or library, do meal prep, and do bedtime routines. I’ve had many different titles such as a part-time babysitter which is a more occasional babysitter, a full-time babysitter which could include every weekend or multiple weekends within the month, lead teacher, day camp counselor, and part-time nanny. My longest experience with infants was in a childcare facility, where I would help the head teacher with daily activities such as changing diapers, feeding children on their respective feeding schedules, engaging in developmentally appropriate play like tummy time, self-awareness play, reading and taking the infants outside to get fresh air and sensory play. I was also in charge of doing baby sign language with the infants during circle time. During my time at Saint Peter's University, I was enrolled in a class where we discussed special education in all aspects as well as how I would deal with certain situations in a classroom. The textbook didn’t give specifics about outside of the classroom, but I educated myself through extensive research on activities I can do at home that could be useful if need be. I received my certification in special education last year at Saint Peter's University. I am also certified in CPR for infants and adults, which I renew every two years as well as stay up to date on different safety tips such as knowing sugar in orange juice for a diabetic is beneficial if their sugar is far too low and they’re about to pass out.

Some things about me that I truly enjoy are activities I can be creative with. Recently I’ve been really interested in pottery, ceramics, DIY projects, and such. This summer I created an art journal for self-care which mostly includes different versions of colors with quotes on how I feel or drawings I felt connected with. I have also enjoyed going to immersive art museums like the Van Gogh Experience and Hall de Lumieres. I have been to the MET museum, Brooklyn botanical garden, the MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Natural History Museum, Smithsonian Museum, Aquariums, Turtleback Zoo, Mini golf, trampoline parks, the children’s museum, and the ice cream museum. Within each activity, I got to experience a different side of myself that allowed for the world to slow down for a second. I think that taking that second to enjoy my surroundings was important, especially as a person educating the next generation. I feel it was important because children learn best through experiences, especially ones they enjoy. My educational philosophy speaks on the value of educating children through real-life experiences and learning through play is a huge aspect that many educators try to negate as being useful. I believe that children should be allowed to be children even while learning and what that means is that if a child stops on a sidewalk to look at ants eating a sugary sweet, I think as the adult we should stop and engage because that is a learning moment. And with learning moments there are teaching moments that allow the child to grow independently as well as learn to make decisions based on their own understanding and calculations of the world. Another part of my educational philosophy is to create a safe learning environment in which children can feel adequate in themselves and their skills to succeed in life. I also believe that as a teacher I am a role model to the children that I've had in my care which reminds me that children are like sponges and receive all the information seen and heard. And with that in mind, I try to use every moment/question as a teaching moment to enhance each child’s understanding of the world.