Staff Spotlight: Megan Herwerden is Passionate About Young Learners
This post is part of the Lynden Schools Staff Spotlight series
The students in Megan Herwerden’s Fisher classroom can often be found signing and moving about. That’s ideal, she says, for the 4-year-olds in her Transitional Kindergarten class, and all part of her focus on engaging in an opportunity to build social and emotional skills in the youngest of learners.
The Role
As a teacher in the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program at Fisher, Herwerden says her role is to help her 4-year-old students develop fundamental skills for school success. “Four-year-old minds are like sponges,” she says, “they learn so much and so quickly. It’s fun to watch their faces light up when they discover and learn new things.”
Herwerden, who has worked in the district since 2003 and has also served as dean of students at Fisher and taught kindergarten, first and fifth grades, says the full day of TK is important to introducing the students to a mix of activities, all focused on learning, exploring and playing. “My TK classroom is play-based and uses developmentally appropriate activities,” she says, adding the literacy, math and social-emotional curriculums encourage exploration through play. “We sing and learn a lot through music and movement. I believe play is a powerful tool for developing social-emotional skills. Engaging in structured and non-structured play activities provides opportunities for my students to practice taking turns, sharing, cooperating and resolving conflicts.”
The curiosity and eagerness to learn that comes from a 4-year-old is part of what draws Herwerden to the young students. “I have a passion to teach the littles, and I love what I do,” she says. “Each child brings different personalities and experiences to our classroom, and we become a little family. They all bring so much joy to our classroom.”
And that “family” is something she’s constantly growing, both by partnering with the students’ families and by building trust with each student. “We spend a lot of time together so having a strong teacher-student relationship is important,” she says. “I feel incredibly blessed that [families] share their child with me each day.”
Getting to Know Megan
Herwerden says community sports has kept her connected to Lynden. Her own three kids have attended Lynden Christian, where she went to school, and played sports, so she’s remained busy watching and supporting them in all they do. Her favorite events are when both Lynden and Lynden Christian high schools compete against each other. “It’s fun to watch our kids from both Lynden and LC on the same sports team in the younger years playing together and developing friendships,” she says. “Then when they get to high school, we have friendly competitions against each other. These are still some of my favorite games form when I played years ago.”
Along with watching and playing sports, Herwerden and husband Matt, enjoy camping throughout the summer. “We love going over the mountains to enjoy the sun on the east side,” she says, “but also love to stay on the west side and enjoy and explore the beauty of the area we live in.”
