{"id":1316,"date":"2025-02-27T06:51:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/2025\/02\/27\/staff-spotlight-megan-herwerden-is-passionate-about-young-learners\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T06:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:51:16","slug":"staff-spotlight-megan-herwerden-is-passionate-about-young-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/2025\/02\/27\/staff-spotlight-megan-herwerden-is-passionate-about-young-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Spotlight: Megan Herwerden is Passionate About Young Learners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post is part of the Lynden Schools Staff Spotlight series<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students in Megan Herwerden\u2019s Fisher classroom can often be found signing and moving about. That\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Role<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cFour-year-old minds are like sponges,\u201d she says, \u201cthey learn so much and so quickly. It\u2019s fun to watch their faces light up when they discover and learn new things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cMy TK classroom is play-based and uses developmentally appropriate activities,\u201d she says, adding the literacy, math and social-emotional curriculums encourage exploration through play. \u201cWe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curiosity and eagerness to learn that comes from a 4-year-old is part of what draws Herwerden to the young students. \u201cI have a passion to teach the littles, and I love what I do,\u201d she says. \u201cEach child brings different personalities and experiences to our classroom, and we become a little family. They all bring so much joy to our classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that \u201cfamily\u201d is something she\u2019s constantly growing, both by partnering with the students\u2019 families and by building trust with each student. \u201cWe spend a lot of time together so having a strong teacher-student relationship is important,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel incredibly blessed that [families] share their child with me each day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to Know Megan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to watch our kids from both Lynden and LC on the same sports team in the younger years playing together and developing friendships,\u201d she says. \u201cThen 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with watching and playing sports, Herwerden and husband Matt, enjoy camping throughout the summer. \u201cWe love going over the mountains to enjoy the sun on the east side,\u201d she says, \u201cbut also love to stay on the west side and enjoy and explore the beauty of the area we live in.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the Lynden Schools Staff Spotlight series The students in Megan Herwerden\u2019s Fisher classroom can often be found signing and moving about. That\u2019s ideal, she says, … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":1317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Fisher Elementary","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynden.wednet.edu\/fisher-elementary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}