Leading with Joy

May 05, 2025

Local Teachers Share Their Passion for Working with Young Children

ACCA preschool teacher Ms. Tina (Tinhinane Meziane) stands next to Wolf Trap Teaching Artist Mollie Greenberg with a black and white cat perched in her hand. Greenberg, who holds a butterfly finger puppet, begins to mimic the movements of a butterfly by wiggling her fingers and moving the butterfly through the air. Ms. Tina maneuvers her hand and arm so the cat follows the butterfly with its eyes and body. She creates a leaping motion with her puppet but stops the cat just short of capturing the butterfly with its paws. Ms. Tina and Greenberg laugh. “Don’t worry,” Ms. Tina declares. “The cat’s just playing. They’re friends!”

Ms. Tina, a longtime teacher at ACCA Childhood Development Center in Annandale, VA, had just completed day three of her classroom residency with Greenberg, who was using puppetry to introduce the literacy concept of character to her classroom of four- and five-year-olds.

Meanwhile, in a classroom down the hallway, Ms. Jasmeet (Jasmeet Kaur) had just finished day three of her residency session with another Wolf Trap Teaching Artist, drama specialist Ambo Tazanou. Together, they used Eric Carle’s children’s book, Mister Seahorse, to replicate the movement of sea creatures in the ocean using blue and green crepe paper streamers for seaweed and a blue sheet waved above and below the children to mimic the ocean. She and Tazanou took turns leading the class, encouraging the children to wave their streamers through the air to show how the seaweed strands would move underwater. Each day of the residency, they would use different arts strategies to advance through the pages of the story, following Mister Seahorse’s journey.

Both Ms. Tina and Ms. Jasmeet are participating in Wolf Trap’s classroom residency program, which pairs teaching artists with ACCA educators to provide professional development via the performing arts. Each teacher has taken part in at least one Wolf Trap residency per year over the last 10 years.

Ms. Jasmeet has enjoyed the ability to work with multiple arts disciplines through her residencies. “I have learned a lot from Wolf Trap artists,” she says. From “the art of incorporating dance and movement into teaching math and science” to “the art of storytelling by creating a coffee can theater and using props to facilitate learning.” She appreciates that the experience isn’t just about creating engaging and joyful learning experiences for the children, but also for the educator.

With combined experience of more than 30 years teaching in ACCA classrooms, Ms. Tina and Ms. Jasmeet, who always seem to enter their classrooms with a smile, a ready laugh, and an air of positivity, clearly love what they do, and draw an immense amount of fulfillment from their work with young children.

“The most important aspect of teaching is building relationships with students,” says Ms. Tina. “Positive [connections] build strong, supportive relationships between teachers and students, which foster a learning environment where students feel safe, respected, and more willing to engage and explore.”

Ms. Jasmeet says that what she likes most about her job is “the noble feeling that I am taking care of the most vulnerable people.” She also enjoys “the unfiltered enthusiasm and curiosity of young children and the constant feedback I get [from them] every day.”

A longtime partner with Wolf Trap, ACCA has served the northern Virginia region for nearly 60 years. The non-profit works with many diverse communities in the Annandale area and seeks to promote an inclusive environment for its families. ACCA’s work with Wolf Trap reflects its commitment to providing professional learning opportunities for its staff and engagement opportunities for its families, who participate in workshops on open center nights. With a staff of dedicated teachers like Ms. Jasmeet and Ms. Tina, ACCA is poised to remain a cornerstone of the community for years to come, positively shaping the lives of hundreds of families and young children.

To learn more about Wolf Trap’s work with the early childhood community, visit wolftrap.org/education.