Hi, I'm Josie.  I am the owner, operator, and lead teacher for Loving Beginnings Preschool and Child Care.  I have a Doctorate in Educational Leadership: Curriculum and Instruction, and a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education: Inclusive Education and Curriculum and Instruction.  My bachelor's degree is in Human Development and Family Studies with an emphasis on Early Childhood Development.  I have been working with children in a variety of capacities for the last 29 years.   Apart from my love of working with children I also mentor and coach other providers, teach professional development courses as a master trainer for the state of Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education and I love doing academic research about the work that I do as an early childhood educator.   

I have had various professional experiences during my many years in the field of early childhood education.  I was a student teacher at the Oregon State University Child Development Lab preschool.  I  volunteered in the kindergarten classrooms of my now-grown children.  I taught in a private preschool briefly and was a lead teacher for the Head Start program in Bend.  Where I also spent time as a family advocate.  I was a Girl Scout troop leader, taught Sunday school, and VBS, and was on the Children's Ministry team at my church for several years.  Sixteen years ago, I decided that I wanted to start my own preschool.  I began very small as a registered provider with only 5-6 children.  Four years later I decided that family child care was a good fit for me.  I expanded to certified family child care in 2010.  In 2014, I decided to go back to school and work towards my master's degree.  While completing my master's degree I was inspired by constructivist teachings and the Reggio Emilia approach.  Then one day I got the crazy idea I needed to keep going in my education and enrolled in the doctoral program at Portland State University to study the growing expulsion problem in early learning programs. I did my doctoral dissertation work on Early childhood expulsion practices in family child care programs. Needless to say, I am passionate about all that I do! I am constantly researching new and best practices in teaching.  I have a strong value that as a teacher I am a lifelong learner, learning every day right alongside the children.