Shohreh Mansourian
Position: Manager and ECE/IT certified

Shohreh began her career over 35 years ago managing and directing one of the biggest childcare facility ‘Taliyeh’, in the capital city Tehran, Iran. With over 600 students registered, Shohreh worked at Taliyeh Daycare for eighteen years before moving to Vancouver. Upon her arrival to Vancouver, she took on the role of manager at Parkland Players for the first five years of the Centre’s operation. Since 2014 Shohreh has returned to Parkland Players as Operational Manager overseeing and maintaining the centers philosophy.

Shohreh has been in childcare for nearly forty years and her reason for entering the field is quite simple: she loves kids. She thinks all the different age groups have something special to offer the world, the environment, each other, and educators. Her favourite age group to work with is Infants. She loves being able to teach them from the very beginning of their development as they have so much to learn and so much potential. She also appreciates the school-aged children’s logic, critical thinking and willingness to engage in discussions. Shohreh likes teaching from a Reggio Emilia approach, as it is very open-ended. It affords children the opportunity to discover on their own, be leaders, show their creativity, and learn from their own experiences. She finds it incredibly rewarding whens she gets to see former students as grown up, successful adults. Shohreh strives to provide a center that has a nurturing environment conducive to education and growth.

Parvin Zareabadi
Position: ECE/IT

Parvin was a teacher before coming to Canada and loves working with children. She has now been an early childhood educator in Canada for approximately twelve years. Parvin loves every aspect of education. She thinks it is a very important part of children’s lives. She especially likes to see children learn essential social skills in the classroom. For this reason and others, Parvin enjoys teaching preschool the most. She appreciates the process of preparing children for school and she likes to encourage children to find their own personality and goals before they enter Kindergarten. Parvin likes how Reggio Emilia supports children in being themselves, and how the approach focuses on kids’ own ideas and leaves questions open-ended. If children in Parvin’s preschool class take any one thing away from their experience with her, she hopes it is confidence. She wants to help children build their self-esteem and feel sure about their abilities so that they can be successful in whatever they choose to do in life.

Marzieh Doroodchi (Afsi)
Position: ECE/IT

Afsi has been involved in the field of education for as long as she can remember. She was a high school math teacher in Iran for eleven years. Since she was young she loved to teach, so early childhood education was a natural fit when she came to Canada, and she has had her ECE certification for approximately nine years. Afsi loves being a part of children’s cognitive development and observing their behaviour. She finds their enthusiasm, independence and speedy learning very rewarding. Her favourite age group to work with is two to five year olds because you can see their growth very directly and they absorb everything. Afsi hopes to continue to grow with children as an educator, she believes children not only learn from her but she also learns from them. She hopes the children in her care continually engage with the world around them as they develop.

Nidhal Al-Malak
Position: ECE/IT

Nidhal has been in childcare for nearly sixteen years. She is a mom, loves children and found that working in a friend’s daycare in England inspired her to dive deeper into early childhood education. Nidhal believes that children are like flowers, and as an educator you are responsible for giving them water, and nourishment and slowly you get to watch them bloom. She thinks it is very special to be a part of the process of opening up children’s minds. She loves working with all ages of children as they all have something different to offer, however the three to five year olds are currently her favourite group as they each have a certain untouched uniqueness. Nidhal’s preferred aspect of Reggio Emilia education is learning through play. She believes that play is incredibly important for setting a foundation for social skills that are essential in the world and that there is plenty of time later for the formal education of a school classroom. Nidhal hopes to influence her students by being a good role model and teaching them how to be positive contributors to society who pay kindness forward.

Mina Samimi
Position: ECE

Mina has been working in childcare for approximately fifteen years. She enjoys working with children, especially preschoolers as they have a lot of potential growth and she believes they are at a critical time in their development. Mina likes the challenges created by supporting preschoolers. She likes seeing their changes, growth, and learning and how much she has played a role in their social, emotional, and cognitive development. Mina appreciates the open-ended nature of Reggio Emilia Approach. This allows her as an educator to provide the materials and let the children explore, experiment, and create based on their interests. Mina hopes to model for her students how to be supportive and helpful and her aspiration for them is that they are happy, successful and continually improving themselves.

Marzena (Agnes) Dziurka
Position: Early Childhood Educator (ECE)

Agnes has worked in childcare for approximately 25 years. She entered the field because she had always wanted to be an educator, working with children is what she has always done, and it is what she always wants to do. Agnes finds the most rewarding aspect of early childhood education to be watching children grow and being able to participate or support that growth. Her favourite age group to work with is preschoolers, but this is a recent development. For many years Agnes enjoyed the Infant age group. She says that all age groups offer something different and fun, and it is nice to move around and get the variety of experiences. For Agnes, the best things about the Reggio Emilia Approach are its use of nature and inquiry. She thinks that these processes lead to a great deal of imagination. Agnes hopes to influence her students by teaching them how to be confident and capable problem-solvers as she believes that these are skills you need throughout your entire life. She hopes that in their futures her students are able to follow their dreams and personal goals and find joy in whatever it is that they choose to do.

Amanda Camillo
Position: Administrative Assistant

Amanda has been a part of Parkland Players since 2015, and has always had a passion and appreciation for the importance of education. When she is not at Parkland Players she is taking courses at Simon Fraser University in the hopes of entering the teaching program there. Her role at Parkland Players involves various tasks including posting to the center’s social media outlets, creating blog posts for the website, sending newsletters and notices to parents and assisting management in other day to day tasks. In addition to her administrative role, Amanda also enjoys being around the children at the center. She appreciates the inquisitive nature of preschoolers and their ability to be totally themselves. It always impresses her how social they are and how fast they acquire new knowledge. She enjoys working in the daycare environment because she believes in the significant impact of good early childhood education, and has found it to be a great learning experience in her own life as it has solidified her interest in pursuing a career in education. Amanda hopes that all the children who attend Parkland Players feel safe, loved, and discover the joy of learning.

Lilyana Johnston (Lily)
Position: ECE Assistant

Lily had an opportunity to work with kids when she came to Canada, and she has now been in childcare for over ten years. Lily loves what she does because everyday you learn something new about the children, and when you are able to build good connections with kids it is very rewarding. She likes Reggio Emilia Approach to childcare because it acknowledges that every child is different and allows educators as well as children to get acquainted with their individual personalities and skills. She enjoys working with children age five and up because she feels as though you can have meaningful conversations with them and their willingness to share themselves in this manner adds something special to the learning atmosphere. Lily hopes that the children in her classes remember the experiences they had with her and that they become comfortable being themselves, make good choices, are honest, good role models for others and in general develop to be their personal best.

Ana Malakmohammadi
Position: ECE Assistant

Ana has been working in childcare for approximately ten years. She originally decided to go into this field of work because she has a passion for children. Ana believes that the most rewarding aspect of her work is being able to build a solid foundation for children to take into different parts of their lives as they learn and grow. She enjoys working the most with Infants and Toddlers because they are very innocent, curious and a lot of fun. Ana enjoys the Reggio Emilia Approach to childcare because it allows children to explore their own interests and talents. In working with children she aspires to be a good role model and hopes that they will have a strong moral compass and successful futures.

Sylvia Malewski

Position: Meadowbrook Location Manager

Sylvia has worked in childcare for approximately five years. Her largest inspiration for working with children is her experiences with her own children. She has found that having a child with a hearing disability creates a unique relationship between parent and child and gives her a special perspective in childcare. Sylvia believes that there is nothing children cannot do if they set their minds to it and she hopes to inspire them to have this outlook as well. She loves seeing children grow every day and the feeling that she is doing something important, and impacting their lives at a young age. Sylvia likes working with all children but Kindergarten to Grade 2 aged children she enjoys the most because she feels they need her support more than the older children who like their own independence. Sylvia likes the freedom and choice that Reggio Emilia approach provides and that it focuses on children’s interests. She hopes to encourage optimism, positive energy, happiness, community mindedness and caring in the children in her class. Her greatest aspiration for them is to feel confident in their ability to achieve their own goals.

Yoon Ji (Amy) Kim

Position: ECE IT

Amy’s passion for early childhood education began with a love for children. Over the years as she has continued to complete more education, she has enjoyed learning about the creativity and imagination that children have and how it is important for early childhood educators to support and bring out these aspects of children’s development. Amy has her Infant and Toddler certification and she enjoys working with the infant age group the most. She says that it is an amazing experience to see the growth and development of infants and toddlers right in front of your eyes. Amy likes being part of a Reggio Emilia Centre because she believes it allows you to collaboratively build the curriculum with the children. It enables the educator to involve them in the learning process and explore their interests. For the future, Amy hopes that her students learn how to cooperate and work together. She thinks that child care is a great setting for meeting all different kinds of people at a young age and she wants her students to learn how to work well as a community, as well as find their own identities within that community.

Betty Chae

Position: ECE / IT / Special Needs Educator

Bio coming soon.