Megan Fazica has been with South Canton for just over four years as a kindergarten teacher. However, before her time at South Canton, she was a paraprofessional for two years at Plymouth Scholars Charter Academy.
“Mrs. Fazica is a phenomenal educator and has a heart for our youngest scholars,” said Dana Gurganus, principal at South Canton. “She always behaves with care while also holding our scholars to high expectations. She has quiet power and is a leader within her team. She is always willing to do whatever it takes to help a colleague to find success.”
Though she went into teaching with the intention of grounding herself in upper elementary, she was placed in a kindergarten class as a student teacher. She was initially sad about the shift in plans, but she soon fell in love with teaching younger students and what she calls the “boogers and glue” aspect of it.
“I just love the light-bulb moments with kindergarten,” said Mrs. Fazica. “They come in not knowing much, and I love teaching them the basics. I really love the innocence of it.”
Mrs. Fazica has been teaching in a hybrid model this year, something that makes welcoming kindergarteners to the idea of school more unique than most years.
“Surprisingly, this is the first year that I haven’t had any students cry when they’re dropped off at school,” said Mrs. Fazica. “I think the parents prepped the students more this year than they have in the past. Students this year are also excelling in technology, which is to be expected with the number of remote learning days.”
Another unique result of having a hybrid kindergarten class is that most of the students have never met each other, so building class culture when they’re just beginning to learn what school really is proves its importance. This is where compassion comes in.
Compassion is an important focus area that Mrs. Fazica infuses into her lessons, especially the importance of being kind and caring for each other. This also includes being a kind friend and caring about other people’s needs, which goes hand in hand with wearing masks and being safe for those around you during this time.
To take Moral Focus a step further, she even hired a student to take on the classroom job of being a Moral Focus checker, which includes “catching” students showing the virtue of the month. The students who get “caught” receive stickers, which are graphed. She makes it a point to have discussions about the ways to display the Moral Focus virtue of the month, but also how to continue to show the ones they’ve already learned.
“I’ve noticed that looking for other students showing compassion helps students to automatically be compassionate since they are seeing such great examples throughout each day,” said Mrs. Fazica.
Keep up the great work, Mrs. Fazica!