Lateisha Telfair knows how to dress the part.
When she wants her students to get excited about reading “The Big Hungry Bear,” she will transform herself into a furry bear.
When she is teaching students about St. Patrick’s Day—and the colors and shapes associated with the holiday—she gets decked out in green from head to toe.
For New Community’s annual Parade and Family Festival, she wears her NCC t-shirt and proudly marches with her colleagues from Community Hills Early Learning Center.
As the lead teacher of Toddler 1 at CHELC, Telfair is known to show her enthusiasm for teaching by literally wearing her heart on her sleeve.
“I’m so blessed to have a job I truly love,” she said.
Director Cheryl Mack noted that Telfair was promoted to the lead teacher position following the retirement of a veteran colleague.
“Concerned about continuity for the children, Ms. Telfair jumped into the lead role without hesitation,” Mack said. “Ms. Telfair displays a genuine love for the development of small children and avails herself in any capacity she is needed at CHELC,” she added.
Now in her eighth year of teaching at CHELC, Telfair works with children ranging in age from 14 to 30 months.
“I look at each child as an individual with their own strengths and needs,” she said.
Telfair also credited her three teaching assistants for making her even more passionate about her profession. “It’s true what they say: Teamwork makes a dream work,” she added.
Mack described Telfair as “a model for the teacher assistants she works alongside” and “a strong asset to the Community Hills family.”
As a lead instructor, Telfair said that she works to promote the five domains of teaching: social and emotional, approaches to learning, language development and communication, physical and motor development and cognitive development.
Telfair has been working in the early childhood education field for more than two decades. She earned her Childhood Development Associate credential in 2003.
