PreK Teacher & Emotion Coach Brings Decades of Experience to AIS

Ana Stoica teaches PreK at AIS and she loves her work. Ms Ana, as students call her, is a Reggio inspired, inquiry-based learning, Early Years educator. She moved to Belgium and joined the AIS learning community in 2019. “I am so happy to be a part of the amazing community at AIS,” Ms Ana happily explains. “I was born in Romania, grew up in Canada and also worked at an international school in Japan years ago.”

She has a Masters in Administration, Management and Leadership in Early Childhood Education and extensive experience with the PYP. She’s taught in international schools for 19 years, not only in Japan but in Romania too. She and her family now call Belgium home. Ms Ana believes that as a trained Emotion Coach and as an inquiry and Reggio inspired Early Years educator that all people require healthy relationships and a psychologically-safe environment as the foundation for inquiry, innovation and risk-taking.

“I believe in the importance of building trusting and respectful relationships between all members of the learning community as we value each and every member for who they are – their strengths, interests, perspectives, needs and aspirations – and work together towards the wellbeing of our community as a whole. Having said that, our well-being is fundamental to developing healthy relationships,” she explains.

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) educator, she believes education is a social endeavour. As an educator, her goal is to create an environment where all members of the learning community – students, educators, parents – feel that their unique identities are valued. She says everyone should feel safe to be their amazing, authentic selves and know that they bring richness to the AIS community.

“As an accredited NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) school, one of the principles that define AIS as a school is the importance we put on the social/emotional space in which learning occurs, which encompasses the nature of relationships, interactions and communication,” Ms Ana shares. 

“In addition, as an IB school, we believe that the approaches to learning, such as affective skills and self-management skills, to name a few, are vital in supporting inquiry and setting the foundations for lifelong learning,” the educator continues. “They are the skills our learners use in their daily journey of learning. As educators, we, therefore, use explicit and implicit teaching strategies to support this development.” 

She points to several examples from daily mindfulness, meditation and words of affirmation, to emotion coaching young learners through difficult moments, to connecting with families and supporting each other in this partnership to support learners and grow positive relationships amongst staff members.

“To support each other as we each grow in our own capacities; what brings us all together is our common humanness and our ability to demonstrate empathy and have compassion for ourselves and one another,” Ms Ana adds. 

As an Emotion Coach Trainer, she is passionate about providing the contexts to develop social and emotional competence in young learners. She strongly believes the first years of a child’s life are fundamentally important, the foundation that shapes children’s future growth, development, and learning. In and out of the classroom, she helps to create a positive educational experience for children that promotes an enduring, life-long love of learning.

Throughout her career, as an inquiry and Reggio inspired educator, she has always been passionate about emotions and the importance of relationships for students’ emotional and physical wellbeing. She decided to pursue this passion and became an accredited practitioner trainer with Emotion Coaching UK.

“Emotion Coaching is an approach that uses empathetic engagement to acknowledge and validate the child’s emotional state, promoting a sense of security and feeling ‘felt’.  This activates changes in the child’s neurological system and allows the child to calm down, physiologically and psychologically. It is based on the research of American Psychologist John Gottman,” she explains.

Gottman’s and others’ research has shown that emotion-coached children are better at controlling their impulses, delaying gratification, self-soothing when upset, paying attention; as a result, they achieve more academically, are more socially competent, have fewer behavioural problems, fewer infectious illnesses, and are more emotionally stable and resilient.

“As a practitioner trainer, I train teachers, schools and work with families to develop their understanding of the principles of Emotion Coaching and how to put these into practice in their interactions with children, either in their roles as educators or parents in order to be able to be truly present, in tune and to develop healthy relationships with children,” Ms Ana said. 

As an Early Years IB educator, Ms Ana says she puts a strong emphasis on the Approaches to Learning that are the skills that learners use in their daily journey of learning. It’s part of the programme as an IB school to explicitly and implicitly teach learners skills such as affective and social skills. Ms Ana explains, “We believe it is fundamental for learners to become self-aware, to be aware of their own and others’ emotions, to be aware of the connections between the body and the mind, to name a few sub-skills in order to develop as confident, self-regulated life-long learners.” 

Ms Ana says her role as a Practitioner Trainer in Emotion Coaching and as a Early Years Teacher go hand in hand, “As you cannot separate education from the heart as you cannot separate the body from the mind.” 

Inquiry, Innovation and Risk-taking

Ms Ana believes that we are all born into this world with an intense need to be connected and to be accepted. As humans, our prime motivation is to feel safe, “We all need to feel like we are heard, understood, felt, we need to have that feeling of belonging,” she explains. 

She says children learn about relationships and emotions through the interactions they have with important adults in their lives. Therefore, Ms Ana explains, adults have the responsibility in the lives of children to provide, “A secure base so they can work with us to develop the appropriate responses to difficult moments within the safety of a nurturing relationship. Neurologically, kids cannot learn unless they feel safe and cared for, nor can we as adults for that matter.”

How do we make others feel safe in relationships? Ms Ana says it is through compassion, through deep listening, through openness and acceptance that we provide a neural safety net in the brain that primes receptivity to risk-taking, inquiry and creativity. Our ability to embrace each other’s unique humanness, beliefs, values, emotions and needs is what creates safe and trusting relationships where we can all flourish and develop to the best of our capabilities.

Ms Ana ends with a quotation from Susan David, an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist: “As human beings, we need connection, validation and belonging. When people are allowed to feel their emotional truth, engagement, creativity and innovation flourish.”

ABOUT AIS

At Antwerp International School, we celebrate individuality. Together, we can encourage your child’s personality to shine through within a multicultural and fun learning environment.

AIS offers the globally recognised International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme. We accept students from the ages of 2 ½ to 18. AIS is also a proud member of the oldest accrediting association in the United States, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). 

Our new, state-of-the-art STEM facilities emphasize the development of creativity, innovation, analytical thinking and collaboration through STEM studies. The new STEMzone includes science labs, fabrication labs, makerspaces, mathematics areas, IT spaces and common collaborative learning spaces.

At AIS, we take a balanced approach that focuses on learning through inquiry and the hands-on, active engagement of each student. We stimulate young minds by offering individualised attention within small class sizes, in a respectful and safe environment. 

Antwerp International School is located in the leafy suburbs of North Antwerp. We offer a holistic learning approach, developing the many talents of our students in a multicultural environment. Together, we can unlock your child’s full potential. AIS since 1967. A modern path to success!