# Emily Carter · Early Childhood Education Assistant

> Safe, nurturing classrooms where young children thrive.

- Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States
- English
- Public page: https://profile.iampro.io/emily-carter
- Contact: through the form on the public page (the address stays private)


## Achievements (2)

### 1. Streamlined morning drop-off, halving transition time to first activity

- Bright Beginnings Preschool · Jan 2026 - Jun 2026
- Scale: Class of 18 children ages 2-5, 3 adults incl. volunteer
- Stack: Visual schedules, Arrival routines
- Verification: a named person can confirm

**Problem.** Morning drop-off in a class of 18 preschoolers regularly ran long, eating into the first learning block and leaving several children unsettled.

**Result.** Transition from arrival to first activity dropped from about 20 to under 10 minutes; calmer starts noted by the lead teacher.

**What I did.** Proposed and set up a visual arrival routine (name cards, cubby icons, a welcome table activity) and greeted each child with a one-minute handover ritual for parents.

**Why this approach.** Considered asking for staggered arrival windows, but that shifts the burden onto working parents. A visual routine children run themselves removes the bottleneck without touching schedules — and it kept working on days I was not there.

**Constraints.** Six-month internship with no budget: materials limited to what I could make by hand (laminated cards, printed icons). The routine had to work within licensing ratios and could not add load to the lead teacher during the busiest slot of the day.

**Challenges.** Two of the youngest ignored the name cards entirely the first week. Pairing each of them with an older 'arrival buddy' for a few days fixed it — the routine spread child-to-child faster than adult-to-child.

**What I learned.** Young children do not need more supervision at transitions; they need to know what happens next. Designing the environment beats adding adults.

**What I was wrong about.** I initially assumed the bottleneck was staffing — not enough adults at the door. Watching a full week of arrivals showed the real gap was the absence of any visual anchor for the children.

Who can confirm: Ask the lead teacher of my classroom at Bright Beginnings Preschool, who supervised the internship and signed off my evaluation.

Full story: https://profile.iampro.io/emily-carter/story/278

### 2. Grew from one to four repeat families entirely through parent referrals

- Private Families · Jan 2023 - Present
- Scale: 4 families, children ages 3-10, weekday evenings
- Stack: Referrals, Care notes
- Verification: a named person can confirm

**Problem.** Started with a single weekly babysitting engagement in early 2023 and wanted steady, trusted work alongside school.

**Result.** Four repeat families by 2025 with multi-year engagements and a written reference; fully booked weekday evenings.

**What I did.** Delivered consistently structured care (activities planned ahead, written end-of-day notes to parents) that parents recommended to neighbors and school friends.

**Why this approach.** Chose depth over volume: a small set of repeat families rather than one-off gigs through an app. Repeat engagements compound trust, allow real routines with the children, and generate referrals — an app profile generates none of that.

**Constraints.** Full-time student schedule: evenings and weekends only, no car the first year (families had to be reachable by bus), and every new family onboarded without dropping quality for the existing ones.

**Challenges.** Balancing four households' expectations during exam periods was the hardest part. I solved it with a shared availability calendar sent monthly, so no family ever discovered a conflict at the last minute.

**What I learned.** Parents were not buying availability — they were buying predictability and communication. The written end-of-day notes, not the schedule, were what every referring family mentioned.

**What I was wrong about.** I assumed a fair rate and flexible hours were the selling points. They were table stakes; the structured activities and the notes were the actual product.

Who can confirm: Ask the Hartman family — weekly engagement since January 2023; their written reference letter is in my documents.

Full story: https://profile.iampro.io/emily-carter/story/280


## Technical Expertise

Proven by experience: Child Supervision (<1 yrs), Positive Behavior Support (<1 yrs), Classroom Support (<1 yrs), Infant Care (<1 yrs), Spanish Language Support (<1 yrs), Lesson Preparation (<1 yrs), Family & Parent Communication (<1 yrs), Team Collaboration (<1 yrs)

Also worked with: Child Development, CPR & First Aid, Early Childhood Curriculum, Classroom Management, Health Safety & Nutrition, Child Psychology, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Organization & Time Management


## Timeline

- **2026** · Acting Lead Teacher — Sunflower Room (7 weeks, unofficial) · Bright Beginnings Preschool
  - Held a licensed classroom solo for 7 weeks, passed an unannounced state inspection with zero citations
  - Wrote 12 bilingual family progress reports and resolved a parent's disagreement with data, not argument

- **2026** · Teacher Assistant Intern · Bright Beginnings Preschool
  - Streamlined morning drop-off, halving transition time to first activity
  - Cut classroom removals from 11 to 2 by designing a self-regulation corner kids could opt into
  - Led daily story time and small-group activities for groups of up to 8 children

- **2023–now** · Babysitter · Private Families
  - Grew from one to four repeat families entirely through parent referrals


## Degrees · Certifications

- Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) – Early Childhood Education · Nashville State Community College · 2026

- CPR Certified
- First Aid Certified
- Mandated Child Abuse Reporting Training
- Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential — Preschool, Center-Based · Council for Professional Recognition · 2024