Welcome to the team. Veronica Alexander joins the team at SPELD NSW as our new Professional Learning Manager
Veronica loves language! She grew up in a bilingual household, speaking Polish and English, which she believes was the catalyst for having a life-long passion for trying to understand how we communicate in written and spoken form. Yes, she is the person reading the dictionary just for fun!
Working as a teacher for over 10 years, Veronica felt that there was a disconnect between what she instinctively knew and understood about how words work and how she was being asked to teach literacy in her classrooms.
Her studies in linguistics and collaborating with Speech Pathologists led her to understand where current practices were leaving many children unsupported and at risk of facing life-long literacy hurdles.
Veronica has mentored colleagues and graduates in developing their professional knowledge of language and literacy development and has been working as a professional development leader for over 6 years engaging with schools across Australia to better inform their literacy instruction.
Veronica is passionate about empowering teachers with strong knowledge of how language and literacy develop and arming teachers with evidence-based strategies to support the diverse learners in their classrooms. She engages teachers in thinking critically about their pedagogy and supporting them at each step to achieve their goals and developing their professional expertise in language literacy instruction.
Veronica has consulted with many schools and loves the unique challenges that each educational setting brings. Problem solving with teachers and school communities around how to implement effective, systematic and explicit teaching practices is one of the parts of her job she loves most… when she isn’t researching the etymology of a word, that is.
Veronica will manage the SPELD NSW Professional Learning Program developing and presenting professional learning and workshops for teachers, tutors, other professionals and parents on evidence-based literacy and numeracy instruction and best practice approaches to supporting students with specific learning difficulties.
View our professional learning calendar and enquire today.
