Donner Lee Ling-yuen, head of department for early learners at Kids' Gallery, feels her job unites her passions of dance, art and children.
I started at Kids' Gallery about five years ago and am now head of department for the early learners. The early learners are aged anywhere from one to 2? years and this is the age range that I specialise in - though I have taught all ages at different times.
I started as a teaching assistant because I don't have a teaching degree. After a while I was able to become a lead teacher. At first I worked as a 'PA teacher' in the performing arts department and then I moved on to visual arts. Later I went to work with the early learners, which is where I am now.
My degree is in dance and art but I have never had a job where I could really use all of my creativity before, so this felt perfect for me. Here, I can use my choreography and all my artistic methods.
I normally arrive at work around 8.30am and start to set up my first class which starts at 9.45am. This means that I have my class list with all the children to be in that class and I set up all the things that I am planning to do in that class. This usually takes about half an hour and then I go back to my office, check my e-mails and prepare other things for the day.
On average I teach three classes a day, which doesn't seem much, but then I spend the rest of the time preparing materials and having meetings to work out the new curriculum. I try to teach all the different classes that I have in my department so that I can stay in touch with them. I think it's important that the co-ordinators teach their own pieces of curriculum so that they know what works and what doesn't. If we see things are too complicated or not working, then we make adjustments for next time.
