Teacher Iris Mendoza
Vivaldi Virtuosi (Pre-Kinder) and Vivaldi Virtuosi Coordinator
Teacher Iris started teaching in the year 2000. By the time she joined Mindbuilders Preschool in 2017, she already had Montessori training under her belt. For the next seven years, she would teach both the upper and lower preschool levels.
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A Fine Arts graduate (major in advertising) from St. Scholastica, Teacher Iris also applies her knowledge and passion for art during the school’s summer program with ArtStart: Meeting the Masters. The art program, which she teaches with Teacher Pia Masakayan, has run for several years now.
Having taught preschool for over two decades already, Teacher Iris has handled different generations of students, from the first child to the youngest sibling, plus cousins and friends of her students. She says she has seen an evolution, so to speak, from teaching children with full hands-on play experiences (sans gadgets) to the pandemic, technology-abled babies.
With these changes so apparent in the current batch of preschoolers, she has made it a point to attend workshops about teaching skills and techniques that include mindfulness and positive discipline. Teacher Iris admits that she has become increasingly conscious about respectfully letting her students express themselves more, and purposefully teaches them to involve kindness in playing and learning.
While she is a mom of three (two adult children and a teen), Teacher Iris is also a beloved mother figure to the younger teachers, who do not hesitate to consult or confide in her. She is one of those human beings blessed with slow-aging genes. See photos of her a decade or so ago, and you will not disagree!
Being a part of her student’s growth is very important to Teacher Iris. It is this and her love for children that have made her stay in this career up to the present. It may sound cliché, but for Teacher Iris, “Teaching is a fulfilling job, and I would not trade it for other jobs!”