Dawin Strelow
Curriculum Consultant
Dawin Strelow graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2005 with a degree in Elementary Education with a certificate in science. She was a substitute teacher for one year in the Madison area before moving to the Chicago area in 2007 where she accepted a full-time teaching position in Elmhurst, IL. In 2012, she obtained her Masters Degree in Literacy and certificate to teach English as a Second Language.
During her 10 years of teaching, she taught full day At-Risk kindergarten, a bilingual first grade classroom, and third grade. The diverse population in her classrooms has given her experience teaching children identified for special needs, ESL, students of low income, and children who are at risk academically, socially and emotionally. She also served on district curriculum writing teams for language arts, math, and ESL for 7 years. She was a mentor, organized an annual schoolwide event celebrating diversity, was part of a 2-year project researching the impact of daily PE and integration of movement in the classroom on student learning and health, and coached the high school varsity dance team for 5 years. From these different roles, she has developed her passions and interests in diversity, music, arts, dance, movement, building language and social skills and has integrated them into her daily lessons.
While writing the lesson plans for Daybreak Lesson Plans, she tries to focus on incorporating hands on and engaging activities, and integrating her strategies of language building, social skills, and movement into her lessons. She wants teachers to get the most out of the lessons where the crafts/activities/games can be reused in centers and for future years.
Currently, Dawin has taken some time away from the classroom to stay at home with her 2 year old daughter. During her teaching career she was consistently advised to go into curriculum, so she is happy to join the Daybreak team to pursue a path in curriculum and to keep her teaching brain alive. She is excited to have a place to share her favorite lessons and ideas, and to be a part of a company that helps teachers.