Who is JOY?

The personal …

Hello! My name is Joy JamalEddine Malas. I was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Throughout my childhood life, I was exposed to different types of activities and experiences. Along the way, came the one experience that made me who I am. I volunteered for the Special Olympics and slowly increased my involvement till I became a global youth representative for the international organization at different conferences around the world. Through that experience I found my passion, children, and more specifically children with special needs and different learning abilities. I joined that major in university and excelled as an educator…. or so I’ve been told. Somewhere along the way I met the man of my dreams, we got married, and decided to make Senegal our home. Senegal’s culture, art, beaches, and incredible hospitality felt just right for us. I’ve been here since 2019 and can’t wait to continue building the rest of my life in such a rich community.

Children bring out a more fun and less serious part of me. I enjoy trying to relate to them on a personal level before fully focusing on their academic needs. I’ve always found that the better I understood each child’s personality, humor, frustrations, worries ….. the better I’ve been able to teach them. Children seek to feel welcome, comfortable, safe and loved. I believe I do that by understanding them, giving them choices while still maintaining clear limits, listening to them, and showing them their own progress. I’m looking forward to getting to meet your child and becoming his/her teacher and someone he/she trusts to always have his/her best interests in mind.

The serious…

EDUCATION

Vanderbilt University – M.Ed. Education, Special Education

High Incidence Disabilities, Intensive Intervention Specialist for K-8.

American University of Beirut - B.A. Early Childhood and Elementary Education.

Special Education Diploma. Teaching Diploma. 

Minors: Psychology and Studio Arts.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Self-Employed

Special Educator, Intensive Intervention Specialist 

English Language Support 

Ecole Actuelle Bilingue , Senegal

English Homeroom Teacher; Grades 1, 2 

International College, Lebanon

Learning Support Teacher; Grades 1, 2, and 3 (Inclusive school: pull-out and push-in settings)

Valley International School, Lebanon

Learning Support Teacher & English and Math Subject Teacher

Grades 3 through 7 (Inclusive school: Pull-out and push-in settings)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 

Vanderbilt University, Peabody College of Education 

• Master’s Specialty Project; Curriculum Development, Advisor: Dr. Joseph Wehby

  Project name and description: “Modified Listening and Note Taking Strategy Curriculum”

• Research Assistant, Supervisor: Dr. Joseph Wehby

  Project name and description: “CW-FIT” – Class wide classroom management system using group contingency and self-management to increase andreinforce appropriate skills through a game format.

 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, College of Education

• Research Intern, Supervisor: Dr. Susan Fowler

  Project name and description: “Evaluation of Illinois Early Childhood Innovation Zones”- funded by the Race to the Top Challenge grant to the state of Illinois. The project evaluates how seven US communities implement innovative strategies to increase enrollment of their most vulnerable preschool age children and to improve the quality of the early childhood programs.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Delivered:

Ecole Actuelle Bilingue

Universal Design For Learning

International College

1. Producing a Preschool Literacy (Reading) Handbook/Program

Piloting and creating a literacy program for a play based preschool. The literacy program is to guide and support teachers to teach the language in a PYP early years program.The program will equip teachers with the content and the approaches that would enable them to promote literacy in a play-based environment. The program is based on developmentally appropriate practices based on the guiding statements of the NAEYC about early years and literacy.

2. Teaching Reading (Training session delivered to Elementary School teachers grades 1 – 5)

What is guided reading, assessment, grouping, managing classroom, Oxford Reading Tree, Teaching Reading Strategies

3. Universal Design For Learning (Facilitator of year long study session with a group of teachers), UDL Principles (the why, what, and how), UDL and IB, UDL and Danielson Framework for Teaching

Step Up, Continuing Education Center, American University of Beirut

1. Classroom Management

2. Individual Education Plans

3. Technology and Centers

4. Lesson Planning

5. Co Teaching

MMKEN NGO
Introduction to Special Education

Attended:

- Google Certified Educator, Level 1

- Google Certified Educator, Level 2

- Innovation in Education: Linking Neuroscience in the classroom, Psychoeducational assessments, school professional assessment toolkit, executivefunction and its importance in the student’s life

- Making the PYP Happen in the Classroom