Fresno State teacher named National Child Care Teacher of the Year

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno State teacher is receiving national recognition for her work with infants and toddlers. Connie Mosher says she knew early on that she wanted to work with our very littlest learners.

"We get to see them grow so much," said Mosher. "They'll come in and they'll barely be starting to roll over or just new walkers, and we get to see them have that burst of language and really start running around everywhere."

Mosher attended Reedley College before transferring to Fresno Pacific University for her undergraduate work, but it was her job at Fresno State that finally made her dream a reality.

"Everything we do is based around relationships," added Mosher. "We have to form a relationship with the families. We have to form a relationship with the children in order to get them to be comfortable to be with us."

After completing her masters at Fresno State, Mosher took over the role of Master Teacher in the Huggins Early Education Center, working in the infant toddler program.

"We really just want to create a safe, loving environment that also sparks their curiosity and that we can explore and research alongside the infants and toddlers," said Mosher.

Her work isn't going unnoticed. Out of early educators from across the country, Mosher received the Helene Marks Award and was named National Child Care Teacher of the Year.

"People usually think infant toddler teachers just play with kids or take care of kids, but actually, Connie set a very high standard of how to provide quality education to young children," said Dr. Pei-Ying Wu, Asst. Professor of Early Childhood Education at Fresno State. "She sees how competent infants and toddlers are."

Along with the award, Mosher was given money to implement a new project in her classroom. She plans to create a portable light studio for her kids to explore.