When Veronica Carasquero was a child, her mother used to have her and her siblings stand on a bench and read stories aloud. She also ensured they got involved in community and church activities such as harvests, fashion shows, and washing by the river.
As she grew older, Carasquero learnt to make things like stuffed toys, children’s clothes and toolum to sell. Today, she is grateful for that foundation on which she has built to become an educator, author and storyteller.
Carasquero teaches a second-year class at the Diego Martin Boys' RC, and holds a London Montessori Centre diploma in Montessori teaching; a bachelor's degree in education from the University of TT; and a master's in education from the University of New Brunswick, Canada. She is also certified in the Jolly Phonics programme offered by UWI.
"We grew up old school in Paramin, in an extended family home with my mother and grandparents. Mummy did a beautiful job with us and always wanted us to excel...Looking at it now, I understand why she did things the way in which she did."
[caption id="attachment_967500" align="alignnone" width="939"] Primary school teacher Veronica Carasquero shows off her recently published book, Penmanship Perfect! - Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
Carasquero has been teaching for over 30 years and recently published her first book, Penmanship Perfect! She told WMN she prides herself on teaching people, especially children to write beautifully.
"It is similar to the Ministry of Education's primary-school penmanship programme and the course I did at UWI. It's done in a step-by-step process, and the steps are numbered, because what I've found is that sometimes when you teach or show them (children) how, sometimes they may not recall all of the techniques. This way it assists them in getting the formation correctly...a prep for cursive writing."
She said the book also contains features such as a task page with the date to make it easy to determine when the child completed a task; a page-ticking box to keep a record of what the child has done; and a certificate at the end of the book.
"I believe children need motivation to work toward something, to feel such sense of pride."
Carasquero said during the almost two years of online school, she noticed that the handwriting of her students had been "compromised."
"Coming back out to school I saw a lot of shortcomings and told myself, 'I have to do something to assist those children and the parents.' I believe if they have the structure they will be able to help themselves, and I wanted to reinforce what they were taught in class, at home."
So why is she so adamant that penmanship must be taken seriously, considering that this generation of students is more inclined to take notes using devices?
[caption id="attachment_967501" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Veronica Carasquero is adamant that penmanship is still relavent, even in the digital era. - Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
"Reading and writing go hand in hand, and devices create a shortfall in learning to write prope
