Hello, I’m Miss Amy 👋
I’m an early childhood teacher — and a learner — in South Australia.
My path in early childhood began in 2019 at TAFE SA, and I’ve been teaching as a qualified educator since 2025. Along the way I’ve worked with every age group from the baby room up to kindy, and these days you’ll find me in a Prekindy room with our two- to four-year-olds.
I call myself a learner because that’s honestly what the job is. Every child arrives with their own history, their own family, their own reasons for the things they do. Two children can do exactly the same thing for completely different reasons — so unless I keep learning, I can’t really understand any of them.
Who this blog is for
This is a place for educators, parents, student teachers — anyone who wants to understand why children do what they do, not just what to do about it.
It’s also a place for me. Writing here is how I look back on my own practice and ask what I could do better tomorrow than I did today. If you share that hope — to give children a slightly better environment than yesterday’s — you’ll feel at home here.
You’ll find three kinds of posts: children’s behaviour (what’s really going on, and what helps), classroom activities (things I’ve actually tried, with the mess included), and the life of an educator (the honest bits).
What makes this different
I studied to teach, and I’ve never stopped studying.
I started with the practical side at TAFE SA, learning how a real early childhood room runs. But the more I worked with children, the more I wanted to understand what sat underneath their behaviour — so I went on to complete my Master’s at Flinders University.
That’s the thread running through everything here: every post is grounded in research and put into practice in a real classroom. When I write about biting, or tantrums, or a child who won’t sit at mat time, I’m bringing together two things: what the theorists and researchers of early childhood have shown us about how children learn and grow, and what actually happened when I tried it with real children. I still read journals and magazines regularly, and I still change my mind when the evidence tells me to.
I also learn from the people around me: fellow Master’s students, colleagues from my TAFE days, and the educators who share their tricky moments with me. A lot of what you’ll read here started as one of those conversations.
Where the name came from
Samy carries more than one meaning, and I love all of them.
SA + Amy — South Australia is the place I’ve called home. Sam + Amy — Sam is my husband, and without him I would never have walked this path at all; this blog exists partly because he believed I could. Read it another way and it becomes “SA, My Learning.”
And say it out loud: Samy — say, me. Tell me what’s hard right now. Let’s learn our way through it together.
There’s a reason it’s Samy Learning and not Samy Teaches. I don’t want to be the one standing at the front teaching. I want to be the one learning and growing alongside the children — and alongside you.
That’s really the story of how this whole blog began, too — and it’s a longer one than this page has room for, so I’ve written it down properly.
→ [Why I Started Samy Learning]
Come and say hello
Have a question, or a tricky moment in your room you can’t stop thinking about? I’d love to hear it. Say, me — that’s the whole idea.
→ [Contact page link]
The information here is general in nature and reflects my own professional experience and reading.
It isn’t a substitute for individual advice — if you have concerns about a child’s development or behaviour,
please speak with your GP, paediatrician or another qualified professional.