Julia Miller

K-2 Play Based Learning Coordinator

Julia Miller is Play-based Learning Coordinator at People for People Charter School in North Philadelphia. Over the past three years she has channeled her teaching role toward play and its implications on social and emotional development of K-2 students. In 2018 she won a Fulbright Research Grant to study play-focused programs at the University of Helsinki. Finland is widely regarded as having one of the best educational systems in the world. Julia returned to the U.S in 2019, and was able to secure a dedicated classroom space at People for People expressly for play-based learning. Now in its second year, the “Just Play” space, as she calls it, has proven to be an exciting and effective setting for play that students clamor to use. Design and operational principles from her play space, in collaboration with design concepts designed by two architects Bunny Tucker and Allen Pierce, have led to a joint $60,000 grant from KaBoom playground equipment company and the William Penn Foundation. Funds will be used to create playful learning installations along sidewalks and vacant parcels, beginning with five sites in North Philadelphia. Julia holds an Urban Education Master’s Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017, she completed her commitment to Teach for America under an assignment as K-1 instructor at a charter school in North Philadelphia. Julia also has a B.A. Degree in International Education and Music Business from Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. In the near future, she hopes to expand her “Just Play” program by implementing her play-based learning values, principles, and framework for teachers and students in Philadelphia.