Bridging the Gap

Today I met with Nancy Lieblich, who has worked at TBS for over two decades as an Early Childhood Campus teacher. This year Nancy has moved out of the full-time classroom to take on a series of special projects uniquely suited to her 20 years of working with Kindergarten age students. She'll be splitting her time between the ECC and the University Campus, and along with me, Mitch and Andrea, will be an integral part of supporting the programmatic bridge between the campuses that we are constantly trying to strengthen.

At the ECC, Nancy has five foci. The first is running the ECC-5 program, for the oldest students on campus. Once a day, for an hour a day, the nine children in this program are pulled out of their classrooms and given special small group time together under Nancy's tutelage. The second is working with the ECC faculty to develop a comprehensive curriculum and calendar, as part of the curriculum review work that we are doing this year. The third is to assist teachers and administrators in observing and identifying children who need a higher degree of differentiated support than others. The fourth is designing and coordinating an outdoor program that addresses the needs of young children and enhances their outdoor experience. And the fifth is to support the follow of curriculum and ideas back-and-forth between the ECC and K/1 faculty.

That's a pretty hefty set of tasks, and so our meeting today was to discuss the scope of the work that she'll do with the K/1 faculty. A wide range of possibilities emerged as Nancy and I talked about what she might do on the University Campus, including being available to talk about kids, work directly with the K/1 students, providing curriculum support, and subbing for teachers as they observe at the ECC. Ultimately, we decided that for the first few months, Nancy will focus on supporting teachers and students as they make the transition into school, and observing and contributing to the math curriculum by connecting what the K/1 teachers are doing with concepts and materials that are in use at the ECC and in the Montessori tradition, and cross-pollinating those across the levels.

I'm excited to have Nancy's insight available as a resource for the K/1 program, and I'll post updates about her work as the year continues.