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Preschool Educators Gather for New Year Orientation

Last Wednesday, over 130 preschool educators from 16 schools around the New York area (ranging from Philadelphia to Connecticut) came to Crown Heights for a Joint Orientation & Networking session of the Chabad Early Childhood Education (CECE) Network, a project of The Shluchim Office.

The event’s purpose was to provide an inspiring push for the upcoming year together with an environment full of opportunities for the directors to share and learn from each other as they plan. To that end, the program was designed with exercises to work with and opportunities to learn from each other.

Participants also heard about the importance of the work of the Chabad staff from several perspectives – from directors, teachers and parents of children who attend the schools. They touched on crucial topics such as professionalism, communication, responsibilities to the children and aligning practices with beliefs about the purpose of a Chabad school.

Mrs. Suri Kleinman, a veteran and much loved educator at Chabad Upper West Side, shared many important points about how we can choose our words to interact effectively with children. Mrs. Chaya Abelsky, a leadership coach, presented several important communication tools for working with children, colleagues, and everyone else.

Throughout the day, teachers from various schools had opportunities to network and share ideas, challenges and solutions. These relationships will hopefully continue throughout the year, so that all schools in the region can learn and gain from each other’s experiences.

The CECE (Chabad Early Childhood Education) Network was established five years ago by The Shluchim Office to serve as a central support and resource network for those who run or direct a Chabad preschool. Its goal is to help directors make their local Chabad preschool the preeminent choice within their community. The CECE Network provides a framework for deeper thinking about how an excellent preschool can create long-lasting connections with Judaism. Among its many services, the CECE Network provides an online forum, annual and regional conferences, a peer review system, online workshops, conference calls, seminars, articles, and guided online discussion groups.

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9 Comments

  • Fan club

    Devory Krazniyansky is awesome, the amount of time she invests in this community, is mind boggling.

  • from another man...

    it’s actually funny. I was thinking the same thing about those wigs and then I see the remarks here on the bottom. Also I love those DESSERTS? appropriate for all everyone who is on diet. NOT.:-)

  • why?

    nevermind the wigs – what about the knees? and the sleeveless girl by the mic?
    Feed this to your preschooler, and look on kingston for the effects it could have CV”S on the kids when they grow up.

  • it-s not too late

    Someone withdrew her daughter from school on opening day because the teacher did not look like a bas yisroel should. Thank you! and may HaShem shower you, your daughter, and your entire family with an abundance of all good things in a visibly revealed way! If another 10 moms do the same, I’m sure the teacher will get booted, and our girls will have a proper mechaneches!

  • Morah Yael

    Amazing, here we have an article on Jewish Preschools, the importance of Early Childhood Educations and all that Chabad is doing to support those preschools and so far the comments deal with wigs and food?! I was at this conference. It was filled with educators who have a heart and desire to further children’s education both academically and spiritually, all the while providing a nurturing environment for the children and their families. Furthermore, these educators emphasized focusing on the Rebbe’s teaching of “Focusing on the Positive” when teaching the children. Obviously the folks commenting never received this teaching or the understanding of it because then such comments would never had been made.

  • Morah Yael

    PS. The woman by the mic, she was a parent to talk about her family’s experience in the preschool. She was not a teacher. She was a parent, a Jewish parent with Jewish children all with Jewish neshamos. Isn’t that the whole point?

  • get your facts and then make judgments

    About the kid without the sleeves- she was a student in a new york area chabad house preschool. Her mom was talking to the group about her wonderful experiences at the chabad preschool. It was inspiring to the staffs of all the schools to see the effects of a chabad school. There was also non chabad staff from the schools in the audience. This was not an event for the local crown heights schools.