JCC Chicago proudly congratulates eight Early Childhood educators that have gone above and beyond in their roles on behalf of the children and families they serve.
Winners were selected from Early Childhood community nominations based on the seven lenses of Sheva—an approach that recognizes that in order to offer excellence, you must hire and support excellence in your educators. With Sheva, learning is a team effort between staff, children and their families.
Dorrie Levin, Jacob Duman Early Childhood Center
B’rit: fosters a sense of belonging and commitment to building community
“Ms. Dorrie has such a unique way of making every child feel like the most special child in the world. She always welcomes the kids into the classroom with a smile and positivity. You can see that she genuinely loves what she does, and the kids love being in her classroom. She always works with her co-teacher and other staff members to come up with fun, creative lessons for the children to do collaboratively, and exudes passion in her teaching. You can see how important it is to her to create a feeling of community in her classroom. She always encourages the students to play and work together, and never allows any one student to feel left out. In addition, she is always more than willing to talk with family members about anything and welcomes parent input and feedback. This has allowed me to truly feel like a part of my child’s education and has made me feel like a part of not only the classroom community, but the JCC community as a whole. She is able to create a complete sense of belonging both inside and outside of the classroom for every student.”
Elizabeth Zetley, ‘Z’ Frank Apachi
D’rash: acts as a researcher, learning and exploring alongside the children
“Liz is all about the process. She is unafraid to try new ways for the children to explore materials. Once I saw her turn over all of the classroom chairs and put plastic wrap around them. The children painted on the plastic for a different type of painting experience! She also does creative activities with color mixing. She observes her children, identifies their interests, and engages them in process-oriented exploration.”
David Feinberg, Florence G. Heller JCC
Hit’orerut: reinvents the familiar and finds beauty in the world around them
“David brings wonderful ruach (spirit) to the classroom; his music and love for Jewish songs brightens up the classroom every day. He uses music to foster excitement and learning.”
Ellen Salk, JCC Chicago Early Childhood at Am Shalom
K’dushah: uses the environment as inspiration for inquiry
“In Ellie’s classroom, well-thought out lessons covered many aspects of the environment and nature. My daughter would point out different signs of the seasons as the weather changed. She’d also go into detail about learning about bears and hibernation, as well as other animals and their behaviors and traits. She was exposed to planting seeds and watching them grow into plants. And she was motivated to use her imagination and learn through play. Our daughter showed so much growth, which is really a true reflection of the meaningful way in which the lessons were created, organized, and planned.”
Nechama Perkins, Bernard Horwich JCC
Masa: focuses on process vs. product and makes the learning visible
“Nechama works with small children to learn the very beginning of their skills and knowledge systems both Jewish and secular. She lets them explore through hands on processes and make sure that they gesso the concepts rather than having a picture perfect art project. Children learn with their whole bodies in her classroom.”
Elizabeth (Lisa) Shutan, Bernard Weinger JCC
Tikkun Olam: advocates for children and education to make a meaningful difference
“Our daughter has benefitted from Mrs. Shutan’s caring and sweet educational style all year. We’ve seen her become more helpful and cognizant of the world around her. Our daughter has really shed the self-absorption that little kids have, and it’s been because of the awareness of others and community that we see Mrs. Shutan instilling in her class.”
Jennifer Ricciotti, Bernard Weinger JCC
Tzelem Elohim: supports the understanding that children are capable and full of potential
“Jen no doubt could have filled an entire year with curriculum that she ideated. But she instead looked to her students to drive their own learning: each student was crowned “teacher of the week” for an entire week. The initiative ultimately spanned most of the school year. Each student chose a topic of keen interest to them to share with the class via presentations, books, art projects, experiments, costumes, and media (e.g., songs and videos). Jen embraced each student’s enthusiasm about their area of interest and leaned in, using each topic as a platform for a week’s worth of kindergarten readiness activities, all founded in the subject matter at hand. Half a year later, our daughter still talks fondly about the week that she taught her class about outer space (which included her classmates stretching out over the school’s longest hallway to create a scaled model of the distance between the planets. Jen trusted them all to take up the mantle of teaching and demonstrated to them that the things they love—from the weather, monkeys, and food to airplanes, dentistry, and New York City—are all worth learning about…together.”
Amy Burke, JCC Chicago Early Childhood at Beth Emet
Tzelem Elohim: supports the understanding that children are capable and full of potential
“Amy will always foster independence in the children. She will encourage students to get dressed on their own, and complete tasks without help. She will always encourage students and build their confidence. She will take more time and walk a student through learning with patience instead of doing it for them because this helps them learn. She always brings positivity to the classroom and has an amazing presence in the classroom that the students feed off of. She will allow children to problem solve and find creative solutions while guiding them but not telling them what to do. She helps students reach their full potentials and gets them out of their comfort zones to try new skills and find new talents!”