My journey to working with educators on documentation of educator and child research and action research, has been a winding one. As an educator and parent, I have marveled at the way intergenerational experiences enrich the lives of everyone it touches.
In high school, while helping an aging teacher with struggling sight to read papers and grade them after school one day, he said, “Ya know, you should really think about becoming a teacher.” That seed grew serendipitously at Washington University in St. Louis, when a friend shared the Teach For America website with me. One application process later, I was in the first St. Louis Teach For America Corps. After requesting “anything but middle school,” I taught middle schoolers, (and their hormones) in north St. Louis. During this time I witnessed the incredible impact of involved grandparents on children, as I partnered with several families where the grandparents were primary or additional caretakers. I also saw first-hand the difficulties of a failing school district and the repercussions of the No Child Left Behind Act.
I reconnected with my university passion for going to law school, and completed my JD at University of Illinois.My passion for research led me to write on the (false) evidentiary methods of Holocaust deniers, and edit the Labor Law Journal. My passion for advocacy led me to intern as an advocate for migrant workers rights. My passion for teaching led me to teach undergraduate Communications courses, and assistant teach Business Law courses at the University of Illinois. As an attorney, I worked as a litigator in a large law firm in several fields including labor and employment, and volunteered helping immigrants seeking asylum (putting my Spanish to good use).
I took what would originally be a sabbatical to Israel, and turned it into more than four years! During that time, I researched Jewish Value Based curriculum as a Dorot Fellow in Israel, attended seminary, met and married my husband Michael, and started a family that now includes Yonah, Talia and Ashira.
As we returned to the States, I realized that I missed bringing theory back to educators, children, and families. I am thrilled to be doing just that at Moriah ECC as an assistant director, and Research and Documentation Collaborator. I am participating in my fourth year in the Jewish Early Childhood Education Research Collaborative, and led a community of practice for educators in Chicago on documentation and the use of photography to promote Jewish identity in Jewish Early Childhood Settings. I am currently leading a community of practice for Chicago educators based on Reggio Principles. I also consider myself an advocate for the importance (and professionalization) of Jewish early childhood education, and have written on the topic.