Jenny Levine-Smith of Beth Ami Community Nursery School wins Non Profit Leadership Award
Describe your organization.
Beth Ami Community Nursery School is a Reggio-inspired, constructivist, Jewish preschool in Santa Rosa. We have loving and creative teachers, a rich learning environment, and low child-to-teacher ratios. Our curriculum is based on the idea that children are scientists, and that they learn by asking questions and seeking their own answers through exploration. We focus heavily on the social-emotional component of learning. We treat conflicts between children as teachable moments and approach them in a loving and developmentally appropriate way, so that we may guide our students towards self-regulation. We infuse Jewish values, culture, and tradition into the curriculum in a way that is open and joyful, so that both our Jewish and non-Jewish students can learn and celebrate together.
Professional background:
I started out professionally as a sports reporter, writing for the Eureka Times-Standard and then doing research for ESPN The Magazine. While working at ESPN, I began volunteering at Harlem RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities). Coaching a team of thirteen-year-old girls made me rethink my career choice, and I went back to school to become a teacher. I taught English and History for seven years at Roseland Charter Middle School in Santa Rosa. While taking two years off to be home with my children, I co-founded and co-wrote the blog Low Drama Mamas, which focused on adapting classroom management techniques into strategies that parents can use at home with their kids. I have been the Director of Beth Ami Community Nursery School for two and a half years, and I serve on the board of directors at the Children's Museum of Sonoma County.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a thinker, a writer, a talker, a listener, and a problem solver. I am a perpetual work-in-progress, seeking out people with different perspectives and ideas and then honing and refining my understanding of my field and of the world. I am a mom to two fascinating children and have been married to my husband, who is my polar opposite in many ways, for 12 years. I thrive on spending time with family and friends, talking and laughing about anything and everything, preferably over good food and wine. I am at my best professionally when I am educating adults about what excellent early childhood education looks and sounds like. One of my long-term professional goals is to use that skill, among others, to promote equity of access to high quality programs for underserved children and families.
What is your role in the organization?
I am the Director of the Nursery School, so my role is to be everything to everyone, sometimes simultaneously and without warning. I am an advocate, a liaison, and an educator – of children obviously, but also of adults. I teach non-teachers what is happening in children's brains and bodies when they play, and I coach teachers to refine their practice and help deepen children's learning.
What achievement are you most proud of?
Creating a culture at the school that is built on transparency, inquiry, mutual respect, and trust.
What is your biggest challenge today?
Finding a way to keep our school accessible to families financially while paying my teachers a salary that is worthy of their talents, compassion, and commitment to our students and families.
What is the next major project either under way or on the horizon?
We are currently building a musical garden on our play yard. Our educational philosophy holds that the school environment is itself a teacher, and we are working on developing our outdoor space so that it matches the richness and variety of our indoor classrooms. This means bringing art and music and other often-indoor activities out to mingle with nature. Our arbor is complete, and one of our teachers has built a harp and a xylophone for it. We are currently collecting items from home (coffee mugs, wooden spoons, tin cans, bells) to hang with the children from the arbor so that they can experiment with sound in the outdoors.
What product or service would/or is helping you do your job more effectively?
Kaymbu is an application that allows me to take photos, tag students and teachers, and send a tailored photo e-mail directly to each parent's inbox in a weekly digest. This is an essential communication tool, especially in a preschool, for the obvious reason that our kids are young and do not do a fabulous job recounting the happenings of their day when they get home. Kaymbu e-mails strengthen the home-school connection, help ease parents' anxiety about their child's (often first) school experience, and are a great marketing tool for the school.