Acknowledgements

My gratitude goes to the people and groups who have supported my learning and challenged me to keep thinking and growing. Thank you!

 

Dan Garcia, Sue Dinwiddie, Roberta Immordino

Thank you for being my earliest models and guides… Dan showed me how to put a toddler to sleep, and also how to “out-ape the ape” when things got wild. Sue showed me how to support social problem solving, and the value of a well-organized plan. Roberta showed me what was possible if I could let go of that plan from time-to-time, which is possibly the greatest teaching gift I’ve ever been given.

Ann Pelo, Margie Carter, Megan Arnim, Liz Kennedy

You wonderful women were my co-conspirators and friends in my early years at Hilltop Children’s Center, as we pushed passed obstacles - real and imagined - to construct a program that we knew children, families, and educators deserved. I will be forever grateful to you for launching and sustaining my Hilltop life, and for stretching my thinking in all the best ways. Together we grew Hilltop into something very special.

Sarah Nordhausen, Erin Soper, Liddy Wendell, Jules Hankes

You are my people. Who knew working could be so productive and impactful while also being pee-in-your-pants funny? There are simply too many long-running inside jokes to call them out here…I am blessed to have such awesomesauce friends.

#youregoodatyourjob #narwhalhugs

#allidoiswin #finishthedamnchocolate

 

Carla Horwitz, Elizabeth Jones, John Nimmo

Thank you for being the anchors of my own education. Carla, you offered me a glimpse of the program leader I wanted to be “when I grew up.” Betty, you engaged with me and challenged me to read closely, back when “distance learning” and online classes were clumsy and new. John, you were a patient and supportive guide for my master’s thesis, and continue to model awareness, kindness, and scholarship.

Hilltopia

Truly more dear friends and treasured colleagues over the years at Hilltop than I could possibly name, including but not limited to: Emily, Nicky, Leslie, Susan, Susie, Ilene, Meg, Julie B, Julie P, Sandra F, Sandra R, Michele B, Michelle S, Ellie D, Ellie M, John, Kirstin, Rebecca, Liane, Jill, Joel, Trudy, Chauntae, Brad, Nick S, Hannah, Myrna, and many, many more. Together we created what “Learning in Relationship” really means, and we survived more floods and leadership transitions than I can even keep track of. “We’ve been waiting for you to come to this place.”

Harvest Educators Collaborative

When we get together, weather happens...that’s how frickin’ powerful we are. Thank you Margie, Deb, Wendy, Debbie, Rukia, Ijumaa, Kelly M, Kelly R, Eliana, Kendra, Brian, Nadia, Alissa, Christina, Angela, AnneMarie, Lorrie, Sheila, and Kristie. Thinking and drinking, working and writing, talking and sharing, laughing and crying, singing and dreaming.

#onevoice #withourowntwohands #schmannofschmeenschmables

 

Responsive Teaching Collective

I couldn’t be more grateful to have a community of support during changing and challenging times. I’m so glad we get to meet up in the “Zoom of Requirement” and dream of plans for how early childhood education should be.

Also: shouts out to my “spa” friends, whose wise counsel over many, many years has sustained me personally and professionally. I wouldn’t be where I am today without your support, and my annual “spa homework.”

Oh, Canada!

I don’t know why I was born in the wrong country. Thank goodness you all have adopted me so graciously - but of course you did…you’re Canadian! My thanks to Lorrie B, Laurie K, Angela H, Angela K, AnneMarie, Sheila, Dianne, Shea, Chanelle, Nicky, Jen, Maryam, and all of my sisters to the North. If I had a million dollars…I’d move to Canada. The learning frameworks being developed by your provincial governments give me hope that bureaucracy can include intention and reflection, and the work you all do inspires me..

#theworldneedsmorecanada

Family

I had the good fortune to be raised by educators. The value of thinking, learning, talking, and singing were so assumed, it was like breathing air. Thanks to my parents for surrounding me with words and music, with deep thoughts and big feelings. And thanks to my brother for being born…this is all your fault.

Scobie, thank you for being my partner in all things. Alleia, your strength and grace changed my life - thank you. Brayden, you are my heart.

I love you all.

 

A “Where I’m From” poem is a form of expressing personal history and identity, based on the work of Appalachian poets George Ella Lyon and Jo Carson. Here’s a version of mine, offered in thanks to my family. You should try writing one, too!

I am from Felsztyn, Ukraine, by way of Ellis Island, where we became "Felstiners."

I am from a mom who was proud to work outside the home, and from long days in childcare.

I am from a dad who happy-cried about good music, and his children, and the Olympics.

I am from Monty Python, Masterpiece Theater, and the Marx Brothers.

I am from embarrassing brown-bag school lunches, wheat germ, tofu, bean sprouts, and 2,000-grain bread.

I am from climbing out of chilly water in a California pool and flopping onto hot cement, and from rolling off a warm dock into cold Maine lake water.

I am from Friday night shabbats, and summer jew-camps, and holidays about food.

I am from classical music and classic rock: listening to Brahms from the middle of a symphony orchestra, and listening to the Beatles with our heads between the speakers. 

I am from family that raised me, family I married, and family that I adopted along with my son.

I am from "you won't be able to have children" and from "would you like to hold him?"

I am from a place...for everything, and everything in its place.