Early Childhood Conference

In Times Like These: Practicing All Four Goals of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves

By Dr. Megan Pamela Ruth Madison

Let’s Build! What do Children Learn Through Block Play?

With Jean Schreiber

Come ready to play with the blocks! This workshop will focus on turning your block corner into an exciting learning center that fosters independence, cognitive development, and cooperative play.

Participants will:

• Gain a deeper understanding of the value of block play for all children
• Learn how to set up the block corner and
  Utilize techniques to make “un-building” safe and fun
• Understand the depth of learning (social, emotional, cognitive, physical, language arts) that happens when block play is supported by knowledgeable and experienced teachers

 

Maintaining Focus on Active Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Practice

With Martha Haakmat

In this interactive workshop, teachers and school leaders will explore methods for keeping DEIB work active, measuring progress, and holding themselves and their teams accountable to working toward DEIB goals. Expect to articulate the connection between DEIB and your school’s mission, and to practice mapping and tracking active DEIB work with tools in small groups. The goals of this workshop are to reground in DEIB as central to early childhood education, and to take away tools, ideas and a clearer path for building early childhood classrooms where all children feel a sense of belonging. The information and materials shared will be applicable to all early childhood age groups.

 

From Sensory Needs to Motor Skills: Bridging OT and Teaching for Ages 3-5

With Dana-Lee Wechsler

Description to come.

 

The Power of Emergent Curriculum in Building Student Agency

With Lizzy Tepper and Samantha Clark

Delve deeply into aspects of the Reggio Emilia pedagogy, including how to honor the child’s voice to support emergent curriculum in the classroom. Become equipped with a deeper understanding of how to observe and document learning and gain confidence in co-curating provocations to extend on the students’ inquiries while honoring their voices. Participants will learn about the history of the Reggio Emilia Approach, discuss the distinctive traits, and focus in on the image of the child and how it translates into students’ agency in the classroom. This workshop will also explore children’s rights according to the approach, and how they can be incorporated into daily interactions and classroom explorations.

From Materials to Meaning: Shared Stories and Practical Tips for Creating Child-Driven Making and Building Spaces

With Shelly Gargus

In this workshop, Shelly will share images and stories from her classroom, focusing on two specific areas: her “Making Table” and her “Loose Parts Building Space.” Through images and stories, she will share how these two types of spaces naturally complement each other.

She will also provide a behind-the-scenes look at the types of materials she has found work best, how to present the concepts/tools/materials to the children, and tips for maintaining organization so that the children have autonomy to pursue their own ideas. The hands-on component will allow educators to experience a scaled-down version of the children’s experiences.

 

The Joys and Challenges of Team Work: Building Trusting Team Dynamics

With Jean Schreiber

The practical skills of classroom work get easier with practice, but the deeper skills of personal growth happen when teachers reflect and share in a safe, trusting environment.
Head teachers and school leaders will come away with a better understanding of:

• The importance of trusting relationships
• Adult learning styles, beliefs, and values
• Stages of teacher development
• Effective communication and listening techniques

 

Rough and Tumble Play: Supporting Sensory and Regulatory Needs to Unlock Connection, Confidence, and Joy

With Becky Lewin

Join us for an engaging workshop that explores the vital role of rough and tumble play in childhood development—and how sensory processing differences can shape a child’s ability to fully engage in and benefit from this essential form of play. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how to support inclusive, empowering play experiences that meet children where they are—so every child can feel confident in their body, connected to others, and free to play.

 

Woodworking with Young Children: Building Skills, Confidence, and Creativity

With Adam Metzger and Sari Anchipolovsky

Children are inherently capable, competent, and creative, and when we trust them with real tools and meaningful work, we send a powerful message about their abilities. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the rich possibilities that woodworking offers young children, laying the foundation for lifelong skills in problem-solving, collaboration, and self-confidence.

Woodworking engages the whole child- supporting fine motor development, patience, persistence, and turn-taking, all while encouraging authentic expression and purposeful risk-taking. By introducing tools thoughtfully and intentionally, we help children build not only physical skills but also a strong sense of self.

Participants will work in small groups to take a deep dive into three core materials that serve as the entry point for woodworking in early childhood classrooms. Through exploration and guided practice, you’ll learn how to scaffold woodworking experiences and introduce real tools like hammers, screwdrivers, and saws in a developmentally appropriate, safe, and empowering way.

Whether you’re new to woodworking or looking to deepen your practice, this workshop will leave you inspired and equipped to bring the joy and purpose of woodworking to your classroom.

Dr. Megan Pamela Ruth Madison

Dr. Megan Pamela Ruth Madison (she, her) is a queer, neuroexpansive, cisgender Auntie, political educator, and lifelong student of radical Black feminism. Her work in the field of education began in the Midwest, where she grew up with her siblings along the shores of Lake Michigan. In 2011, she earned a Master’s degree in early childhood education while working full-time as a lead teacher in a bilingual Head Start preschool classroom. In 2024, Dr. Madison completed her Ph.D. at Brandeis University. For the last decade, she has lived on Lenape land, in Harlem, facilitating professional learning for teachers across the country on anti-bias education. She has worked most closely with the Center for Racial Justice in Education, the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, and Bank Street’s Center on Culture, Race & Equity. In her volunteer time, Dr. Megan has established herself as a visionary, strategic, and effective community leader through her service on the boards of the National Association for the Education for Young Children, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and Trans formative Schools. In the eyes of young children, Megan is best known as an author. With Jessica Ralli, she wrote First Conversations–an award-winning series of accessible nonfiction board books that #TeachTruth about race, gender, consent, love, bodies, grief, justice, and disability. Despite attempts to ban these essential conversations, they’ve sold more than 250,000 copies to date!

 

Sari Anchipolovsky

Sari Anchipolovsky is the Associate Director of the ECLC at Temple Israel and has over 15 years of experience working with young children. Deeply inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, Sari believes in the innate competence, curiosity, and creativity of every child. She views woodworking as a powerful way for children to express ideas, take risks, solve problems, and build confidence.

Sari is passionate about creating meaningful, hands-on learning experiences and believes that when educators truly see children as capable and resourceful, transformative learning can happen. Her work centers around building environments where children are trusted, supported, and encouraged to explore the world around them.

 

Samantha Clark

Samantha has taught at the Saul and Carole Zabar Nursery School at the JCC since 2018. Before coming to the JCC, she worked as a 2’s teacher at Eisman Day Nursery, was a founding teacher at Tribeca KinderCare, and spent 5 years working at the West Side Y’s nursery school. Since joining the Nursery School in 2018 as a Floater, Samantha has worked in both 3s and Pre-K classrooms as an Associate and Head Teacher.

Samantha is a current member of the school’s leadership team and is passionate about anti-bias and anti-racist work in early childhood education, championing ways to continue to implement these teachings into our daily practice with purpose. Outside of school, Samantha is an active contributor to AMA’s Arc, which is an educational resource collaboration with schools in rural Ghana. Through service projects, we have created a philanthropic partnership with these institutions and are excited for what’s to come. Samantha was born, raised, and currently resides on the Upper East Side with her husband and 3 children. She loves city life and all it has to offer for families of young children!

 

Shelly Gargus

Shelly Gargus is an early childhood educator with twenty years of experience in Reggio Emilia-inspired classrooms. She currently teaches Pre-K at The Packer Collegiate Institute, where she designs child-led, hands-on learning experiences that blend literacy, storytelling, and the creative reuse of materials.

Shelly’s work centers on building integrated classroom environments that offer young children both autonomy and support—spaces where they see themselves as capable learners, creators, and collaborators. Deeply committed to sustainability and open-ended exploration, she has developed a classroom “Making System” and a “Loose Part Building” space that encourages problem-solving, creativity, and peer-to-peer learning.

In addition to Shelly’s classroom work, she mentors new educators, presents at conferences, and collaborates on literacy research. She’s traveled to Reggio Emilia, Finland, and across the U.S. to deepen her practice, as she continues to inspire both children and adults with her thoughtful, joyful approach to teaching and learning.

 

Martha Haakmat

Martha Haakmat is an experienced educator who has spent her 39-year career teaching and leading in New York City independent schools. She brings a depth of understanding and perspective to her work, having held various faculty and leadership positions in a wide variety of school communities. Coming from her most recent service as a head of school, Martha worked specifically on enrollment, marketing and finance in a changing admissions landscape, and she developed strategic planning expertise, which included diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goal setting and ongoing systemic work. She has gathered and created tools and strategies for weaving DEI into policies, procedures and systems, as opposed to focusing on DEI reactively. She is now the Executive Director of Haakmat Consulting LLC, providing leadership coaching and support for DEI strategic planning for schools and other organizations.

Martha is a former lower, middle and upper school educator, Diversity Director and Middle School Head. She was a faculty member for the NAIS Institute for New Heads, has served as an independent school trustee, and has been a member of various committees for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), the Independent School Admission Association of Greater New York (ISAAGNY) and New York City Guild of Independent School Heads. She was also the founder and director of Educators for Growth and Empowerment (EDGE), a diversity consulting team with regional and national recognition, and was a lead presenter for the NAIS Institute for New Heads.

Martha currently serves on the Board of Trustees for NYSAIS and The Brearley School. She is also a credentialed Montessori administrator.

 

Becky Lewin

Becky Lewin received her Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from New York University. Since graduating in 2010, she has worked with children and adults in a variety of different settings, including schools, clinics, and private practice. She has extensive experience supporting individuals with motor delays, difficulties with pre-writing/handwriting skills, diminished visual-motor and visual-perceptual skills, as well as differences in sensory processing. Drawing on evidence-based research, she utilizes sensory processing, polyvagal, motor learning, and developmental theories to guide her practice. She has advanced certification in the DIR/Floortime through the Profectum Academy. In addition to providing individual treatment through her private practice, Becky has had the opportunity to consult and provide workshops for a number of different schools and organizations throughout New York City.

To contact Becky directly, she can be reached at rrlewin@gmail.com.

 

Adam Metzger

Adam Metzger is the JCC Nursery School’s Pedagogista, working directly with classroom teachers to help develop learning experiences that complement classroom curricular learning. He supports teachers with their documentation of student learning to help deepen their reflections on the work and their communication with the parent community. Adam joined the Nursery School as a Floating teacher in 2009, and since then, he has taught in 4 different classrooms, including teaching 2’s, 3’s, and Pre-K.

Adam grew up on the Upper West Side and attended Hunter College Elementary and High Schools from age four to 18. During his senior year, Adam worked as an assistant teacher in the nursery school program at Hunter. Upon graduating, Adam attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Hebrew and Jewish Cultural Studies.

Adam received his Master’s in the Science of Teaching in Early Childhood Special Education from Fordham University. He then served a four-year term as a member of the Nursery School Leadership Team.

 

Jean Schreiber

Jean Schreiber is an early childhood educational consultant who, for over three decades, has developed and directed early childhood programs and parenting centers. She earned her M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education, where she is an instructor in the Continuing Professional Studies Program. An engaging and highly informative speaker, Jean presents her workshops on topics such as fostering the social and emotional development of young children, creating developmentally appropriate classroom experiences, and supporting the emotional and professional growth of parents and educators. She serves as a consultant to a wide variety of early childhood and elementary school programs and provides guidance to parents in both individual and group settings.

Visit jeanschreiber.com to learn more about Jean’s workshops and presentations.

 

Lizzy Tepper

Lizzy joined The Saul and Carole Zabar Nursery School as a head teacher in 2017 and has worked in 2s, 3s, and Pre-K classrooms. Prior to joining the nursery school, Lizzy taught preschoolers with special needs for 10 years. Lizzy attended New York University and received a B.A. in psychology. After assistant teaching for three years, she completed her master’s degree in early childhood general and special education at Bank Street College of Education. Lizzy was born and raised on the Upper West Side, where she currently resides with her husband and daughter.

Lizzy is a member of the nursery school’s Leadership Team, and helped to found and lead the school’s DEI committee, as well as the Special Rights committee. Lizzy is passionate about teaching and strives to provide engaging and exploratory learning experiences that elicit creative thinking and a love of learning in every child. She is dedicated to anti-bias and anti-racist work in the classroom and strives to create a caring community that recognizes and supports each child’s individual learning needs.

 

Dana-Lee Wechsler

Bio coming soon.