About the ECE Fellowship for Leadership and Excellence
The development of leaders, in classrooms and school administration, is a necessary step toward educational excellence. Skilled leaders raise the level of all staff, leading to better teacher retention, job satisfaction and measurable student success. The Jewish Early Childhood Education Fellowship for Leadership and Excellence was a two-year leadership professional development program that connected Jewish "big ideas" with cutting edge early childhood education practice. By strengthening community preschools, families' connection to the Jewish community and Jewish life would be enhanced during the early childhood years and beyond.
The Fellowship was a collaboration between the seven early childhood schools in the Seattle Metropolitan Jewish community. Inter-organization relationships had been established previously through the Jewish Early Childhood Directors' Association (JECDA), a professional group convened by Education Services at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. In 2010, JECDA with the leadership of Liat Zaidenberg, Director of Education Services, began the process of envisioning, planning and applying for a long term community impact grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. The JECDA schools, Congregation Beth Shalom ECC, Jennifer Rosen Meade Preschool, The Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle, Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder ECC, Seattle Hebrew Academy, and the Mercer Island and Seattle branches of the Stroum Jewish Community Center ECS nominated two teachers from each school to join with their school director in the Fellowship. This cooperative effort showcases the schools' commitment to raising the bar for Jewish early childhood education. Also, this collaboration in early childhood education is unique among communities of our size and diversity. The planning process resulted a group comprised of 22 educators in the ECE Fellowship for Leadership and Excellence. The fellows learned together with Diana Ganger, Learning Community Coach/Consultant, during in-person retreats and Skype sessions.
Throughout the Fellowship, school leaders focused on the following concepts:
Click here to watch a video of Dara Medearis, a teacher at SJCC speak about her experiences as a fellow!
The Fellowship was a collaboration between the seven early childhood schools in the Seattle Metropolitan Jewish community. Inter-organization relationships had been established previously through the Jewish Early Childhood Directors' Association (JECDA), a professional group convened by Education Services at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. In 2010, JECDA with the leadership of Liat Zaidenberg, Director of Education Services, began the process of envisioning, planning and applying for a long term community impact grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. The JECDA schools, Congregation Beth Shalom ECC, Jennifer Rosen Meade Preschool, The Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle, Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder ECC, Seattle Hebrew Academy, and the Mercer Island and Seattle branches of the Stroum Jewish Community Center ECS nominated two teachers from each school to join with their school director in the Fellowship. This cooperative effort showcases the schools' commitment to raising the bar for Jewish early childhood education. Also, this collaboration in early childhood education is unique among communities of our size and diversity. The planning process resulted a group comprised of 22 educators in the ECE Fellowship for Leadership and Excellence. The fellows learned together with Diana Ganger, Learning Community Coach/Consultant, during in-person retreats and Skype sessions.
Throughout the Fellowship, school leaders focused on the following concepts:
- Leader-directed transformational change in the schools
- Creating a visionary school culture filled with inquiry and reflection
- Establishing a covenant of boundaries and responsibilities among staff members as well as between the schools and the community
- Forming a school environment that deals in terms of sacred space and time
- Building a strength based outlook for the future
Click here to watch a video of Dara Medearis, a teacher at SJCC speak about her experiences as a fellow!