The Charlotte Jewish News - August 2013 - Page 5
Schools
The Charlotte Jewish Preschool: Twenty-
Five Years in the Making
On July 29, The Charlotte Jew
ish Presehool opened the
2013/2014 sehool year. Though
every new sehool year is speeial,
this year, CJP is eelebrating our
25th anniversary.
CJP began in the 1950s as Tem
ple Israel’s nursery sehool. In
1988, Temple Beth El joined with
Temple Israel to more formally
ereate The Charlotte Jewish Pre
sehool. The sehool naming and
partnership are noteworthy be-
eause CJP was one of the first
presehools in the eountry to be
jointly owned by two differently
affiliated synagogues. CJP’s abil
ity to sueeessfully bring together
different religious traditions eon-
tinues to make our sehool distinet.
In 2002, The Sandra and Leon
Levine Jewish Community Center
joined the synagogues as a partner
in CJP to strengthen and enhanee
eommunity resourees.
CJP has seen many ehanges
over the last 25 years, but with all
the ehanges the tradition from
whieh we eame from remain the
same. After 25 years of teaehing,
we know at CJP that play is the
work of a presehooler. We know
that play is a erueial ingredient for
learning and life skills that serve
as a foundation to a ehild’s sue-
eess, and provides ehildren with
the opportunity to develop in
many areas. Our teaehers use play
to develop ehildren physieally, so-
eially, emotionally and aeademi-
eally.
Carol Klein has been a member
of the CJP faeulty for 26 years.
Carol also served as The Charlotte
Jewish PresehooTs first direetor.
As Carol refieeted baek on the last
25 years, she had this to say.
“Looking baek 25 years to the
beginning of CJP, I ean’t help but
smile, thinking how far we’ve
eome. We had only been at
Shalom Park for two years, oper
ating as the Temple Israel Pre
sehool when The Charlotte Jewish
Presehool was born. We were
mueh smaller in size with approx
imately 135 students.
“When we moved to Shalom
Park, it was exeiting to be in a
new faeility. We were able to offer
families in our eommu
nity the first Jewish full
day program. When we
beeame CJP, we added a
Pre-K program and a Ju-
daie elass.
“After 15 years of
sharing elassroom, stor
age spaee, and even ad
ministrative staff, CJP
beeame a benefieiary of *■»■
the Shalom Park expan
sion projeet and we were able to
move into our eurrent spaee. Dur
ing this expansion, we even had
our playground in the middle of
the parking lot. We have been for
tunate to have been able to move
r
Charlotte Jewish
Preschool
into a newer larger faeility, with a
larger offiee spaee and rooms for
all of our Speeials. We have also
been fortunate to have been able
to add on a beautiful addition to
our playground area. While we
eontinue to teaeh through play, we
have ehanged, not just the physi-
eal part, but also the depth and
quality of the programs provided
by our dedieated staff to our fam
ilies. I am very proud to have been
a small part of all of the wonderful
ehanges over these past 25 years.”
After 25 years, former CJP stu
dents are now parents with young
ehildren in our program. Also,
some of our CJP alumni have re
turned after many years as part of
our faeulty. Lindsay Comen will
enter her seventhth year of teaeh
ing at CJP and is well
loved by her families.
Beeea Weiner returned
as a teaeher in 2010 as
our amazing Judaie
Speeialist. Twenty-five
years later we ean
enjoy the multi-gener
ational partieipation in
our sehool and eom-
■ ?..(.;> munity.
For more informa
tion about beeoming part of our
eommunity or enrolling your ehild
in the eurrent year, please eontaet
Alyson Kalik, CJP registrar, at
704-944-6776 or akalik@shalom-
eharlotte.org. ^
Education in the Twenty-First Century
In times of change, it is the
learners that will inherit the
earth while the learned will find
themselves beautifully equipped
for a world that no longer exists.
—Eric Hoffer
Twenty-first eentury edueation
eontinues to be the ehallenge of
the day. We eannot ignore the faet
that the way we have sehooled our
ehildren is not and will not be ef-
feetive. Our ehildren are already
living in a world that demands a
different way of thinking and
doing, but are also growing into a
world that is moving faster than
anyone ever imagined.
At CJDS we approaeh the
needs of our students so that they
are ahead of the game when they
eontinue on to their new sehools
and the expeetations of this een
tury. The kids are naturals and the
ehallenges that we put before
them are really not ehallenges at
all, rather they are opportunities to
finally use the skills and thought
proeesses that they intrinsieally
have.
The ehallenge that we en-
eounter is that 21 st eentury eduea-
tional methodologies are simpler
to ineorporate in the middle and
high sehool elassrooms, beeause
of the independenee that is devel-
opmentally innate. The skills
for this type of elassroom and
learning are taught during the
elementary sehool experienee.
Professional development oppor
tunities and the books and artieles
on this topie also foeus more on
the older student.
But, this will not diseourage us
beeause the students surprise us
daily when demonstrating their
understanding and grasp of what
is around them. Naturally, teeh-
nology inspires engagement and
forward thinking. It has to. It’s ex
eiting. It’s like a treasure box of
goodies. Think like a kid and
you’ll understand. The reading re
sponses that our students write for
their nightly reading are so mueh
more engaging, relevant and real
when they are on the Kidblog,
where the teaeher and students
ean respond immediately as they
read it. The eommunieation on
Skype with the students from
India or Israel allows for the ehil
dren to see that the world, as large
as it is, is really right at their fin
gertips, and there isn’t anything
that is beyond their reaeh.
CJDS is well known for its
graduation performanees where
the sehool motto of the year is ex
pressed through song, danee and
drama. However, this year, it be
eame elear that our graduates’ ere-
ative potential would not be
adequately expressed through the
typieal drama experienee. So, en-
eouraged by the outstanding video
animation skills of one of our
graduates, Saul Vitner, we
eharged the fifth grade to ereate a
video using Claymation to share
four of Maimonides’ prineiples of
faith (the topie we have been
studying all year).
Twenty-first eentury edueation
eneompasses and demands eollab-
oration, ereativity, eommuniea
tion, and eritieal thinking. We saw
it all.
The eollaboration between the
general studies teaeher, the Judaie
elassroom, art, and teehnology
teaeher was at its best. The stu
dents shared the responsibility and
advised eaeh other using their spe-
eifie expertise on the formation of
the elay eharaeters, exeeuting the
narration, projeeting their voiee
and using the proper infieetion,
and ereating the animation and
video to properly eommunieate
the message of these four prinei
ples. You ean imagine that ex
pressing an abstraet eoneept sueh
as belief took lots of eritieal think
ing. The integration of the Judaie
Studies with General Studies also
fulfilled a goal we have. So, all
the “e’s” were implemented beau
tifully. Creativity, Communiea-
tion. Collaboration, and Critieal
Thinking.
The video is posted on the
sehool website at www.ejd-
sehool.org. Enjoy!
Onee again, the ehildren are the
foeus and the eenter of all of
CJDS deeisions and ehoiees. Our
ehildren will always have the op
portunity to take advantage of all
that our world has to offer. ^
^ CORRECTION
On the list of donors to our new
playground in the June issue of
The Charlotte Jewish News,
Marcello Gorelick was incorrectly identified.
Larry Horowitz, CLU, ChFC
Financial
5950 Fairview Road, Suite 608
Charlotte, NC 28210
(704) 556-9982, Fax (704) 369-2918
www.L2financial.com
Helping in the CREATION, PRESERVATION &
DISTRIBUTION of your Estate
Larry Horowitz is an Investment Advisor Representative of, and offers
securities, and investment advisory services through Woodbury Financial
Services, Inc. Member FINRA, SIPC and Registered Investment Advisor.
l} Financial and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., are not affiliated
JEWISH^
FEDERATIONS
OF GREATEF CHARLOTTE^
Applications for the 2014
Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte
Impact and Innovation Fund are now available.
The Jewish Federation's Impact and Innovation Fund
distributes grants that are intended to inspire
individuals, organizations, synagogues, and agencies
to provide innovative and impactful engagement
opportunities for the greater Charlotte Jewish community.
For more information or to receive an
application, please contact the
Federation office, 704.944.6757
www.jewishcharlotte.org