Kindergarten Archives

Charlotte Harary-Shechtman

August 24, 2022

Charlotte Harary-Shechtman’s passion for working with children began from an early age. She is excited when she gets to guide students into reaching a level of self-efficacy in order to enhance learning and confidence. Charlotte believes in connecting to each child she works with and the importance of trust in the teacher-student relationship. Doing so creates a safe space for the child to ask questions and learn with comfort. She works to foster a greater understanding of the student’s unique capabilities and needs. She believes in building on students’ strengths in order to help them overcome their challenges. Encouraging the growth mindset is cultivated through the language she uses, instilling the belief in every child that they have the potential to succeed.

After much experience working with children, she strongly believes in differentiating instruction according to an individual’s learning needs and supporting their learning style. Adapting to a curriculum and creating strategies to better process information is one of her strengths. She incorporates unique ways for students to learn by tapping into the visual and kinesthetic components of a lesson and having the children learn in an experiential and hands-on way.

Charlotte Harary-Shechtman received a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Education from CUNY Brooklyn College. She went on to achieve her Master’s degree in Childhood Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and graduated in 2019 while also obtaining her professional license.

For the past 10 years, Charlotte has been working with children of all ages. Over time, she worked in summer day camp, a variety of public and private schools as well as one to one tutoring. She worked as an assistant teacher in a classroom of three year olds for two years at Bean Sprouts Preschool in Park Slope. Most recently, Charlotte taught at The Shefa School, a school for students with language based learning challenges. During her time there, she worked with students ranging from 1st to 5th grade. She led a homeroom class of 13 students teaching lessons related to Social Emotional Learning, Judaic Studies, and writing while simultaneously teaching her own reading and math groups. Additionally, she worked with a team to develop curricula and modify lessons to ensure her students received the instruction that best suited their needs. Charlotte has worked with many evidence-based practices including Writing Revolution (formerly known as the Hochman method), PAF (Preventing Academic Failure), an Orton-Gillingham based program, Jump Math and Marilyn Zecher’s Multisensory Math & More program. Helping students learn how to set goals for one’s self, plan, prioritize, organize and multitask, are some skills Charlotte brings to the table in conjunction with her adaptation to lessons.

When she isn’t engaged in the education world, Charlotte enjoys spending her time with family, friends and being active. Exercising, playing tennis, and being outdoors, are some of her favorites. Charlotte is a lifelong learner who continues to educate herself on developing, preparing and instructing individualized curricula for students with learning differences.

Mary Shaw

April 5, 2021

At Binghamton University, Mary Shaw studied the development of formal education around the world. Still fascinated about how education is understood within a culture, she joined Teach for America in 1992 and began teaching Spanish, K-5 in rural North Carolina. After leaving North Carolina, she was motivated to learn more. At Bank Street College, Mary was introduced to progressive education, a way of seeing and teaching the whole child through hands-on interactive exploration and social learning. Throughout her years of teaching she discovered children learn best when immersed in meaningful activities and discussion.

In each setting, Mary Shaw developed classroom community through rich immersion in literacy. Reading and writing are necessary tools for life. A love for reading is a gift a child discovers and shares with everyone who will listen. For some children it is a challenge to make sense of words on a page. In 2012, she received her Master’s in Special Education at Hunter College to better understand the learning challenges that some children have in literacy and math learning. Mary strongly believes that her job is to stimulate children’s minds. She invites children to learn about the world around them through inquiry, research and problem solving by using their developing literacy and math skills.

As a general education and special education teacher for 13 years, Mary Shaw collaborated with co-teachers to develop accommodations for all students across the content areas. She developed teaching strategies for ENL (English as a New Language) students while immersing them in the larger curriculum. Mary taught phonics and reading programs such as Wilson Fundations, Words Their Way, and Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop. She used a constructivist philosophy to build math programs. Mary invited children to learn about the world around them through inquiry, research and problem solving. They studied the life cycle of the plant and its importance in the world. The children investigated the question- what would happen if there were no plants? They then embarked on a yearlong study from farmers markets to cooking, seeds, bulbs, pollination and the life cycle of butterflies. As a pre-k teacher for three years, Mary supported hands-on, student-directed, experiential learning to encourage children to explore the world around them. She differentiated instruction to meet the needs of English language learners.

Mary Shaw also taught at the Northside Center for Child Development in Manhattan, where she implemented one-on-one, interactive reading instruction for first through fourth grade students with severe learning disabilities.

During the summers of 2000-2006 Mary was a graduate assistant at The Tiorati Environmental Workshop. She assisted the professor in teaching summer graduate courses in environmental studies (Bank Street College) and learned to apply inquiry-based learning to classroom settings.

In 2012, Mary was the recipient of the Merle E. Frampton Certificate for Excellence and Outstanding Performance in Special Education Teaching and Community Service from Hunter College.

Amanda Friedman

September 13, 2020

Amanda Friedman is currently a full time private educator who creates individualized lesson plans tailored to students interests and needs so they can reach their academic potential. Formerly, Amanda spent five years as a literacy specialist at Avenues: The World School at their New York Campus. She worked specifically with first and second grade students and coached classroom teachers in reading, writing workshops and the Orton-Gillingham Method. Prior to Avenues, Amanda spent eight years teaching public school in the Bronx. She began her career teaching fourth grade for four years and then taught as a special education teacher support services provider. While in this role, Amanda provided academic support and developed individualized education plans for students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade.

During her time in the Bronx and at Avenues, Amanda mentored and coached younger teachers and formed close bonds with teachers, families and school staff. She learned how to reach all students regardless of the number of students in the class, by individualizing instruction and making every lesson as fun as possible.

Prior to her work in the Bronx, Amanda Friedman received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Social Work. She then earned her Master’s Degree in Childhood and Special Education and Literacy from Touro College. Additionally she has a certificate in early childhood ages birth through grade 2 and is trained in the Orton-Gillingham Method. She spent a summer teaching elementary school in South Africa and had 45 students in her class. Amanda truly enjoys teaching, which is always evident in her lessons.

Erin Sauchelli

September 8, 2020

Erin Sauchelli is a graduate of Lafayette College and New York University. She draws on experience from her career in media, as well as experience teaching different subjects and different age levels, to help support students in language and literacy development. She holds a BA in International Affairs and Spanish, and a dual MA in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language and Teaching English as a Second Language. She graduated from NYU with honors and has maintained a relationship with the university, hosting and mentoring student teachers from their education training programs and also continuing to take classes to better her practice.

Erin loves to travel and spent several semesters abroad during her undergraduate and graduate careers. She spent the most time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she did an exchange program at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Her fluency in Spanish allows her to communicate and develop relationships with her Spanish-speaking students. She has experience teaching Spanish as a foreign language to K-8 students; being a language learner herself, she wants language learning to be fun, cultural and interactive and can help students who may be struggling with the conventions of the language.

She is currently working as an English as a New Language teacher to elementary age children. She has experience supporting children in literacy, phonics and bridging language development with content area instruction. Erin Sauchelli is well versed in phonics instruction, specifically Wilson Fundations and Letterland. She believes in strong phonemic awareness as a foundation for reading as well as writing. She can support struggling readers and writers by diagnosing their areas of weakness and creating individualized teaching points to help them move forward. She also has experience in content areas such as mathematics, science and social studies, and loves to bridge the concrete to the theoretical with manipulatives in math instruction. She has worked with students of all skill and proficiency levels, and also students with special needs, such as those with ADD/ADHD, autism and dyslexia.

Before becoming a teacher, Erin had a career in advertising and marketing for large media and publishing companies, such as ABC and Hearst Magazines. She managed client relations and large-scale advertising partnerships for television shows and magazines. She brings her professional experience to her teaching, applying her project management and organizational skills to her teaching role.

When Erin is not teaching, she enjoys cooking, spending time outdoors, whether on the golf course or ski slopes, and most of all, being with her dog – who may make an appearance during a virtual tutoring session!

Lana Bunning

August 31, 2020

Lana Bunning is a lifelong learner and has a passion for sharing her love of education with her students. After earning a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Education from the University at Albany, she began her career with the New York City Department of Education. She has been a public school teacher for over eight years where she has taught math, science, and many other enrichment courses. She proudly holds the title of Model Teacher because of her skill and expertise of best instructional practices and student achievement growth. Lana has also worked as a private tutor for several years with students from kindergarten through high school. Her experiences have ranged from supporting students with academic coaching, test preparation, and executive functioning.

Lana Bunning is thoughtful when designing curriculum and supports for students, ensuring that the instruction is engaging, rigorous, and accessible for all learners. She is able to plan and execute her lessons in this way due to her ability to build a strong rapport with her students. Lana takes the time to get to know each of her students’ strengths and areas of growth, building trust and taking the time to get to know their hobbies and interests outside of the classroom. For these reasons, Lana is a lead teacher on her school’s Instructional Leadership and Equity Teams as well as District 13’s Math Leadership Group.

Lana’s experience educating students has not stopped at the classroom. She has privately tutored students of all ages attending NYC private and public schools, including The Dalton School, Horace Mann, Stuyvesant High School, and The Summit School. She skillfully differentiates instruction for all of her learners, including students with more complex neurocognitive profiles. Her tutoring work integrates monitoring and enhancing students’ executive functioning capacities and skills. She loves working one-on-one and in small groups with students because that is where she can have the most impact.

Lana Bunning is always working towards furthering her own learning in order to engage students at the highest levels. She participated in Honeywell Educators at Space Academy in 2016 where she participated in traditional Space Camp activities such as engineering design challenges, mock flight and space missions, rocket construction and launches with teachers from around the world. Sometimes you can still find her in her blue flight suit! She partnered with University of Washington Burke Museum paleontologists in 2017 to conduct field research on an active site, digging up 66 million year old fossils with teachers and researchers. In 2018, she explored Yellowstone National Park while engaging in STEAM projects to implement into the classroom with her students. She is always learning new ways to reach her students and spark their natural curiosity.

In her free time, Lana loves riding her Peloton and biking outside, snowboarding in the winter months, enjoying the beach waves in the summer, collecting and listening to vinyl records, and sharing meals with friends and family.

Charlotte Harary-Shechtman

Mary Shaw

Amanda Friedman

Erin Sauchelli

Lana Bunning

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