Pre-K Archives

Ashley Steed

Ashley Steed is a learning specialist and a teacher leader at PS38 in East Harlem with over 9 years of teaching experience. She currently teaches writing for students in grades 3-5. In addition to teaching writing, Ashley is an instructional coach where she uses her toolbox of instructional practices to support teaching and learning.

Ashley brings a wealth of experience as a private tutor and classroom teacher. Over the years she has worked with a wide range of learners, including students with specific learning disabilities, emotional challenges, ADHD, physical disabilities, and autism. Before focusing on writing instruction, Ashley taught in a self-contained classroom, as well as an inclusion classroom with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students.

Ashley Steed has a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Hunter College. She also has a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education and Special Education from Wagner College. She received her BA in Psychology and a minor in Educational Studies from Wagner College as well.

Ashley is skillful at differentiating her instruction to meet the needs of each student. Her skill set includes many interventions in decoding, reading comprehension, reading fluency, writing, and expanding vocabulary as well as computation and fluency, number sense and problem-solving. Ashley is also experienced with Wilson Fundations (an Orton-Gillingham based program). In addition, Ashley has expertise with writing and implementing Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and Behavior Intervention Plans. She has been a member of many annual IEP review meetings and committee of special education meetings; Ashley has also attended Department of Education court hearings.

In addition to teaching in the classroom, Ashley Steed is a leader in her school building. She has mentored and coached teachers and led professional development in the areas of instruction, engagement and assessment. She has also served as a collaborative coach and lead instructor for the New York City Teaching Fellows. It is her goal to continue in the path of supporting teachers.

Ashley also has experience as a tutor and an enrichment teacher at Figure Skating in Harlem, where she tutored girls in grades 3, 5 and 7 in the areas of literacy and numeracy. She also taught enrichment classes for the girls in communications, writing and financial literacy for the same grades.

Ashley currently resides in Westchester County. In her free time she enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading and trying new restaurants in NYC. She also enjoys traveling. In the summer of 2016, she traveled to Kenya, Africa and volunteered at an orphanage and school. There, she had the opportunity to teach and support students for one month.

Emily Andrews

Emily Andrews is an Early Childhood Learning Specialist.

She works as an independent consultant at a variety of private preschools as well as working one-on-one with children and families as a private tutor and parent coach.

She visits children in their homes and in their classrooms to observe, play, and make suggestions to their teachers and parents regarding how best to support their developing learning skills.

Emily has worked at a variety of early childhood settings in New York City for over ten years and has had a variety of roles ranging from a classroom teacher, a SEIT, a program director, and a consultant. She has unique program development experience having helped launch both an afters chool program and an inclusion preschool and has insights as to what skills a child may need to strengthen in order to thrive in a variety of educational settings.

Emily received a dual Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Education from Bank Street College in 2007. In 2010, Emily was honored to be selected as one of 12 individuals for Bank Street’s Autism Annotation program, a U.S. federal fellowship that focused on deepening one’s preparation to work with student’s on the autism spectrum. Emily is passionate about supporting all children’s learning and classroom readiness skills, including: attention, executive functioning, social cognition, and most importantly CONFIDENCE. She believes that children acquire these skills most successfully when they are introduced through individualized play techniques that draw upon the child’s true interests and strengths.

Emily is also a parent to a lively and charming two year old girl!

Felicia Shulman

Felicia Shulman is a NY State Dual Certified teacher and private tutor with certificates in both Early Childhood and Early Childhood Special Education. She grew up in Livingston, New Jersey and attended public school from kindergarten through 12th grade. Growing up, she always loved math and science, two subjects that were taught to her through projects and hands-on, experiential experiences. She was an active student who learned best through doing.

Felicia attended Syracuse University for her freshman year with the major of Inclusive Early Childhood Education and transferred to NYU beginning her sophomore year, studying Early Childhood and Special Education, with minors in Psychology and American Sign Language. She began studying at Bank Street College of Education upon graduating NYU and now holds her Master’s of Education in Early Childhood Special Education.

Felicia taught 3/4s at the JCC of Manhattan on the Upper West Side from 2012-2015 and is now currently working as a public school kindergarten teacher on the Upper East Side. She has worked with a variety of families in her years teaching, and she has supported them as they applied to ongoing private schools and prepared for Kindergarten.

As Felicia still learns best through doing, she always teaches her students through hands-on experiences, using open-ended materials allowing for exploration, curiosity, and inquiry to take place. As young children learn and develop at varied speeds, Felicia creates differentiated experiences for her students, making sure to meet each child’s needs. She also sets realistic goals for each of her students, partnering with their families to make sure that they understand what their child is capable of doing and how to create a supportive home-school connection. In her classroom, Felicia believes that her students are fully capable learners, and with the right supports, are able to accomplish anything they set out to do.

In her spare time, Felicia enjoys going to Broadway musicals, running, spinning, dancing, spending time with her friends and family, and exploring New York City and all of it’s delicious food.

Laurie Gross

Laurie Gross, Executive Director, brings her expertise to My Learning Springboard as a Special Education Consultant and Family Advocate, Reading Specialist, and Instructional Coach for families and schools in the New York City and Washington, DC metropolitan areas. Laurie is also a Professional Member of the Washington Independent Services for Educational Resources (WISER) and an adjunct professor at George Washington University, where she works with graduate teacher interns in a supervisory and mentorship role.

Laurie Gross’s School Leadership Background

Laurie is a highly experienced educator and school consultant with more than 40 years of experience in the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system and beyond. Early in her career, Laurie taught children with learning disabilities and emotional disturbances in grades 5-12, and was a special educator at the high school level. She then moved into administration as a special education supervisor, providing support and oversight to the special education programs in 25 (K-12) schools. Laurie spent the last 18 years of her school system career as an elementary school principal. With dual Master’s degrees in Reading (K-12) and Special Education (K-12), as well as Administrative Certification, Laurie has a unique perspective regarding student learning with regard to how best to deliver instruction to all students. Laurie has a special way of building trust with all stakeholders, and she views herself as a child advocate who places the needs of the child above all else. To that end, Laurie works collaboratively with families, schools, and private tutors to design differentiated educational programs for their student(s).

Prior to her retirement from Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, Laurie served as principal of Somerset Elementary School in Chevy Chase for nine years. Somerset Elementary School is one of the highest ranked schools in Montgomery County as well as in the state of Maryland. Under Laurie’s leadership, the student body grew from under 400 students to over 500 students, while maintaining an excellent instructional program that met the needs of its increasingly diverse student body.

Somerset provides an inclusive educational environment for all students in its attendance area. As a Home School Model school, all special education students are fully included in their grade level classrooms with support provided in a seamless manner using a co-teaching model as well as a pull-out model.

During her tenure in MCPS, Laurie worked collaboratively at the school, cluster and central level, building relationships that allowed her to secure resources for her students and school(s). As she said each year to an audience of parents at Back-to-School Night, “Being smart is not something that you are born with, it is something that can be learned and it is our responsibility to figure out what your children already know, what they need to learn, and what to do if they already know what we are teaching.” She will do the same for your children.

Laurie Gross’s LinkedIn profile

Laurie Gross

My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Executive Director and Educational Consultant

A multidisciplinary educational consulting firm

Montgomery County

Bethesda,MD

20816

laurie@mylearningspringboard.com

Phone: +1 (646) 580-9794

Last edited @ 11:04 am

Rachel Hirshan

Rachel completed her undergraduate degree from University at Buffalo in speech language pathology. She then earned her Master’s at CW Post in General and Special Education, Grades 1-6, with a concentration in Autism Spectrum Disorders. She also has a certification in Applied Behavior Analysis and several years of direct instructional experience. Her love and passion for teaching children has been prevalent since she was young.

Rachel is currently working at IS125Q, the Woodside Intermediate School, in Queens, teaching 6th grade self-contained math, science, and social studies. Many of her students enter 6th grade performing below grade level expectations in math, reading, and writing, and it’s Rachel’s job to close the gap and scaffold instruction so that each student succeeds. Rachel previously taught a private school on the Upper East Side as a Learning Specialist, where her students ranged from second to eighth grade.

While being a highly adaptive and versatile educator, she has enjoyed the opportunity to teach a diverse group of children including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, speech impairments, noncompliant behavior, learning disabilities, physical challenges as well as typical children. These experiences have helped her blossom into a well-rounded and compassionate individual, private tutor, and educator, who takes each student’s unique goals, interests, and needs into account and creates effective lesson plans and activities to accommodate and motivate them to grasp and maintain their attention. She always makes sure that each child receives individualized praise and encouragement insuring that he/she remains motivated and does not become frustrated or quit. Rachel has expertise in a variety of instructional programs and interventions, including Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Fundations, PAF, and Boost as well as Handwriting Without Tears, Judith Hochman’s Teaching Basic Writing Skills, Words Their Way, GoMath, and Everyday Math. Rachel is also experienced with Kindergarten Readiness coaching, including ECAA and AABL preparation, as well as NY State test preparation.

When not teaching, Rachel enjoys going on vacation (especially to tropical islands when it’s cold in New York), cooking, babysitting and spending time with friends.

Felicia Shulman

Laurie Gross

Laurie Gross’s School Leadership Background

Rachel Hirshan

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