Learning Specialist, PreK-8
Curriculum and Instruction Specialist
Reggio Emilia Specialist
A native New Yorker, Yael Kahn Pinto grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan attending private schools. As a result, she fully understands the pressures of both applying to and attending school in New York City. Following her natural inclination to work with children and her passion for teaching, Yael earned her Master’s degree in Early Childhood General and Special Education from Bank Street College of Education. For years, Yael taught four and five year old children at the JCC in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, where she developed expertise with the Reggio Emilia approach and modeled lessons for her colleagues and visiting educators. Currently, she works as an educational consultant with a focus on leadership development and early childhood teacher training.
Yael believes that active investigation and learning through discovery are vital components of learning. Therefore, she works with children and educators to create a climate that encourages questioning, exploration and understanding through skillful classroom management, integration of a Responsive Classroom model, and explicit teaching of social-emotional learning. An expert at differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all learners, Yael helps young students with reading and writing using experiential hands-on lessons that integrate decoding, phonemic awareness, comprehension, critical thinking and vocabulary development. In math, Yael helps students develop numeracy and problem solving strategies by utilizing hands-on manipulatives and teacher-created resources. Yael also has expertise supporting children with various learning and/or emotional challenges.
