News & Events
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Exciting News and Growth for 2012-13!
As we begin 2012, we have some very exciting news about growth and improvements coming soon at Shady Lane! In recent months, many members of the Shady Lane community, including Board members, administrators, educators and parents, have been involved in planning the future of the School and our Professional Development programming. In anticipation of two new classroom spaces becoming available to us for fall 2012, Shady Lane’s Board of Trustees has approved a plan to make the following changes in time for the beginning of the 2012-13 school year on September 4, 2012:
- New classroom locations: Four classrooms will be moved into new spaces, including the three classrooms currently on the Ground Floor. After some remodeling to the current Professional Development Room (conference room, or PDR) on the Second Floor, including the addition of a child’s bathroom, the Partners Class will move into that space. Older Threes will move to the First Floor into what is now the Partners Classroom, allowing the Young and Older Threes to sit in adjoining classrooms. Finally, the Young and Older Fours classrooms will move from the Ground Floor up into the Second Floor classrooms that have been occupied by the Environmental Charter School’s Kindergarteners since fall 2010. As with the Threes, this will allow the Fours classrooms to sit in adjoining spaces.
- A third “Twos” classroom: The room that is currently the Older Fours classroom will be equipped and staffed as a new, “Third Twos” classroom, with a similar enrollment and staffing pattern to the existing Twos classrooms (12 children enrolled, with a mix of Half Day, Full Day and Extended Day schedules, and a team of three educators). The three Twos classrooms will still serve children who have already turned two years old as of September 1, and will still be enrolled to roughly create age-similar peer groups. Since there is not a logical name for the new classroom within our “Young” and “Older” naming tradition, we will be renaming all three of the “Twos” classrooms:
Toddler 1 will include the youngest group, will continue to be led by Lead Educator Shannon Steele, and will be on the Ground Floor (see "Ground Floor floorplan" link, below, for details);
Toddler 2 will be in the current Young Twos classroom near the elevator on the First Floor, with a team of educators to be named later; and
Toddler 3 will include the oldest group of Twos and continue in the current Older Twos classroom with Lead Educator Christine Smith.
- A second gross motor space: The room that is currently the Older Threes classroom (across the hall from the gym) will be permanently converted into a second gross motor space. This will create much-needed flexibility in scheduling active play time for all of our classes, and will give us a space to engage the children in new, creative gross motor activities such as dance, yoga, and other pursuits that combine the arts and the young child’s need for regular gross motor activity.
- New Professional Development and Administrative spaces: In order to make room for the new Partners Classroom, our Professional Development Room (PDR) is being moved from the Second to the Third Floor, where a dedicated Professional Development Suite is being created. This will include a new PDR that includes a room divider to enable both large and small workshops and meetings; an office for Polly Lipkind, our Professional Development Director; and a kitchenette to support preparation for staff and Board meetings, “messy” professional development events involving hands-on art or science activities, and other needs. At this time, the new PDR is already complete and in operation! Over the next month, Katie O’Neill (Family/Child Advocate), Carolyn Simpson (Accounting Coordinator) and Patrick Webster (Executive Director) will move into new, more spacious and private office space on the Third Floor, across the hall from the new PDR.
We are excited about the opportunities we have for growth and improvement, and look forward to seeing these plans come to life in the coming months.
Please click the links below to see what our floor plans will look like come September and find answers to some frequently asked questions. Stay tuned for more news soon!
Ground Floor floorplan (Eff 9-2012)
First Floor floorplan (Eff 9-2012)
Second Floor floorplan (Eff 9-2012)
Third Floor floorplan (Eff 9-2012)
Congratulations, Maren!
We are very excited to announce that Maren Herman, Co-Lead Educator in our Young Threes class, has received her PQAS certification from the Pennsylvania Key. This certification (which stands for "Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System") allows Maren to become the fourth staff member at Shady Lane who is certified to provide approved professional development to early childhood educators in Pennsylvania.
For many years, Maren has been collaborating with Polly Lipkind, our Professional Development Director, to provide education to local early childhood professionals in specialty areas. Now Maren is authorized to create and implement these events on her own, lending valuable talent and expertise to our professional development work. Of course, Maren's primary role will remain in the classroom, but now she will be able to bring her valuable daily experiences to local educators even more broadly than before. Congratulations, Maren!
In Memoriam
Please click below or go to the "In Memoriam" page at "Our Story" to help us remember the legacy of Donna Chase.
www.shadylane.org/our-story/in-memoriam.aspx
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We're updating our event calendar. Please check back soon for upcoming events. Look forward to seeing you!
