This is Ellen's 11th year teaching the 2 year old Monkeys. Ellen came to the Har Shalom ECEC as a parent and stayed on as a teacher after her children graduated.. Ellen holds a B.A. in anthropology from Indiana University but also earned her 90 hour Early Childhood teacher certification from Montgomery College and an additional 45 hour certificate in Infant and Toddler Development from Howard Community College. Ellen enjoys traveling, photography, reading, walking, sewing and spending time with her family. She is married to Bob Tettelbach and has two sons, Matt, a freshman at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Eli, an 11th grader at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community Day School in Baltimore. Ellen spends a good part of her day, before and after her hours at Har Shalom, driving back and forth to Columbia to get Eli to and from his bus.
Michele Kaspi
This will be Michele's first year as an assistant teacher in the Monkeys class. She has two children, Ilana, age 4, and Jacob, who will be 2 in October. They will also be attending Har Shalom this fall. Michele has lived in Maryland her whole life and graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Journalism. She previously worked as a television news producer, but for the past 4 years has been a stay-at- home mom. Michele is also "mom" to her three dogs, and loves spending time with her family, being outdoors, and cooking.
FROGS - 2 YEAR OLD CLASS:
Lisa Lind
Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Lisa moved to the DC area in 1992 after college when her husband attended law school in DC and has been here ever since. Lisa has three children, Drew (13y), Matthew (11y) and Jenna (8y), who all went through the ECEC program at Har Shalom and are now enrolled in the Religious School. Lisa began substitute teaching when her children were in preschool, and began working in the Monkey class five years ago and this is her first year in the Frog class. Lisa loves to see these kids who come in almost as babies leave confident little people. Her degree is in Biology, which helps me in my other role as Science enrichment teacher. When she is not at Har Shalom, Lisa enjoys traveling with her family, mostly to warm sunny places or reading.
Julie Zola
Julie Zola, a newcomer to the Har Shalom ECEC staff, was born and grew up in Southern California. Julie was a music major, has worked in many preschools and volunteered as librarian and substitute teacher at two Jewish Day Schools. Julie loves working with children and the elderly. She is a JSSA Hospice Volunteer and has worked with Alzheimer’s patients. Her greatest accomplishment has been raising two beautiful girls closely followed by meeting Bruce Springsteen. Julie loves listening to music (guess who), making big Shabbat dinners and spending time with her family and friends.
LION CUBS - 3 YEAR OLD CLASS:
Talma Epstein-Brener
Talma Brener-Epstein was born in Lima, Peru. Eleven years ago she moved with ehr family to the States with her husband Elias and her then 2 year old daughter Ariana, now 13. They love it here and feel as if American is home. Talma grew up attending Leon Pinelo Jewish school from preschool through high school. Then she went to the university and grduated with a bachelors degree in psychology. She loves working with children, which she discovered as soon as she started doing internships in preschool environments and play groups. Since then, she has concentrated her work and postgraduate classes and courses in childhood education. As soon as Talma and her family moved to the states they put their dughter in preschool, and Talma started volunteering at the preschool. Not long afer she was offered a teaching position, which has continued for the past 9 years. This is Talma's second year teaching at Har Shalom and she is very excited about it. She is looking forward to many more years of teaching and making Har Shalom her home away from home. In her spare time Talma enjoys reading, going to the gym and spending long weekends with her family and friends.
Jodi Friedman
This is Jodi's 8th year at Har Shalom. She has been working with children for 30 years off and on, and solidly for the past 14. Jodi's days at Har Shalom have been spent in the Four Year Old and Pre-K classes. She loves watching the children learn, grow and get ready to "spread their wings". Jodi has a wonderful husband, Marc, a 27 year old daughter who is an artist, and a 20 year old son who is a Computer Science major at Purdue University in Indiana. Her free time is spent at the movies, in restaurants, playing Mahjongg or in exercise class. Jodi loves her family, friends and students and is also a lover of dogs and horses.
TURTLES - 3 YEAR OLD CLASS:
Barbara Halpern
Barbara has been working at Har Shalom for the past 10 years. She has a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Maryland and early Childhood Certification. In addition, she has received a Certificate of Achievement by the Maryland State Department of Education, Office of Child Care, in recognition of the achievement of the Maryland Child Care Credential - Level Three. Barbara enjoys working with all of the wonderful children and parents that come through the doors of Har Shalom, and always enjoy the comradery among the staff. Barbara finds that Har Shalom is a very warm and nurturing environment which is why her own 2 sons are graduates from the ECEC. She is involved in the Jewish community, has been married for 16 years and has 2 sons, 15 and 13 who attend the Jewish Day School . Barbara also has a cute Carin Terrier.
Karla Silverman
Karla Silverman has been the assistant teacher in the 3 year old Turtle class since it began 8 years ago. A former special education teacher, she has 2 degrees in educatino from GWU. This is hear 11th year at Har Shalom. She and her husband, Michael, have recently adopted a rescue dog named Varly. Their daughter, Amanda, lives and works in Washington DC, and their son, Josh, lives and works in Bejing, China. When she is not at Har Shalom, she spends time at the gym, practices yoga every day and reads at least one book each week. Karla loves the beach and organic gardening and supports Joiningforces.gov.
PANDAS - 4 YEAR OLD CLASS:
Bonnie Ramer
This is Bonnie's 6th year at Har Shlom. She has a bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College in Economics and Sociology. Bonnie is a mother of two fantastic boys, ages 10 and 12 (the youngest is a Panda-alum!). Bonnie tries to make time to relax with a good book and exercise. She is on the board of her synagogue, and actively volunteers at her children's schools. She is always happy to share her life experiences, knowledge of child development, and her personal perspectivew with you, as you share, for a short time, your children with her. Bonnie feels that it is an absolutely heartwarming experience to teach and feel lucky each day to do it.
Miriam Green
Miriam is new to the Har Shalom community, and is looking forward to working with and getting to know all the children and families! Prior to coming to Har Shalom, Miriam worked at E.L. Haynes Public Charter school in DC. She has worked in a variety of Jewish schools, and it is something she truly loves.
CHAVERIM - FULL DAY PROGRAM:
Kathy Goldstein
Kathy began teaching preschoolers after she graduated from college. She taught 3 to 5 year olds for several years, then took time off to raise her family. During that time, Kathy worked part-time teaching creative movement to elementary and pre school children at the Greater Washington JCC and at the YMCA. When she returned to teaching preschoolers, Kathy taught for 9 years at Washington Hebrew Congregation. Kathy then taught in a Reggio Emila inspired program at Temple Emanuel in Kensington and at B'nai Tzedek in Potomac. She has also taught enrichment art classes to elementary school students and at summer camps. Kathy has a BA from the University of Maryland. Her interests include yota, dance, art and reading. She has 3 grown children, a son who is a recent college graduate and two daughters who currently live in Brooklyn, NY.
Patricia Lamothe
Patricia is currently a Psychology/Early Childhood Education major at Towson Universty. She has lived in the Potomac area for about 11 years. During high school at Walt Whitman, Patricia participated in a Child Development Program where she earned her 90 clock hour Child Development Certification. She planned activities that stimulated cognitive development in 4 year olds. Patricia also worked at ChildKind Daycare at NIH for about a year. She enjoys working with children because it's the one job where you are required to have fun! When she is not working with children, Patricia enjoys biking, cooking, amatuer gardening, window shopping and attending Bible study. She loves working at Har Shalom!
Jil Levick
Jil has been teaching for 9 years at several Jewish preschools. She has also gone "back to school" herself, first to be Bat Mitzvahed as an adult and then to get a 90 hour certification for teaching preschool as a lead teacher. Jil is married with 2 wonderful boys, almost 13 and almost 15 years old. In addition to being involved with her children's schools, Jil also volunteers with the Anti-defamiation league working on a program called Bearing Witness. In her free time, Jil loves to read, play mah jongg, knit, needlepoint and talk with all of her friends. This is her 2nd year at the ECEC.
Lakisha Ross
Lakisha has been working with children for the past fourteen years. Eight of those years were spent at The ARC of Montgomery County, teaching 2-5 year olds with medical and special needs, in addition to children without special needs. Lakisha is currently working on getting her Associates Degree in General Studies and Early Childhood Education. She enjoys doing a lot of sensory, language arts and social activities with children, and her hobbies include running, doing Zumba and spending lots of time with her family. This will be Lakisha's first year teaching at Har Shalom and she is very excited to work with the children, staff and the parents.
SPECIALISTS:
Gloria Ackerman
Gloria has been teaching at Har Shalom since 1987, working with two year old children and now teaching the Parent-Toddler class. She has a bachelors degree from Temple University. Gloria's family moved here in 1986 from Philadelphia and have been members of the congregation since then, celebrating many simchas at and with Har Shalom. Gloria has two married sons, two great daughter in laws and one precious granddaughter who lives in the area. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, reading, exercising, traveling and spending time with family and friends. Her love of working with children has kept Gloria at Har Shalom for all of these years.
Lilach Arad
Lilach is the Hebrew Specialist for the Har Shalom ECEC. She was born and raised in a kibbutz in Israel. Per the kibbutz philosophy, Lilach started working at an early age and working with children was her choice ever since. Lilach's two daughters are bilingual and she enjoys introducing your children to her national Jewish language and teaching them Hebrew.
Anne-Laurie Josephs
Anne-Lauie is the Music Specialist at Har Shalom. She has been teaching music in local Jewish schools for over twenty years and has a degree in music education from Ithaca College. Anne-Laurie's graduate work was in general elementary education. She lives in Rockville with her husband and has two sons, one of whom is a college graduate and currently living with us. My other son is a student at Syracuse University. Anne-Laurie is originally from Long Island, New York, but has resided in Maryland for 30 years. This will be her fourth year teaching at Har Shalom.
ENRICHMENT STAFF:
Bonnie Handel
This will be Bonnie's third year teaching enrichment at the ECEC; throughout her teaching career she has taught students from preschool-age through college. Currently she also tutors elementary and middle-school students in mathematics and other subjects. Bonnie's undergraduate degree from Brandeis University is in Psychology and Elementary Education, while her Master's Degree and doctoral work are in Mathematics Education, Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Maryland. Bonnie's family has belonged to Har Shalom for most of her life; She is so happy to be contributing to our community by both teaching and volunteering at the ECEC. Her two oldest children, Blake (age 6) and Eliana (age 5) are graduates of the ECEC who currently attend the religious school. Her youngest child, Matthe (age 3), can be found racing through the ECEC hallways, headed to the Turtles class. When Bonnie is not busy chasing small children, she loves to read, cook and do most any type of craft.
