TEACHERS

EMILY SHAPIRO, our teacher-director, has been teaching young children since 1985 and has been directing Columbus Park West since 1996. Emily believes that the core challenge of teaching, and of parenting, is to provide physical and emotional safety and structure to convey the skills necessary for successful socialization while respecting the child as a fully feeling human being engaged in the challenges of growing up.

 Before taking on the directorship of Columbus Park West, Emily taught at Tompkins Hall Nursery at Columbia University and at the nursery program at Temple Ansche Chesed. She earned her master's from Bank Street College in 1990 and student taught at Manhattan Country School. Emily is a candidate for psychoanalytic certification at the Center for Human Development in New York City.

AMY WEBB, our head teacher, began teaching drama classes to high school and middle school students in 1996. She has been an early childhood teacher since 1999. Amy has her master's from Bank Street College and is a participant in Teachers for a New Era, a research project funded by the Carnegie Corporation. Amy brings to her classroom work a unique balance of a Montessori-influenced approach to materials with a Bank Street-influenced focus on children's social and emotional development. She developed music and yoga programs for CPWN.

CAITLIN SULLIVAN, our assistant teacher, has been working in early childhood education since 2001. She has a bachelor's degree in human development with a concentration in early childhood development and elementary education from Cornell University. Caitlin has experienced a variety of settings but values most her time abroad in Sweden. Her experiences working in a Swedish nursery school allowed her to absorb the Scandinavian approach to early childhood education, a child-centered approach that focuses on taking initiative from the child and creating a democratic classroom. Caitlin is currently working on her Masters degree in general and special early childhood education at Bank Street.