It may be hard to think that far ahead, but many of our children will soon be attending public school.  It is not too early to get involved with your child's educational journey after CHP.

A bit of history....

When Mayor Bloomberg appointed Joel Klein, he  needed special State waivers to allow him to assume the position of School Chancellor.  Joel Klein has an extensive business background, not an academic background in education or experience in leadership in the field of education--all New York City School Chancellors needed these requirements in the past.

Joel Klein is now stepping down from Chancellor position and Cathie Black, another person without education credentials is slated to take his place. 

Article--Education Business:  Teachers Missing from the Top
http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/3749/the-education-business

I  taught many years in private and public school without my Masters degree.  I had been teaching so long and had so much experience in the field, there was a part of me that felt the Masters in Early Childhood Education was just a paper--I was already a great teacher (and modest too!).  When my old director at CHP decided to step down, she asked me to take over for her--but in order for me to do that, I needed to finish my Master's degree.  Rather reluctantly, I applied to grad school to "get that piece of paper." 

Entering grad school, getting my degree and subsequent degrees were some of the best things I ever did.  I understand every facet of education from such a deeper place now.  I cannot imagine my doing what I do on a day to day basis without knowledge gained from my education in Early Childhood Education.

If you believe, as I do, that someone in the position of School Chancellor should have a broad background in the field of education, you might consider signing this petition.

Petition to deny Cathie Black a waiver to be chancellor at http://www.petitiononline.com/DenyWaiv/

It is with great pride that I write the first installment of Carol’s Page for our spanking new website. To understand why I am so proud, here is a little CHP website history…

When I became the director of CHP, I came with a wish-list. The number one thing on my list was to get the school a website. It is hard to imagine that there was a time, not so long ago, when I didn’t even have computer access at school; interactive preschool websites a dozen years ago, were not so common. Creating a website was an especially ambitious goal for someone like me with no technical skills to speak of. For the inaugural website and the three subsequent revisions, I relied on the help and support of the cooperative—the CHP parent body.

The first site was extremely basic. I could not import material; all that work fell to my one Dad web committee. The first site simply had a home page, which as I remember, contained our name and address and not much more. Simplicity did not matter, http://www.cobblehillplaygroup.com was born. In January of that year, Cobble Hill was inundated with snow, enough snow to close the school for two days! Shortly thereafter, our fledging site contained photographs of my website parent partner and his daughter, playing in the snow. We could post photos online—the website was evolving!

With each revision, came more website “bells and whistles.” Our last site was lovingly created by Alan Mukamal, father of alumni Miles and Josie and husband of a former board president Elizabeth Ernish. I still call upon Alan every once a while with computer queries, even though it has been a few years since his children graduated.CHP. With time, the current site developed some glitches and the technology became outdated. It was time to revise the site again.

So here we are, launching a brand new site. Our new website “mother” is Lisa Hinshaw who has taken on this task with verve. Our board president, Katie Walton, worked with our former parent Jimmie Stone on the branding process. Katie knew how much I wanted to get the website back in shape. Jimmie had a friend, Brian Morales, who took on the website revision project with gusto and great attention to detail. I am grateful to Lisa, Katie, Jimmie and Brian for all their hard work and effort.

The new site has gone so far beyond what I ever envisioned when I first dreamt of a website. Share our site with your children and your family. www.cobblehillplayschool.com is a little window into who we are and what we value. There are so many things to learn, see and explore on our new website, please visit often!