Shared Space; Religious School

Getting The Religious School and the ECE Center To Work Together

That’s my space….one time all the kids in the religious school tore the heads off all the baby dolls…the class was destroyed…I feel like a visitor in my own classroom…they don’t even know who we are…. that’s mine…don’t touch…. Religious School supplies only….

These were just a few of the things I heard from teachers over the course of my first year as Director of Youth and Family Learning at Temple Emanuel. I knew that we needed to shift the working culture between teachers in the religious school and the early childhood center.  It was imperative that the directors of both connect and try to work together to make the necessary changes.

I brought the leaders of both programs together to brainstorm and dream of the collaboration, connection, and community we wanted to create between the teachers.

We also held conversations with teachers from both programs to gather their feedback and craft norms for the classes. We then facilitated a zoom call so they could talk about shared space. Lastly, the religious school leaders spent Rosh Hashanah dressed as Bee, Apple, and Honey Pot walking around and spreading joy to the ELC kids and teachers.

With a vision of two communities, one dream we created the following norms:

• A joint-use bulletin board was created

• We created a space for a Pen Pal board for communication between the classes
• Classes sent weekly letter and questions back and forth
• Class pictures were put up on the wall
• If the room is left in disarray or something is broken, we asked the teachers to stop by the office to notify the appropriate individuals.  

• At the end of week, the ECE teachers erased everything on the white board or chalk board
• If there is an item/toy in the room that an ECE teacher preferred to remain the sole use of the preschool, it needed to be put away.
• Cubbies were labeled as shared spaces and needed to be emptied at the end of the week.   

Creating these norms was possible because the leadership viewed our Temple as one community. We were open to feedback and willing to not settle for status quo.

Brad Cohen
Director of Youth and Family Learning
Temple Emanuel
Denver, CO