Ma’ayanot’s Learning Center dedicates itself to ensuring that every Ma’ayanot student develops the skills to reach her full potential. For the coming school year, Ma’ayanot has appointed a new director of the Learning Center, Chana Meyers, and has expanded its Learning Center faculty. The new team will continue to provide students who have a wide range of learning needs with the tools they need to develop into independent learners.
Meyers joins the Ma’ayanot faculty after having taught for 19 years at the Moriah School as a classroom teacher, student support teacher and teacher in the maximum-support Gesher Yehuda program in both general and Judaic studies. She has a B.A. in elementary education from Stern College and an M.S. Ed. in special education, with a concentration in learning disabilities, from Hunter College.
“My hope is that each student supported by the Ma’ayanot Learning Center will have the opportunity to strengthen her academic and executive functioning skills in a warm and welcoming environment that will enable her grow to realize her own personal potential,” said Meyers. To attain this goal, learning center teachers will provide skills classes in a small group setting in reading, writing, math, note-taking, organization, time management and Tanach. Classroom teachers will also work closely with the Learning Center staff to integrate strategies into their lessons that will support all students’ learning.
“What is truly amazing is that there are students in every track who are connected to the Learning Center,” added Meyers. “A student can be in honors English, but need support in math, or the other way around. Nothing stands in the way of a student reaching her own personal goals during her years at Ma’ayanot.”
Ma’ayanot also welcomes Devorah Wasserlauf to the Learning Center. Before joining the Ma’ayanot faculty, she taught general and Judaic Studies at the P’tach program at Yeshiva University High School for Girls for seven years. Prior to that, she worked as a resource room teacher and special education teacher at the elementary and high school levels in several schools. She holds an M.S. in education and special education from Touro College Graduate School of Education and Psychology.
Another welcome addition is Lisa Baron, who will be working in the Learning Center and teaching ninth-grade biology. She has a B.A. in biology from Stern College and and an M.S. in Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities Grades K-12 from Teachers College at Columbia University Graduate School of Education. She has been teaching language arts in eighth grade at RYNJ for the past four years and previously served as s head teacher at Yeshivat Noam for 13 years. She also coordinated general studies support services in grades two through five and mentored teachers at Yeshivat Noam. Baron will continue to teach at RYNJ this year, in addition to working part-time at Ma’ayanot.
These new faculty members will be working together with Adele Katzenstein, who has been working as a learning specialist in Ma’ayanot’s Learning Center since 2014. Katzenstein has extensive experience in special education, having served as a special education teacher for P’tach, Yeshiva Bais Mikroh Boys School, Kadima Learning Center and as a comprehension skills instructor at Bais Malka Girls School. Katzenstein earned a B.A. in education from Baruch College and a master’s in education from Walden University.
“Our expanded, expert Learning Center faculty is dedicated to providing an individualized program to help each student develop her learning skills. Each student will have a point person in the Learning Center, who will ensure ongoing communication with the student, her teachers and her parents,” said Rivka Kahan, Ma’ayanot’s principal. “This personalized team approach will ultimately guide students toward tremendous growth.”
