Jean Finnerty

Position/Title: 5^th Grade Teacher

Name of School: The Children’s Workshop School (CWS)

DBN: 01M361 Superintendent: Daniella Phillips

Personal Statement: For the past three years I have been teaching in District 1’s East Village. For the last two years, I have been studying at New York University and in May, I graduated with a Masters in Educational Leadership. Three years ago, I returned to living and teaching in NYC after 15 years living and teaching in Finland while raising three children. In Finland, I taught 5th and 6th grades in a bilingual state school. I was also the English Language Coordinator for the 1-6 grade elementary school of monolingual Finnish speakers. I taught all curriculum areas in English using the Finnish National Curriculum.

I am a Bank Street Graduate and passionate believer in progressive public education. I did my student teaching and early teaching years at Manhattan Country School, before entering NYC’s public school system. After teaching in private school, I began my career in public education at Central Park East II (CEPII), the first cluster of progressive public schools. After three years at CPE II, my colleague and fellow co-founder, Maria Velez-Clarke and I both moved public progressive education to the East Village. Together we envisioned and opened The Children’s Workshop School which opened in 1993.

Ages/Grades of students: K-5^th grades

Number of Years in school: 13

Years in education: 18