Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards
Debbie Appelbaum
Moriah Preschool & Day Care Center
Deerfield
Debbie Appelbaum, a preschool teacher from South Africa, currently works with children two to three years old at NAEYC-accredited Moriah Preschool & Day Care Center in Deerfield, where she skillfully combines an emergent and Judaic curriculum based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy of education.
Appelbaum knows well the challenges that can surround the task of educating youth. For the ten years prior to joining Moriah, Appelbaum worked largely in multicultural, under-resourced South African communities. During that time, she emerged as an extremely proactive leader in the field of early childhood development. While there, Appelbaum assisted with the creation of the curriculum for an undergraduate diploma in early childhood development at the University of Witwatersrand. She helped design and implement training courses in peace education, recovery from violence, and parent empowerment. Appelbaum also developed one of the first successful multilingual, multicultural preschool programs in South Africa.
Before emigrating, Appelbaum was director of support services for Small Beginnings, an organization designed to provide teacher training in poor, rural communities throughout four provinces in South Africa. Appelbaum recalls, "It was most gratifying to accomplish the teacher training in these rural communities. The outreach extended well beyond the classroom - teaching families self-help skills to build a sense of ownership."
The importance of community is a concept that Appelbaum has brought with her to the United States. To help the Moriah students develop life skills and to gain an understanding of the Jewish culture and traditions that are at the core of the curriculum, Appelbaum utilizes the child-centered Reggio Emilia approach. It emphasizes the need to allow the child's curiosity and interests to determine the direction of the curriculum.
Appelbaum observes that whether working in rural South Africa or Deerfield, Illinois, children basically need the same things. "They need to feel part of a supportive nurturing community and need opportunities to develop a sense of their place in local and global communities."