Teachers

Lenore Ward

Teaching preschool is all I have ever wanted to do. I feel like I am living my dream every day. I graduated from State University of NY at Cortland in 1980 with a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education (Nursery-6th grade) and have been teaching preschool ever since. Speedway Co-op has been my home for the last 13 years and I have enjoyed every aspect of it, especially teaching siblings who tagged along as babies when older brothers or sisters were enrolled. It is wonderful when I can really get to know the families and feel as though I have made a difference in their lives. I embrace the developmental approach of co-op that allows our children to be children, get messy, have fun, make choices, laugh, and have lots of opportunities for play and social development. I love the 4/5's age group that I teach because they keep me young and smiling every day.

Lenore teaches the Sparkplugs class.

Suzanne Carroll Kenny

I began my career at Speedway Co-op in 1988, when I enrolled my oldest child in the Racers class. Since then, all four of my children attended the preschool, where I was a participating adult for 10 years. During my youngest child's three years of preschool, I became first the Racers teacher and then, in my second year, the Rookies teacher, so I have been at the school as either a parent or teacher (or both!) for 21 of the school's 43 years. When I was an undergrad at Indiana University majoring in English and History, I never would have pictured myself as a preschool teacher, but I am so glad I made the decision to do so. I love teaching my 2, 3 and 4 year olds – the excitement on their faces when we discover what happens to an egg placed in vinegar, or how rain is formed by passing over large bodies of water (using sponges and pans); the joy they take in singing one of our many silly, fast paced songs (which are often teaching them a concept); their delight in a story that captures their imaginations and attention – these are just a few of the many reasons why I chose to devote myself to the co-op. And I firmly believe in the guiding principles of co-op's philosophy – learning through play, learning through doing. Messy play, messy fingers and hands – that's ok – children learn by exploring their environment. An owl with five eyes and no beak? That's ok, too – it's the creative process that matters, not the end result. I can learn as much from my students as they can from me, and in a cooperative preschool's environment, we all learn and play together.

Suzanne teaches the Rookies and Racers classes.