Kaymbu Comes To All Pine Village Locations

Pine Village Preschool Introduces iPad-based System to Enhance Family Communication and Engagement
New system keeps parents and teachers better connected with the children they care for and love.

Pine Village Preschool, the leading Spanish-immersion early education program in the Northeast United States, is implementing an innovative new technology in its eight Boston-area locations to connect parents with their children’s time at school. Kaymbu, developed out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is an iPad-based system for teachers to capture observations in the classroom that are securely shared with parents throughout the week, thereby enabling parents to stay connected with their children during the school day and directly engaged with their children’s learning during out-of-school time.

Kin Lo, Co-Founder
and CEO of Kaymbu

Kaymbu is an iPad-based documentation and media management solution for early education centers to keep teachers, families and administrators better connected with the children they care for and love. The company offers a turnkey solution that includes all software, web services and iPad devices for schools. Teachers use a dedicated app tailored specifically for classroom workflow that allows them to efficiently capture classroom activities for internal documentation and secure communication with families. Located in Cambridge, Mass., Kaymbu was conceived at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by parents seeking to harness the power of web and mobile technologies to strengthen relationships between preschool teachers, families and their children. For more information, visit http://www.kaymbu.com. 

“Pine Village is a very special place,” says Brid Martin, Co-founder of Pine Village Preschool. “We place a very high priority on a strong family community and know how much parents want to be connected with their children’s time at our centers. The Kaymbu system couldn’t be a better fit – it allows our teachers to showcase their amazing work in a way that is both powerful and incredibly efficient.” 

Jacie Feinberg, Pine Village’s Education Director remarks, “We are a unique language and cultural immersion program. Many of our parents don’t speak Spanish, so using Kaymbu to share moments from the classroom is a wonderful way to reinforce and involve parents with our curriculum.”
“We work with many, many preschools across the country, and Pine Village is really hard to compare with any of them,” says Kin Lo, Co-founder and CEO of Kaymbu. “There is a spirit of community, communication and diversity that is incredibly special. We could not be more thrilled to be help them ‘show off’ the remarkable activities that take place in their classrooms every day.”

In addition to enhancing communication with parents, teachers and school staff at Pine Village will use the Kaymbu system to document classroom activities for licensing, accreditation and assessment standards.

For the full press release, please see: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11096741.htm

Survey says...

We recently asked our Pine Village parents to help us gain insight into their experiences as families attending Pine Village by completing a survey through Surveymonkey.  The survey was sent to 400 currently enrolled parents and we received nearly 100 responses. A fantastic result! 

Before we share the results and offer our response, we would like to first thank each family for taking the time to respond in such a thoughtful way; it was a wonderful experience for us to be able to hear directly from every one who responded. The feedback is priceless and offers us invaluable insight into how things are working in our schools – even negative feedback is important as it helps us understand where we can improve. We take your comments and suggestions very seriously and strive to address and improve on every aspect that has been noted. We very much hope that you’ll contact us directly if you have any additional questions or comments, or would like to talk further about anything.

Here are the overall survey results:

  

75% scored PV between Extremely Well and Very Good in the area of communication, and 25% scored Moderate.

Did PV challenge your child? 85% scored Above Average through About Right.

85% felt welcomed in the mornings regularly.

85% felt that PV meets the Individual needs of your child.  15% feel we do a moderate job. 

75% of parents feel their children made great progress on language acquisition and 15% feel there was moderate progress.

85% see their director as a leader.

The areas survey respondents feel is most important for Pine Village to focus on:

70% Social/Emotional

20% Cognitive/Intellectual

5% Language Acquisition

5% Physical/Gross Motor

80% of parents surveyed feel informed of the daily activities and themes in the classrooms and 10% feel they understand occasionally.

Short Answer Responses:

There were of course occasional constructive responses to some of the questions, and it is important for us to understand why some parents have a negative experience at Pine Village, so that we can assure that every family has a consistently positive Pine Village experience for the years they are with us. 

Several themes ran through the short answer questions.  Below are the responses that repeated more than twice.

Pine Village Strengths:

·     Teachers are beloved

·      Directors are friendly

·      Warm friendly feeling at the school

·      Small environments

·      Individualized attention

·      Environments are stimulating

·      Sense of community

·      Spanish aspect

Pine Village Weaknesses:

·      Spaces/classrooms are too small; class sizes are too large

·      Locations are difficult (those with no outdoor space); want more indoor gym/gross motor space

·      Would like bathrooms in all of the classrooms so children do not have to walk to use them

·      Do not see the same teachers in the morning as in the afternoon

·      Expensive; would like to see us reduce our rates

·     Would like more Spanish

·      Teacher turnover rate is high

·      More books in the classrooms

·      More staff available in the morning drop off as well as the afternoon pick up time; you would like early drop off at 7:45 a.m.

·      Closed too many days of the year

·      Would like more communication

·      Would like better cleanliness

·      Better security systems

·      Would like Pine Village to intellectually challenge your children more

We again would like to thank everyone who responded; we are in the process of responding to those individuals who requested follow-up, but we also thought that our blog provides us with the opportunity to respond to the weaknesses and wishes expressed most frequently in the survey. 

• Our spaces/classrooms are too small
• Class sizes are too large
• The locations are difficult (those with no outdoor space)
• You would like bathrooms in all of the classrooms so children do not have to walk to use them

We know.  We share the same feelings. As we move forward and eventually open additional locations (that we have the opportunity to design), we will design our spaces with all of the things we have learned over the years.  At this point we believe each school should have classrooms designed for 8-10 children, with sinks in each, shared bathrooms, lots of natural light, access to indoor and outdoor gross motor space and plenty of parking.  We will be making design changes to those schools where we are able, and to add partitions and separate classes into smaller groups of no more than 10. In the near future we will look for the possibility of adding sinks to classrooms to lessen the transitions. 

• You do not see the same teachers in the morning as in the afternoon
• More staff available in the morning drop off as well as the afternoon pick up time

For those of you who drop off at 8 and pick up at 5:30 this is true.  We have arranged the staff schedules so that each teacher works 8.5 hours per day with a schedule of either 8-4:30 or 9-5:30. This schedule allows a parent or caregiver to see their teacher every day either at drop off or pick up. In the mornings and afternoons for the first and last hour of the day, the classrooms are combined and the goal is that there is at least one toddler teacher, one preschool teacher and one Prek teacher. Typically there are a minimum of 4 teachers and your director on site for the first and last hours of each day.

• Pine Village is expensive.  You would like to see us reduce our rates.

Yes, preschool/child care is very expensive. We would love to be able to reduce our rates.  Better yet, we would love to provide you with a Pine Village that was free of costs for everyone! Sadly, that is not possible at this point. We do want you to know that reinvesting every dollar available back into the schools for improvements is our commitment. Here are just a few of the things we have added and improved over the last 12 months:

·      We have hired 5 “float teachers” who will be stationed in the schools to provide support to the classroom teachers, be available to substitute in case of teacher absences.

·      We have added a monthly book budget for each school to increase each of our libraries, as well as added $500 worth of books to each school to start the year.

·      We have added the position of Regional Director (Marina Ituarte, former JP director), who will train and support directors, teachers and serve as a resource for families.

·      We are officially launching KAYMBU this September, which will provide all parents greater more detailed communication with your teachers and visibility into the classrooms via daily photos. (More to come soon on this!)

·      We have hired a full-time Facilities Manager (Ray Martin) to help each director maintain their school and make physical improvements to the spaces, as well as systemize ordering and manage our subcontractors (cleaners, painters, plumbers…)

·      We created a Kiddie Café outside our South End school (a school where we do not have an onsite playground) to provide an extension of the classrooms and a place for the children to eat and/or read outdoors. 

·      We have hired a Senior Director of Communications and Outreach (Jennifer Doyle) -- see more about this position below.

• You would like more Spanish

Our goal is to be a Full Spanish Immersion school. We will continue to focus on training teachers to feel comfortable and confident in their Spanish communication and educational goals for the children IN SPANISH. We are adding LOTS of Spanish books, props and music.  Thank you!

• Teacher turnover rate is high

Teacher turnover is our greatest challenge.  And yes, it feels high when it happens in your school and affects your children.  Realistically speaking, our annual turnover rate is approximately 10%. We would love for our teachers to stay with us forever. We work very hard to provide stable employment, excellent salaries and benefits (including PTO) and plenty of training as well as a great work environment. Unfortunately, this does not always ensure that teachers will not leave for various reasons, such as starting a family or changing a career path – or advancing within Pine Village. Over the years we have learned to look at these changes as opportunities to meet new teachers and expand our community. Many of our past teachers have stayed in touch with us, and see their years at Pine Village positively, and many even return to us. We of course want your children to have consistency and quality and have focused on new ways to ensure this. One of these ways is building our “floating teacher” base. These teachers will all be familiar to you and your children and will be trained and ready to step in as the need arises, thus preventing the emotional strain of losing a teacher and struggling to fill a position. 

• More books in the classrooms

We allotted $500 for each school to purchase books to open the school year in September 2013 as well as a new monthly budget for each school to purchase books each month.

• Pine Village is closed too many days of the year
• You would like early drop off at 7:45am

We understand that Pine Village has two personalities; an educationally based preschool as well as a child care provider. We aim to be both and we are very aware of the challenges this poses on families. We know our hours are the minimum that a working family can manage. We have and will continue to discuss the option of early drop off; staffing being the greatest challenge. We want to hire and employ educators (as opposed to child care providers) who understand child development and who are committed to implementing our curriculum and the Spanish Immersion component. Therefore we seek educated professionals who demand and deserve higher salaries as well as other benefits, one being vacations and a regular workday. If we did not offer these things and hire qualified teachers, we would not be able to fulfill our mission. We are always trying to find ways to offer more. Last year we gave back one full week of school by adding a week to the school year and closing for one less week in August. We want to meet your needs as working families as well as fulfill our mission. We will always look for ways to better accomplish this.

• You would like more communication

Introducing KAYMBU! You learned about this at your Parent Orientation, and we are confident that it will help our teachers better communicate with you and provide you all with better detail of your child’s day. It’s a very exciting tool for us as a school!

We have also created a new position this year for Senior Director of Communications and Enrollment. Jennifer Doyle, whose blog posts you have been reading over the last several months, began in this new position in July. Our goal is to be communicating with you regularly through various media – newsletters, the website, social media, etc. At the same time, we feel that it is important not to bombard you with so much information that it feels like you are being spammed. We encourage you to follow us on Facebook as that will allow you to see what’s happening on a daily basis; at the same time, please be on the lookout for the eNewsletters that come from Pine Village headquarters, in addition to those that come monthly from your Directors.

• You would like better cleanliness

Currently each school is professionally cleaned three nights during the week. Our goal is to make it five, thus eliminating the need for teachers to share that responsibility two days a week. We hope to be able to do this by the end of this school year. If you feel there are issues of cleanliness or a lack of please voice this to your director or send an email to Emma Lougheed at elougheed@verizon.net and it will be addressed.

• You want more indoor gym/gross motor space

We understand this challenge. This is a huge issue among city schools. We are taking a very serious look at finding gross motor options for those schools with limited indoor gross motor rooms. We have experimented with organizations such as Tumblebus in the past and promise to continue to look for resources. We also feel that it is very important that the children get outside every day possible. In addition, activities such as yoga and music classes will be implemented in the classrooms to provide physical activity on the days that going outside is not possible.

• Better security

This is something we have been focused on this past year, clearly with all of the school violence and greater security over all in public places it is high on the priority list. Most of our schools have keypad systems installed and in use. Those that do not yet are in progress and plans are in the works to install security systems or have locked doors at all times. 

• You would like Pine Village to intellectually challenge your children

Many of you know Jacie Feinberg, our Educational Director, as our classe de musica teacher who comes to visit your children frequently in your school. With the support of the founders and school directors, over the past two years, Jacie has developed an amazing curriculum base and monthly activities inspiration for all of the teachers. In addition she has developed standards and tracking tools so that the teachers can manage and continuously challenge your children in the classroom. Jacie is in each school monthly to evaluate and assure that the teachers are engaging your children all day and that they are constantly inspired to discover their world in their way. Our mission is to inspire children to be excited by school and to instill a love for learning new things every day. We believe this is the goal of an excellent preschool. Yes, your children will explore and learn many things! Their day is full and busy with challenges that cross all areas of development. 

There is still time to complete the survey if you have not had the chance to do so.  If you still wish to participate we would love your feedback.  A reminder email will be sent shortly!

Thank you all again, for taking the time to complete the survey, and for reading our response.  Your participation is greatly valued. 

If you have any additional comments please feel free to send them along to Emma at elougheed@verizon.net.

A New Day

Before it went bad
(and then good again)

As you well know given my post from Wednesday, yesterday was James' first day of preschool and, I'm sorry to say, it didn't start out as well as I would have liked. Or, actually, it started out fantastically, with James thrilled to be going to Pine Village, posing for first-day-of-school pictures with his "dot blanket" (which, unsurprisingly, is a blanket that has dots on it), his Monsters, Inc. lunch box (my husband refuses to acknowledge that Monsters University is a thing), and Duckie. We dropped Will off at his school (day two for him), then headed to PVP. 

Everything was fine as we pulled into the parking lot. The smile began to fade a little as we got out of the car; the look in his eyes not quite so excited as we walked into the school. We were among the first ones there (we are big proponents of getting in before the crowds of kids descend) but it was already too late. By this point he was well aware that this was an entirely new experience and that saying he was going to preschool and actually doing it weren't quite the same thing. 

Ours is the smallest of the PVP locations, but it was a loooonnnngggg walk to classroom #3, with him clinging to my husband's neck just a little bit more with each step. (And, for some reason, trying to hand over his lunchbox to everyone that he saw.) By the time we got to his cubby, he was in full-out crying mode. Within a few minutes, Kelley (my husband) had sent me out of the building so that I didn't start crying, too. Because I have to say, for as much as I knew this was the right thing to do -- for as much as I knew that this was a temporary state (which brought to mind the words of PVP Porter Director Morgan Antonell who at one point said something about September being the month of crying thanks to all of the transitions taking place) -- my instinct was to gather him up in my arms, carry him out to the car, and say that we'd try again tomorrow. (Or maybe the day after that.) 

"Happy as a clam."

I told myself that I'd give it an hour and a half before I called the school to check in. I mean, I've been here before. I know it takes some time. Yet it still took everything I had not to pick up the phone and call. But then, about ten minutes after I got home, an email appeared in my inbox. It was from the Director, sending me a message. "Happy as a clam," it said. And there was a picture of James doing a puzzle and smiling.

There were several more emails throughout the day -- a picture of James napping, a picture of the whole class at circle time, and a picture of James and Denise together, with the following note: "By the time circle time came along, he was all smiles again! I was taking a picture of a another child, and he tapped me and said, 'How about me?' So, here we are, smiling for the camera!" Having these little bits and pieces of the day was beyond helpful and amazing. I can't thank Denise enough for thinking of us and keeping us updated. I'm sure that we weren't the only ones she was in touch with. It was just another one of the many reasons that we love PVP so much.  

When I went to pick him up, I had hoped that I'd have a little bit of time unobserved to watch him in the playground. Even though I felt so much happier after all of the notes, I wanted to see him for myself. Had he made friends? Was he connecting with his teachers? Was he too shy due to the newness of it all to start to make his own way in his new place? He saw me drive into the parking lot (or, I should say, he saw Lucy in the front seat -- "Luce!!!!!!!" he yelled across the patio), so I thought that I'd have to wait another day to see how he was fitting in. (Although I have to admit, having him run at full speed into my arms with a humongous smile on his face was something that I would happily have happen every single day. [Good thing that Lucy stayed in the car; otherwise he would have run straight past me and into her arms. Alas, it's happened many times before.]) 

Denise and James

But then he took me into the school and said that he had to have his snack, which, apparently, he'd been waiting to have until I got there. Lemonade, too. 

As he ate, I got more details about the day from Denise and Karina, his teacher. Being on the tinier size (his late August birthday pretty much guarantees a lifetime of being the youngest/smallest kid in his class), the other kids in his class thought he should be in with the younger toddlers. He apparently then opened up his (not tiny) mouth and explained in a very detailed way that he was three -- not a baby (bringing to mind Will's many years of yelling, "I am NOT little!") -- and that he was supposed to be in this room. Then, being used to playing with his ten- and thirteen-year-old siblings and their friends, he saw the even bigger kids (i.e., the pre-kindergartners), and took off to play with them. I guess I shouldn't be worrying too much about his ability to make his way in the world. 

"Did you set the timer yet,
Mommy? Did you?"

It took us a full half hour to leave, during which James insisted that he had to finish his snack, play in the playhouse, and, of course, poop. I was told that I needed to put the timer on, because only then would he be ready to leave. ("Did you do it yet, Mommy? One minute. Put the timer on. PLEASE." [It was not a request.]) And although I don't think I'll be able to spend that extra half hour at pick-up time every night, I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So when we have our next drop off time, even if he cries, I think I'll manage just fine. Because this is what I was waiting for. And tomorrow we get to do it all over again. 

Transition Time

No, I am not ok.

  

I am sitting here, dissolving into a puddle of tears as we drop James off at Zovic's for the last time. Don't get me wrong -- I am thrilled that he will be starting at PVP tomorrow. I've been anticipating this day since before he was born. (Yes, I love PVP that much.) But today isn't tomorrow. Today is the last day of this moment in time.

It's the last day we will drive by the little digger that sits on the corner behind the Arsenal Mall.

It's the last day we will drive by the tow trucks parked in the Watertown Towing lot, the last day we'll drive by the rent-your-own bobcats in the lots next door. 

The last day we'll drive by the boats sitting in their "blankets" at the marina on the Charles. The house that used to be an empty lot is now built, the excavators and backhoes gone off to somewhere else.

And my little baby is now a big boy.

We've had good-byes before. Thanks to the logistics of the Boston Public Schools we've said good-bye to more teachers than you can count. But we always knew there was another kid coming along; we knew we'd see Pine Village and Winship and Edison again. 

Odds are we won't see Zovic or Endza or Takouhy again. Sure we might stop in to say hi but that's not the same. They've helped me raise my babies; I've seen their children grow up. When Will was at Zovic's, her son, Sebu, was a 12-year-old playing basketball in the back yard; he's a college grad now, laughing with James as they wear their WVU t-shirts on the same day. How on earth did we get here?

How is it possible that James is 3? That Will is 10? That Lucy is 13?????

And, yes, I know I'm supposed to stop and savor these moments lest they slip by. But, honestly? Today? I can't. As it is I'm still sitting here with the tears streaming down my face. If I stop for even a second you'll have to peel me off the ground.

This morning James just turned to me and said, "Will Scarlett and Rhea be at my new school tomorrow? They are my favorite friends."

“No,” I said, trying to keep a smile on my face. “But tomorrow you'll meet a new set of favorite friends. And you'll be so excited to see them every day.”

Logically, I know that is true. As sad as it makes me that a year from now he might not even remember Scarlett or Rhea or Zovic and Sebu, I am fully aware that is likely to be the case. I will remind myself transitions are hard no matter how good the thing is that they're transitioning to and that part of what these amazing Pine Village teachers and directors are ready for tomorrow is a new set of parents and kids – and a whole lot of tears. They are ready for kids transitioning out of the daycares they’ve known since they were babies, for kids who have spent every day of their time on earth with their moms and dads or grandparents or nannies. And they are ready for moms (and dads) like me who aren’t quite ready for this next phase, no matter how much we know it is time.

Because it doesn’t matter if he’ll make some new favorite friends tomorrow, or, for that matter, if we’ll be driving by the Arsenal Mall and Watertown Towing and all the bobcats sitting in their lot again. This house is built. Today is about good-byes.

A Week with James

This past week, my sister Jessica took care of James as it is childcare vacation week, but both Kelley and I had to work. She wrote this post about her time with James and graciously agreed to let us use it as a guest blog entry. Thank you, Aunt Jessica!  

The 25 things I learned during my week on James Patrol:

1) Pushing a toy train around a circular track for hours on end is actually pretty Zen, as is digging a hole and filling it in, over and over and over again.

2) I do, in fact, lift from the knees - my legs are killing me from carrying James all week but my back is totally fine.

3) Speaking of carrying James, it turns out that a sprained elbow from a high school injury has the habit of flaring up again, 20 years later, if you spend the week carrying a child.

4) Playing with James' hair or driving him around after a few hours of stimulus, is a sure fire way to get him to go to sleep - sometimes mid sentence. "Aunt Jessica, did you see that dig-zzzzzzzzz"

5) Pushing a stroller with a two (almost three) year old in it for two miles is a lot harder then just walking (or even running) that same two miles.

6) The Faneuil Branch of the Boston Public Library doesn't open until noon on Tuesdays.

7) Grilled American cheese sandwiches are quite possibly the most amazing things ever invented...no, I don't care that American cheese isn't a real food.

8) Thomas and Friends is actually rather entertaining, with some truly catchy tunes that will stay with you for hours and hours and hours.

9) A two (almost three) year old can be solidly distracted by play-doh, bubbles, pink & white, Thomas, trains, and of course, diggers.

10) The Boston Road Crews (the ones who trim the trees from the power lines), and the garbage men of the city are either super friendly, or all have little ones at home because I honestly don't think we passed a single city employee during the whole week who didn't take a second to wave to James.

11) The Children's Museum is exactly as much fun as I remember it to be.

12) The children of Boston, and their parents, are incredibly sweet, well behaved and conscientious of the other children around them...or at least the ones who were at The Children's Museum on Wednesday were.

13) It turns out a two (almost three) year old boy is fascinated by all manner of bodily functions - pee, poo, toot, burp, you name it - it's all awesome and hilarious to the child.

14) A water/sand table is pretty fun, not just for a two (almost three) year old.

15) Grapes are better when cut in half and shared with a nephew.

16) Boynton books are awesome but so are a whole bunch of other board books like THE LITTLE BLUE TRUCK and SHEEP IN A SHOP.

17) Two (almost three) year olds can be incredibly bossy and particular...oh, and did I mention destructive, but they can also be the cutest thing on the planet - painfully, adorable - truly.

18) It's super fun to say things around a two (almost three) year old just to see if he'll mimic you in his adorable voice. There is nothing quite so hilarious as hearing something like "you can't handle the truth" or "these aren't the droids you're looking for" or "no power in the 'verse can stop me" out of that adorable and endearing chirp of a voice.

19) If you put down a paper-tape track through the house with the intention of the two (almost three) year old using it to drive his cars around in a circle, know that it will never be used for that intended purpose and instead you will find yourself running around the track in a circle being chased by said two (almost three) year old for a good hour at least - the good thing is that you will not need to do your scheduled 4 mile run that day.

20) There is no limit to the energy of the two (almost three) year old, but a 40 (almost 41) year old runs out of steam about 2 hours into the day.

21) You can, in fact, get a two (almost three) year old to bake his own birthday cupcakes, as long as decorating the cupcakes once they're cool is in the offing.

22) Magic words are real once the two (almost three) year old realizes that nothing will happen without the most magic word of them all - "please".

23) The two (almost three) year old is a booger making factory. Seriously, if we could harness that power from all the two (almost three) year olds in the world I think we could end this country's dependence on foreign oil.

24) Time runs differently when caring for a two (almost three) year old. In fact, I wonder if there's some sort of worm hole surrounding the little ones that actually changes the laws of physics - have we discovered the true fluidic space?

25) ...which leads me to the fact that caring for a two (almost three) year old for a week is a level of chaos that I couldn't have fully understood until today. Bravo to the mommies and daddies and day care workers and babysitters, the grandmas and grandpas and aunties and uncles who do this on a regular basis. I tip my hat to you all and, though I don't plan to have any myself, I completely agree that there is nothing quite so indescribably wonderful as hearing "I love you, Aunt Jessica" from that sweet and marvelous little boy.

Jessica Ammirati is a director and doula extraordinaire who lives in Brooklyn, NY. The founder of Going To Tahiti Productions, you can find her regular blog posts for GTTP at http://goingtotahitiproductions.com/blog/.