The Faculty of
New Hope Academy Pre-school:

"Get to know the teachers"

Mrs. Mary Oben teaches the 4-5 year old preschool class, assisted by Mrs. Ursula Colcock and Ms. Trysh Oglesby. She is also the head teacher for the pre-school. She describes herself as a Minnesota farm girl who realized early in life she wanted to be a teacher. After receiving a BS degree from Iowa State University in Home Economics with a child development emphasis, she knew she wanted to work with young people to help them become better parents.       Mrs. Oben has four children of her own, and began working at New Hope pre-school with her 3 year old daughter in her first class. That was 1994. All of her children have attended New Hope so she's experienced the school both as a teacher and a parent.       "Over the years I've come to appreciate the special opportunity it is to work with 4 and 5 year olds. They are extremely open, and I can see such tremendous growth. They are finding their place in the universe as a valuable member of their own family, but also as part of God's big family that embraces their friends in our room all the way to people around the world. They are each learning in their unique ways and with their own unique schedules how to organize and understand this amazing world, and the skills they need to be responsible for it."       "I really believe that preschool children need to be able to play - freely choosing amongst a wide range of materials that stimulate and teach what they need to work on. We also use several excellent curricula that teach phonics, phonemics, math skills, and writing skills. They were chosen because they are fun and teach skills in developmentally appropriate ways."

Mrs. Kim Dadachanji teaches the 3-4 year old preschool class, assisted by Mrs. Odette Defoe and Mrs. Somona Chowdhury. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in Elementary Education from APEX, an innovative teacher education program for developing experiential education.       Mrs. Dadachanji (her husband, Dr. Dadachanji, is from India) worked at The Vicarage School of Montessori / Kindercare in Hamden, CT under the founders of the school, who had been Montessori teacher trainers. During those three years, she was exposed to a variety of Montessori materials, benefitted from the wisdom of the founders, and experienced the 3-6 yr old introductory Montessori Training.       She substitute taught in the preschool and kindergarten at New Hope Academy from the spring of 1995, and started teaching in the preschool in the fall of 1996. She has been a Board of Directors member representing the preschool since 1999.       "It is such a joyful experience to stimulate and interact with children's innate sense of wonder and their enthusiasm to discover, learn and grow. My wish would be that everyone could keep this enthusiasm throughout their lives."       "I am very grateful to be at New Hope because of the excellent education my children have received and because of the desire of the staff and families here to support each other to make the school the best educational opportunity possible and to work things through as a community."

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Go to the main New Hope Preschool page.
See outlines of the pre-school curricula.
Meet other faculty members: elementary school teachers, middle school teachers, high school teachers.
Contact us.