this booklet - Pacific Oaks College

“Piaget believed that the normal state of mind is one ofdisequilibrium, or rather a state of moving equilibrium. According tohim, the tendency to seek equilibrium is always present - we areconstantly seeking to understand. ”BackgroundOne of her first classes as a PO student convinced Jayanti that PO didn’t just tout a mission of social justiceand inclusion, but actually “walked the walk.” She says that she experienced what the professor in her SocialJustice class referred to as disequilibrium. The work inspired her and her classmates to examine their viewsand, sometimes, hidden biases. Jayanti says she realized that experiencing disequilibrium is a blessing.“Unless we start looking at things from a different perspective,” she says, “our children will never learn todo the same.”Jayanti was just a young child when she first recognized the powerful impact of teachers. From the age ofseven she volunteered at Mother Teresa’s home in Calcutta and observed how the famous humanitarianworked with young children. The experience struck a chord in Jayanti that followed her into her currentcareer as a preschool master teacher at Pacific Oaks Children’s School.A recent example of her teaching involved a lesson about Michelangelo. After reading a story on his work,Jayanti taped paper to the bottoms of tables so the children could lie on their backs and paint. Soon, theseyoung children began asking questions of each other: “What if someone doesn’t have hands?…What if theydon’t have feet?...How do they paint?” They found the answers to their own questions and soon she had aclassroom of children with paintbrushes in their mouths and between their toes.Jayanti is accomplished in managing childcare centers and tailoring programs for diverse families.She was instrumental in the Stanford Rainbow School being selected as one of the top ten NAEYC’s EngagingDiverse Families exemplary early childhood education programs (EDF Project, NAEYC 2010). She wasa presenter at the PACE 41st Annual Education Conference: Multicultural Storytelling; and recipientof the Rose Engel Award (CAEYC-2010) for innovation in teaching practices. She is a Peer Reviewerfor NAEYC Early Childhood Associate Degree Accreditation (ECADA). She also serves as an adjunctinstructor at De Anza College, Cupertino, and at Santa Monica College. She has trained teachers on ReggioEmilia philosophy.Independent Learning or Thesis ProjectReflective Teaching & Curriculum Webbing with Children’s LiteratureSpeaking and/or Consulting TopicsKindergarten Readiness; Stress in Young Children; Dual Language Learning: Supporting BilingualChildren in a Multilingual Classroom; Family Engagement in Preschool ProgramsContactPhone: (h) 408-655-8521Email: jtambe@yahoo.com; jtambe@pacificoaks.edu47