Melani Lewis comes to the master educator program with over 13 years experience in early childhood education. She began her career as a prekindergarten teacher in several public charter schools in Washington, DC. It was through this work that she developed a passion for high quality early childhood programs that promote excellence in both academics and character development. Over the years she has served in a variety of roles including teacher, Academy Leader, Director of Early Childhood Curriculum, and most recently as Assistant Principal.
As an educational leader, Melani has extensive experience leading, coaching, and professionally developing teachers in early childhood settings. Her expertise lies in diagnosing key areas of growth for teachers and developing action plans to support teachers in meeting key instructional goals leading to high student achievement. She has designed and led countless professional development sessions on high quality instructional components including Morning Meeting, Shared Reading, and sound, letter and word play games. Sessions have also included using data to design targeted lesson objectives, creating effective formative assessments, and perfecting classroom routines that support positive classroom culture.
As part of the curriculum development team, Melani has written a wide range of curricula and assessments for early childhood students. She was responsible for aligning several curricula in order to maximize student learning and individual development, as well as meet state requirements. Most recently, Melani led the creation of a developmentally appropriateearly literacy screening designed to measure the alphabetic, phonological and print awareness knowledge of 3 year olds students. She was also a key member of the design team which created and implemented a new character education program for preschool and prekindergarten students.
Ms. Lewis holds a Bachelor of Science degree from American University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Virginia.
Melani proudly serves as an Early Childhood and lower Elementary Master Educator.