Learning Stories and Emergent Curriculum: How Learning Stories Can Aid Teachers in Developing Emergent Curriculum
Presented by Emma Butensky
PM Workshop: 12:30–1:45 PM
This workshop will focus on how teachers can use learning stories as a tool for curriculum development. Using a real-life example from a pre-k class in Brooklyn, participants will learn about how a teacher used learning stories to reflect on her students’ interests, which then led to a year-long emergent curriculum about community workers.
Emma Butensky
Bank Street Graduate School, Chelsea Day School
Emma Butensky (she/her) is an early childhood educator from New York City. She holds an M.S.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Education and Mathematics from Vassar College. Emma has taught preschool through first grade in various progressive schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She is committed to developing and teaching curricula focused on promoting diversity, inclusion, and social justice with an emphasis on teaching young children about race and gender. In 2026, Emma published an article in Exchange Press about an emergent curriculum that she developed alongside her pre-k class. In 2021, Emma published an article in the Swarthmore Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies about queering elementary curriculum. She has also written gender and sexuality curricula for kindergarten and 1st grade. Emma is currently a lead preschool teacher at Chelsea Day School and a tap dance teacher at Tap Dance Central.