The Holistic Kit & Kaboodle

We're Shanese and Andres — a married educator duo with a combined decade-plus of classroom experience in New York City public schools. Together, our credentials span birth through 12th grade: Shanese brings special education and school counseling experience in upper elementary, while Andres brings 7–12 special education and K–12 TESOL expertise. That range is the backbone of everything we create.Between us, we've supported students with IEPs, multilingual learners, students navigating big feelings, and students who just needed someone to believe in them. Shanese holds a Master of Teaching in Elementary Special Education, a Master of School Counseling, and an MPA. Andres holds a Master of Teaching in Special Education (7–12) and is TESOL-certified K–12 — which means together we design resources that work across grade levels, learning differences, and language backgrounds.

Relationship-first, always. We believe kids learn when they feel safe, seen, and genuinely curious — and that the "whole child" isn't a buzzword, it's the only way the work makes sense. Our resources blend SEL, strong literacy foundations, hands-on making, and language-accessible design because we've seen again and again that students rise to engaging, structured, meaningful work when we give them the chance. We lean into story circles, maker projects, and reading culture as the connective tissue of a classroom. And we build every resource with the real teacher in mind — the one with limited prep time, a wide range of learners, and a deep desire to do right by every kid in the room.

Shanese is a proud New Yorker and NYU alum, where she majored in History and Africana Studies with a minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies — a foundation in cultural inquiry and social justice that still shapes everything we make. She went on to earn a Master of Teaching in Elementary Special Education, a Master of School Counseling, and a Master of Public Administration. Andres earned his BA in Sociology from Stony Brook University before completing his Master of Teaching in Special Education (7–12) at Touro University. He also holds his K–12 TESOL certification through New Visions, grounding his work with multilingual learners in both theory and practice. Shanese is currently pursuing early childhood certification as we expand our work into preschool education — because the more we learn about how children develop, the more we want to be part of that story from the very beginning.

Outside the classroom, we're raising a bubbly, book-loving six-year-old. We're building our family and our work with the same values: curiosity, community, and care. The Holistic Kit & Kaboodle is where all of that comes together — resources built by educators who've lived this work, for teachers who are doing the same.