Email: [email protected]
Position: Second Grade Teacher (2011/2012)
I began teaching when I was a teenager, growing up in Michigan. I worked afterschool and over the summer at an alternative school for special needs children. This was an “ experimental” school back in the seventies that had the guiding principle that what the kids really needed was love. They use ”play therapy” to connect with the kids at their own level. I moved from Michigan to Oregon to go to college. I had planned to go to the College of Education in Monmouth, Oregon. However, when I came to tour the campus I found that the University of Oregon in Eugene to be a better fit for me. I changed my major from education to psychology and graduated with a BS degree in 1985. Trying to find a job in Eugene with a degree in psychology turned out to be very difficult. I ended up moving to Portland and getting a Massage Therapy License from the Oregon School of Massage in 1987.
Studying the human body in Massage School sparked an interest that led me into the medical field. I ended up studying Nursing, and graduated from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland in 1991 with an RN license and a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Nursing. I worked as an RN for 19 years. I found that the part of my job that I liked the best was just talking to the patients and hearing their stories. It seemed that the more time that I had to talk to the patients, the faster they got better. Over the years there was less and less time to connect to the patients and their families.
When I wasn’t working, I was home raising the children with Bill. We started with Keenan. Keenan went to the Portland Waldorf School Kindergarten in 1992, and the Eugene Waldorf School first and second grade. Then we had Caela and decided to home school. We used the Waldorf curriculum to home school Caela until her sixth grade year. Keenan has since graduated from Wesleyan University, with a degree in film in 2009. He works and lives in New York. Caela has finished her freshman year at the University of Minnesota. She is studying classical flute performance. Nicholas and Mallory are at the Waldorf School of Bend and are very happy here. I found something very nurturing about our school and felt drawn to it as well. It seemed that the more time I spent at the school, the more I enjoyed being with the children.
I entered the Michael Institute Waldorf Teacher Training program in 2009. Being a Waldorf teacher is like coming home for me. It unites different aspects of my life experiences and allows me to share what I have learned with children and their families. I am honored to be here now. I took the first grade class in the fall of 2010, just after we moved the school to Rocking Horse Road. This fall will be my class will be third graders!
Favorite Quote: “Let the beauty we love be what we do. “ – Rumi
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