About the Director
I grew up in Chicago, but moved to Washougal about four years ago after I fell in love with the area during visits with my aunt and uncle. As you can see from the pictures, I adore animals. I spend a lot of my free time volunteering at a farm animal rescue organization. I love reading, writing, doing arts and crafts, being outdoors, and spending time with my family. I also have an autism spectrum disorder myself, which has made me especially sensitive to the needs of children who learn and perceive the world differently from the majority of their peers.
Background
Just about every job I have ever had has involved working with children in some capacity, beginning with babysitting neighborhood children and volunteering in the special education classroom at school when I was eleven years old. After high school I worked in day care centers, and then joined AmeriCorps to work in a therapeutic learning center for children in foster care. From there, I became a paraprofessional at a special education school, working 1:1 with a child with autism. Given the freedom to design a curriculum for that child based on his strengths and interests, I found that I loved teaching. I was inspired at that school by teachers I met, who found ways to engage the children and make learning exciting for them. I wanted to become a teacher so that I could do the same in my own classroom someday.
By the time I graduated from Roosevelt University in 2012, the field of teaching had changed a lot. I was disappointed at what I saw. I knew several families who said that their kindergartners already hated school. Their children, all of whom were very active and imaginative five-year-olds, had been labeled as having behavioral problems. A kindergarten teacher I met described how the administration had removed all of the toys, games, and dramatic play items from her classroom, leaving only objecs that were connected to "scientifically based curriculum." She had hidden Playdoh in her desk, and would allow children to use it to make alphabet letters sometimes.
I began to dream of creating my own school, where we would not be restricted to dry curriculum materials and standardized tests. I wanted to create a school where children could learn about what they loved, and be inspired by new activities and ideas that would engage and challenge them.
It took several years of research and planning, but finally this year I was ready to open Someday School. My goal for this school is to become a learning community for out-of-the-box learners, wher children can experience learning not as something they are forced to do, but as a never-ending adventure.
