Rae Calvary-Reeves: Oak Leaves (kinder) Teacher

I have had the honor of teaching at Springwater since its first year and have enjoyed watching our community grow.  As the Oak Leaf teacher I enjoy the opportunity of introducing new students and families to our program.  I also enjoy sharing our school with my family, which now includes my husband, Brian (whom I married at Springwater among my students and their families on May 30, 2009).

I grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina as the youngest of seven children.  My childhood was spent putting on puppet shows, playing in pine trees, and digging large holes in my backyard, hoping I'd discover a dinosaur bone and be featured on the TV show "That's Incredible."  I eventually gave up on being a paleontologist and moved to California.

I went to College of the Canyons in Valencia, California, where I earned an Associates Degree in Science.  I went on to California State University, Fullerton, where I turned from my interest in science and focused on my love of writing.  I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Advertising.  After graduating, I found there was not one discipline I could commit myself to find a career in because I wanted to be everything:  a scientist, an artist, a writer, and a historian.  My life changed in 1996 when I fell into teaching and discovered through teaching I could be all of those things and more.   

I have been teaching elementary school since 1997.  I spent five years teaching second grade at Clara Barton Elementary in Long Beach, California. During this time I became the second grade teacher Chair and coached new teachers in teaching phonics and Language Arts. In 2005, I earned a Masters of Education from Lewis & Clark College, where I interned in a full-day kindergarten at James John Elementary School in North Portland.  The following year I was selected to teach two half-day kindergarten classes at James John.  I heard about Springwater and was very excited about its idea of a school that was community-based and science-focused.  I loved that it supported balanced literacy, constructivism, and project-based learning, three very strong components in my teaching philosophy.  I believe that a balanced education is one in which parents and teachers act as partners.  I believe that children are our valuable counterparts, who not only have a great deal to learn but also have so much to teach.

I am grateful for the opportunities Springwater has given me over the past few years and thank this community for continuing to entrust me with their most valuable possessions. 

Jon Vogel: Dragonflies (1st grade) Teacher

I grew up in Sandy, Oregon not far from Springwater. I come from a big family (I’m the youngest of five kids) that moved from Chicago 25 years ago. I had my fair share of “wilderness” experiences as a kid – building forts and stomping up creeks – but spent most of my time indoors playing basketball. In college I realized all the beauty and fun and adventure I was missing while shooting hoops. At the time I left the Northwest. I processed fish in Alaska. I studied in Spain for six months and traveled throughout Europe. I worked on an organic farm in Ireland. I painted houses in New Hampshire. I left often, but I always came back to Oregon. This is my home.

In June I finished my Master of Arts in Teaching at Lewis & Clark College and wrapped up a yearlong student teaching internship in an ethnically diverse second grade classroom in Portland, Oregon. My program allowed me to create the foundation for my beliefs on best practices in elementary education, but also gain practical teaching experience. In addition to the normal classroom duties, I cooperated in the planning and construction of a school-wide native species garden. My experiences this last year have prepared me for a lively bunch of first graders at Springwater.

Before entering the MAT program at Lewis & Clark I taught ESL at an international school. My wife, Monica, and I lived in SE Alaska during these summers guiding multi-day sea kayak expeditions in Icy Strait near Glacier Bay National Park. As a wilderness guide I developed my skills as a field studies educator (and paddled with humpback whales almost every day). I enjoy the outdoors and try to do most of my commuting by bicycle. Monica and I hike and still kayak whenever we get the chance. In the summers we love to cook with vegetables from our garden in SE Portland.

Springwater offers an environment where learners use meaningful contexts to construct new knowledge it’s a place where there is a thoughtful interconnection between science, literacy, mathematics, and the arts. The goal at Springwater is to increase the presence of hands-on learning experiences with “real world” science in all subjects to enhance motivation, relevance, and achievement, as well as foster children’s natural curiosity in the world around them. I embrace this philosophy and believe children learn best when they are allowed to explore and create, to ask questions and find answers, to think independently and work cooperatively. Children learn best when there is transparency between their schoolwork and their home life, when their learning extends beyond the classroom walls into other environments. I believe children learn best in an environment Springwater is beginning to create. I’m excited to be a part of this learning community that encourages children to explore, both inside and outside!

Laura Wolf:  Salmon (2nd/3rd grade) Teacher

I grew up in Katonah, New York, a small town 45 miles north of Manhattan, with my parents and older sister. Since I was very young, I’ve had a strong connection with the outdoors. Some of my fondest childhood memories stem from our annual family camping trips to the Berkshires, where crazy adventures and mishaps seemed inevitable. Today, I continue to enjoy camping, hiking, and climbing, and my love for natural places has given me the desire to protect them. I want to inspire children to appreciate nature, too, in hopes that one day they will want to care for it, as well.

I received my B.S. in 2002 from Tufts University, where I majored in biopsychology and minored in community health. I attended graduate school at Brown University and received my M.A.T. degree in elementary education in 2004. At Brown, I benefited from a class size of 9, three diverse student teaching placements, and wonderfully creative professors and mentors.

In 2005, I moved to Oregon, and fell in love with the beautiful scenery and endless outdoor opportunities. I was fortunate to have found Springwater School in 2006 when it was still a tiny seedling. It has been amazing to teach here since the first year and watch it grow. I’m proud to be a part of a wonderful community of teachers, students, parents, and administrators, and feel very lucky to teach at a school with a mission so close to my heart.

At Springwater, I’ve had the pleasure of developing many integrated science and social studies units that encourage students to observe, question, collaborate, and to make connections with their world. I believe that students learn best when they are active participants in (and out of) the classroom, and I strive to help each student find the tools they need to be successful.  

Loren Chasse: Salmon (2nd/3rd grade) Teacher

Loren comes to us after 6 years at San Francisco Unified in San Francisco, California. Prior to this, for three years Loren was part of K-3 literacy support staff as well as a 3rd grade long-term sub and then a 4th – 5th grade teacher focused on the sciences. His successful classroom experiences are enhanced by a love for nature and the sounds in nature.

Loren has achieved notoriety for his unique music developed with and through sounds in the natural world. His formative teaching experiences come from his work with a non-profit arts organization, in which he developed and taught workshops on the subject of imaginative listening and experimenting with sound to students ages 5-18.

Loren has continued this work as a contracted artist-teacher in London during summer months in collaboration with the Jenny Hammond school. Watch his YouTube video for more on this part of Loren’s life.

Jen Wozniak: Blue Herons (4th/5th grade) Teacher

Raised in a suburb of Chicago, I came to Oregon in 1995 to study printmaking at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. While earning my Bachelor of Fine Art there, I taught after-school art classes. In these classes I found that more and more of my artistic explorations with my students took me outdoors, and that I was just as interested in the natural history of the tree we were drawing as in capturing its likeness.

This realization led to me to Caldera, a nonprofit arts-based summer camp in the Cascades. My own experiences at summer camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan sparked my love of nature and showed me the power of outdoor education to foster emotional growth in young people. It was at Caldera, where I experimented with integrating art education, field science, and mentoring, that I began to see myself as an educator firstand an artist second.

After a full-time stint as a teacher and administrator at Caldera, I moved to California to teach field science at the Headlands Institute, a nonprofit environmental education institute located in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. There I designed hands-on inquiry and service learning projects to teach marine ecology and geology to visiting school groups from the Bay Area.  Helping diverse populations of kids make authentic connections to environmental issues in their home communities, I found my passion. What was missing, however, was the opportunity to build longer-term relationships with my students.

I decided to take the plunge into classroom teaching upon returning home to Portland in 2006. I enrolled in the Lewis and Clark Masters in Teaching program and began an internship in the fifth grade at Catlin Gabel School. When I began looking for a school with a philosophy and approach that meshed with my experience, I found Springwater. I don’t think I could have found a better fit and am thrilled to join this community.

Marcelle Gonzalez: Blue Heron (4th/5th grade) Teacher

I grew up in Southern Oregon looking out on the Rogue Valley. With the exception of traveling and one year of college in Ohio, I have lived my adult life in Portland. I love the multiple regions that Oregon has to offer in landscape, flora, fauna and culture. I grew up spending lots of time outdoors gardening, hiking and swimming in Southern Oregon’s many lakes and rivers.

I am passionate about environmental education, which to me this equates to interdisciplinary education. I graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 2006 with a BA in Environmental Studies and a minor in Political Science. I spent two years gaining teaching experience with students of all ages in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. My first year was spent as an AmeriCorps volunteer at the district’s science center and during my second year I worked as an Instructional Assistant and Garden Director at Sunset Primary School, and as science project support at West Linn High School. I recently finished my Master's in Early Childhood/Elementary Education at Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education. As part of the program, I interned at Catlin Gable School in a fifth grade classroom. This experience provided me everyday with many new joys and challenges.

I decided to become a classroom teacher because I wanted to create a supportive and caring learning community. As a stand-alone science educator I loved teaching hands-on lessons that covered a wide range of content, but I couldn’t help but feel that there was something missing. I came to realize that I wanted to be a part of a community and work on building the relationships that I view as crucial for meaningful learning to occur. I am ecstatic to be a part of the Springwater community where I am able to combine my passion for building relationships with my love of teaching hands-on inquiry in the classroom and the great outdoors.

Faith Jones-Paulus: River Otters (6th/7th grade) Teacher

I grew up in Fayetteville, West Virginia. It is a very small, historic coal mining town. My brother and I spent most of our time with our Grandpa Jones. He was a retired logger. He taught us about many different types of animals, rivers, trees and plants. My love and appreciation for nature came from these experiences in the forest.

As I grew up, quarter horses and horse shows were a large part of my life. From the age of 12 to 18, I showed quarter horses every weekend. During the summer, I traveled throughout the region attending different shows to gain the points needed to win state and national awards.

Due to my love of the outdoors and the natural world around, I decided to pursue a degree where I could spend most of my time exploring the forests and streams. I attended Mountain State University where I received a B.S. in Environmental Science. I had wonderful instructors that had worked in the field for many years. I was able to gain a wonderful understanding of the forest and the methods that scientists use to help protect the environment.

I moved to Ashland, Oregon five years ago to pursue my M.S. in Environmental Education at Southern Oregon University. When I finished my coursework, I had the opportunity to develop and direct the Butte Falls Natural Resource Education Center. I developed and implemented K-12 natural resource curriculum, an after-school program, service learning projects, ecology projects and much more. I, also, sought and received funding for the program.

Once again I decided to further my education, I attended Southern Oregon University where I received my M.A. in Teaching. Last year, I worked with students in the third and forth grades. I was able to gain the knowledge needed to work effectively in the classroom environment.

I decided to enter the education field because I am always eager to learn. I believe that I learn just as much from my students as they learn from me. I love to think outside of the box and create new thematic units for my students. I, also, use my students’ curiosity about the world around them to design units. I feel that my classroom is a safe place where students can take risks to construct their own understanding of the material. My teaching goal is to guide the students so they can develop skills that will allow them to be well rounded, critically thinking individuals.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with the students and parents at Springwater. I am eager to share my knowledge and skills with the Springwater community.

Troy Frystak: River Otters (6th/7th grade Teacher)

Growing up in a tropical Hawaiian rainforest, playing in crashing waves on a little piece of Styrofoam, and fooling around in my Dad's chemistry lab developed my love of science from an early age.

As a kid, I played soccer, basketball, volleyball, body-boarded, and got around everywhere on my bike. At 15, I started coaching soccer with gang of 7 year old boys. The fun I had with those boys planted the seed to become a teacher many years later.

At Lewis and Clark College in Portland, I studied Business Administration and founded and coached the Men's Volleyball Club. 
After college, I started coaching youth soccer again and soon realized that I wanted a career focused on kids. I enrolled at Pacific University in 1995 and received a Masters in Teaching while student teaching in Sherwood. 

I left for the sunny skies of Southern California and began my teaching career in San Marino where I was a 6th grade Science and Math teacher as well as a volleyball, soccer, basketball, and track coach. I got married and had one son, Nathan Sawyer. 

A year after Sawyer was born, my wife, Kris, and I decided to move to Thailand to live in the country where she grew up. We endured floods, strange foods, the loudest bugs and frogs you have ever heard, and had an amazing time in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After four years in the tropical heat and humidity, we decided to make Oregon our new home.

The opportunity to teach at Springwater has me very excited. I look forward to bringing my love of science, kids, and the outdoors to all my students. 

Harry Short: Foxes (8th grade) Teacher

Harry comes to us from Texas and Michigan. In Texas, Harry was a 9-12th grade honors chemistry teacher at Bowie High School for 4 years. During this time, he completed his Masters in Science Education. He left his position at Bowie to pursue a Masters in Natural Resources: Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan.

Some of Harry’s other past work of interest includes being the recipient of a travel grant from the Institute of International Education to study leprosy in India, as well as serving as a research assistant for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. In addition, Harry is a rock climber and can play the harmonica!

Stacey McKinney:  Learning Specialist

I was born and raised in Auke Bay, AK.  I had the ocean at my front door, and the Tongass National forest and the Juneau icefield out back.  Growing up with bears, wolves, eagles, and spawning salmon was normal for me.  We had no live television; we had two channels and they were pre-recorded from the lower 48 - boy was I lucky!   We listened to records, read books, and told stories.   I have two sisters, two brothers, and lots and lots of cousins.  I did the normal things: reading, laughing, picking berries, smoking fish, baking bread, and camping.  Once a week I would go into town and do the shopping with my grandmother.    

I am part Native American and grew up in a world that was half Western and half Tlingit.  That basically describes Juneau and Alaska as a whole.    

I have a love of nature and science and worked on a research vessel studying humpback whales in Glacier Bay.  I also worked on a vessel doing the same in Baja Mexico.   I went to school at Western Washington in Bellingham, WA and graduated with a BS in education from the U. of Missouri-St. Louis.   While raising my young children, I earned a Master of Ecology certificate from the Missouri Botanical Garden and volunteered at the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center.  I later received my masters in special education, with an emphasis in reading from Webster U. - St. Louis.

I met my husband at Western then moved back to his hometown, St. Louis, and lived there for 21 years.   My husband received a job offer and we jumped at the chance to move back to the Northwest.  We live in West Linn near the Willamette where we can walk and swim our golden retriever, Boogie!   I have two children: my daughter is in law school at UNC-Chapel Hill and my son is an undergrad at the U. of Montana.

Before coming to Springwater, I worked as a special educator for the West Linn-Wilsonville School District.  For me, what makes teaching fun and rewarding is that I have the chance to positively impact the lives of so many young people. Their success in reading, writing, and arithmetic is my ultimate success.  I look forward to meeting everyone in the Springwater community.

Michelle Blanchard: Counselor / Behavior Specialist

My career started in 1993, soon after graduating from Oregon State University with a degree in Psychology, where I had the opportunity to work at many residential treatment facilities and Clackamas County Head Start. During one of the many home visits, I realized that the collaboration with parents, the child’s teachers and community resources was what I needed to pursue, so back to college I went to obtain a Masters degree from Lewis and Clark College in Counseling Psychology.

After 4 years as a Mental Health Therapist for families living in Northeast Portland, I decided to return to Lewis and Clark to obtain a license in School Counseling and have since worked at Redland Elementary School for the last 9 years. I love the relationships formed within a school environment as well as being able to be home with my own two children every summer.

We love summers in Oregon, no actually, we love every season in Oregon. My husband and I are active in our children’s sports as coaches for basketball, baseball, softball and football. When we aren’t on a field, we love spending time camping, water skiing, hiking, biking, snow skiing, kayaking, gardening and a playing a friendly family game of badminton.

I’m grateful to be a part of the staff at Springwater and support the vision held by the community to increase the student’s knowledge and awareness about themselves. I feel that each student has positive contributions they can provide to those around them and the environment. I will help to foster positive attitudes, motivate students to do their best and take responsibility for their learning.

Deb Odell: Principal / Director

My career in education spans 16 years, beginning in the Nyssa School District in Eastern Oregon, and then in the Central School District in Independence, and finally, the North Clackamas School District, where I have been since 1995. During my tenure in North Clackamas, I have been a sixth grade teacher, a teacher for elementary-aged Talented and Gifted students, and a teacher acting in an administrative capacity in charge of federal programs such as services to English Language Learners. I am certified as a national trainer in two curriculum or teaching models: Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD), and Framework for Poverty.

I believe each child deserves and learns best through high level, engaging curriculum. Instruction focused through the sciences is one of the best ways to offer such an approach. Young children naturally are scientists. They come to us with wonder and excitement – key ingredients for learning. I believe each child is a powerful source of new understanding, indispensable to our society and to the world. When children and children’s views are missed, left out, or unseen, our world and our communities suffer. Springwater offers an incomparable opportunity to create a community-based and place-based learning experience for students and families.

Thank you for this amazing gift. I am truly honored to serve as one of Springwater’s founders and as its first building principal and director.

Katy Schnoor:  Principal's Secretary

I grew up 2.5 miles away from Springwater Environmental Sciences School on Springwater Road. We had a small farm with an apple orchard, Christmas Trees, a one-acre garden, bees, sheep, goats, cows, chickens, ducks, cats and dogs. I had a Dalmatian named Charlie, he was my best friend until I started going to school and met new friends. I grew up enjoying country life with a brother and a sister and my parents. Living in the country, I didn't have many friends near me, so I played outside in the barn and the Christmas tree field, exploring and enjoying what I had.

Every summer, we would go camping in South Beach, Newport for two weeks, enjoying the tide pools, fishing off the jetty, and playing on the beach. My favorite memory of playing in the ocean was when a school of anchovies surrounded my siblings and me. They swim in a circle pattern and the three of us were in the center of their circle. After I graduated from Gladstone High School, I was a nanny for two years for a family in SE Portland. I enjoyed watching Eva grow and learn for those two years. I decided after two years that I wasn't really enjoying just being with one person all day...I needed more people around me; a teller at the credit union asked me if I would be interested in a job there, not realizing that in 10 years I would be managing two branches, the main office and the downtown branch. By December of 2003, I had been married for six years and had two sons, so I quit my job at the credit union and decided to be a stay at home mom.

In 2004, I started my own in-home daycare and enjoyed working with children again. In September 2007, Logan and Jaden were accepted to join the Springwater School Community. I volunteered in the office and worked on lunch duty for that school year. In the spring of 2008, I was offered the job of full-time Principal's Secretary. I LOVE this school and all it represents, I am excited to come to school each day and get the hugs from the students and see their smiles.

Since being a part of the Springwater School community, I have run two 1/2 marathons (My third will be in October 2010) and have hiked many challenging trails, including Dog Mountain, Table Mountain and Larch Mountain while training to hike Mt St Helens. I accomplished climbing Mt St Helens on June 28, 2010 and it was both challenging and exciting. I am looking forward to climbing South Sister in the summer of 2011.