Teachers and Staff

Dawn Bolotow has over 20 years of teaching and leadership in the public school systems.  She has worked in the Beaverton School District and the West Linn-Wilsonville School District.  She has taught in all grades K-8 with considerable focus in literacy, math, TAG, and special education.  She has served in building administration and on leadership teams in elementary, middle and high schools. She joins us most recently after nine years of work as an Assistant Director of Student Services in West Linn-Wilsonville School District. [Read more...]

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). [Read more...]

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 almost 30 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 inside perfecting my jumpshot. 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. [Read more...]

I grew up in the Northwest corner of Philadelphia with the 1,800 acre Wissahickon Valley Park running through my backyard. I was fortunate to have an older brother who didn’t mind his little sister tagging along as he and his friends explored the woods and fished the creek. I spent most of my time in those woods, imagining the Lenape Indians or the Revolutionary War soldiers hiking through the same areas and inventing stories about them. [Read more...]

I grew up in Pennsylvania and one of the most lasting impressions from my childhood there is the sound of the summer night’s insect chorus (the other, also sound-related, is that of my grandfather’s turntable endlessly spinning classical music at a low volume while he told us endless stories of his life and times). After studying literature and writing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and King’s College in London, I packed up my liberal arts education and decided to go west in a ’79 Chevy van and become a waiter and drummer. With San Francisco as my new home, I fell head over heels for the epic majesties of the California coast and the redwood forest. Before long I was spending most of my time recording environmental sounds, obsessively pursuing the hiss, chirp, crackle, buzz, and the soughing of leaves in the wind (my favorite). [Read more...]

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. [Read more...]

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.  [Read more...]

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. [Read more...]

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. [Read more...]

I grew up in Sherwood, Oregon just a few miles south of Springwater. My family and I spent many summers exploring Oregon’s beauty with hiking adventures, fishing and family campouts.

I graduated from Western Oregon University in 2005 with a BS in Elementary Education. I spent five years gaining teaching experience in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I taught fifth grade and later became the Math Coordinator for K-5. I believe mathematics should be taught through a hands-on approach that leaves no learner behind. Every math problem has more than one entry point that results in the same solution in the end. During this time I earned my Masters degree in K-8 Mathematics at Walden University and I earned an endorsement teaching English Language Learners. [Read more...]

One of my earliest memories is of playing school in our garage with the neighborhood kids. I always knew I would be a teacher. Having two teachers for parents may have influenced me as well!

In sixth grade I attended the Multnomah County Outdoor School Program for a week at Camp Collins. I had so much fun learning about plants, animals, soil and water that I vowed to return as a junior counselor. In high school I went back to Camp Collins five times over three years to teach about plants in the old growth forest, and supervise sixth graders. I thought it was the best thing on earth, and as a junior in high school I decided that what I wanted to do when I “grew up” was teach middle school science. [Read more...]

I am originally from beautiful northwest Montana.  I loved growing up part of a large, fun, family and we always enjoyed playing and watching sports, especially Grizzly Football.  We also spent a lot of time fishing, camping and hiking.

When I graduated high school, I joined the Army and had the opportunity to study Spanish and travel to several countries in Central and South America.  I also met my husband while in the Army, and after we completed our tours of duty, we moved to Chicago to attend school.  I graduated from Northeastern Illinois University in 2004 with my Master’s degree in Special Education.  In 2006, we moved to Urbana, Illinois, home of the University of Illinois (Go Illini!), where I earned a Master’s degree in education administration from Eastern Illinois University. [Read more...]

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. [Read more...]

I grew up here in Oregon City and now my husband Joe and I are raising our four children in my childhood home.  Our house has become a project as well as a home as we continue to work and dream at making it uniquely ours.  I’m an avid reader and enjoy traveling with the family, especially our long road trips and time spent at the beach.

A graduate of Oregon State University with a degree in Early Childhood Education, I taught for over ten years in grades kindergarten through second, in Portland and Lake Oswego.  With the arrival of our middle children (twins), I embarked upon a period of home study in child development. I returned to the classroom, along with my youngest, as part of Springwater Preschool’s first Acorn class. [Read more...]