2010 Faculty - Main Lesson Teachers
The faculty is a community of teachers whose sole intent is to serve the developmental needs of the children by awakening their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities by offering the children experiences that inspire reverence for humanity, nature and community, and by teaching to the whole child (head, hands and heart) so that the children can meet their greater purpose with confidence, love, and a passion for learning. This intention is inherent in the Waldorf-methods curriculum and philosophy. It is not only essential that the faculty impart the Waldorf curriculum creatively, with enthusiasm, and knowledge of the content but what is most vital is who the teachers are. What our teachers know is not what truly educates but who they are as people and as a faculty community.
Jennifer Dawes - Main Lesson Teacher - Huckleberry Kindergarten
Jennifer Dawes is the Huckleberry Kindergarten teacher at Stone Bridge School. She has a great passion for teaching and a love of children. Jennifer holds a Master of Arts in Waldorf Education from Touro University and Rudolf Steiner College. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in humanities/psychology and her teaching credential from Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, Nevada. This is Jennifer's third year teaching kindergarten at Stone Bridge School. She previously taught kindergarten and the summer program at a developing Waldorf school in Reno, Nevada. Jennifer has been working with children for over 15 years.
Christine Waskowiak - Main Lesson Teacher - Mulberry Kindergarten
Christine is the Mulberry Kindergarten teacher. Born in San Francisco and raised on the Peninsula, Christine earned her bachelor's degree in marine biology at U.C. Berkeley. From there, she worked at Genentech in cell culture, and later as a technical writer. After six years at Genentech, in an effort to get "closer" to the sciences, Christine found herself farming oysters in Tamales Bay and then teaching environmental science to elementary students in the Marin Headlands. This latter experience spurred her to pursue her California teaching credential at Sonoma State University. Marriage followed and lots of travel with her husband, Mike, and an eventual move to Napa. In 1999, while exploring kindergarten options for her oldest son, she connected with individuals working on a Waldorf-methods charter school. Joining the Development Group for what would become Napa Valley Charter School (and later Stone Bridge School), Christine deepened her understanding of Waldorf education as she helped define the curriculum and bring the school to fruition. She joined the faculty of the school in its second year as a kindergarten teacher and is now in her ninth year of teaching at Stone Bridge. She particularly loves welcoming new families into the school community and watching the children she has cared for continue to blossom as they move through the grades and develop into compassionate, productive and creative individuals.
Julia U'Ren - Main Lesson Teacher - Mulberry Kindergarten
Dorothy Iselin - Main Lesson Teacher - First Grade
The rocks, the mosses, the trees, the sticks, the stones of NH are the marrow of which my bones are made. I am bound to them forever, for they have given me comfort, solace, wisdom during my many years of tramping through NH woods and hills. A thank you to the Mother of the Earth for making it so.
Justin Medaris - Main Lesson Teacher - Second Grade Justin Medaris grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, in
the town of Rescue. He graduated from the University of California at
Davis, and began working as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher on the Muckleshoot
Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. He moved to Napa where he
worked for the Napa Unified School District as a 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th
grade teacher. While working for NVUSD he was awarded both the Napa County School
Master of the Year award and the Napa County Teacher of the Year awards in
1998/1999. Justin was a founding member of what was at first called the
Napa Valley Charter School, and the proud teacher of the very first 1st
Grade class which graduated in 2008. His current class is in the 2nd Grade.
Justin's oldest daughter is in the 8th grade, and his youngest is in 7th
Grade, both at Stone Bridge School.
Michelle Gomez - Main Lesson Teacher - Third Grade
Carol Nimick - Main Lesson Teacher - Fourth Grade
Megan Wright - Main Lesson Teacher - Fifth Grade
Michele Conyers (Bennett) - Main Lesson Teacher - Sixth Grade
Patty Profitt - Main Lesson Teacher - Seventh Grade
Megan Nelson - Main Lesson Teacher - Eighth Grade
Support Teachers
Christine Trudo-Mayo - Support Teacher - Huckleberry
Jodi Ortiz - Support Teacher - First Grade
Jennifer Medaris - Support Teacher - Second Grade I grew up in Napa with my mom, who still lives here, and my sister, who I visit frequently up in Eugene, Oregon. After high school I headed off to UC Davis where I received a BS in Genetics in 1989, and met and fell in love with my husband, Justin. After graduation I spent 2 years doing research in a Population Biology lab at Davis, while Justin earned his teaching credential.
We then moved to Seattle so that I could attend graduate school at University of Washington in the Developmental Biology program. I began my career in Seattle, teaching an undergraduate Developmental Biology lab. When the research I was doing no longer made sense to my family and friends, I began to feel the need to have a more directly positive impact on humanity and the wider world.
Changing course, I came back to California in 1993 and earned my California teaching credential. I taught high school biology in the very classroom that I had first learned and loved biology, and then taught middle school science for several years.
In the meantime, I gave birth to our 2 daughters, India and Fiona, and began to think deeply about how we would educate them. Destiny brought us to Apple Garden in 1998 when India was 3 and we began our study of Waldorf Education and our involvement with the families who would come together to create Napa Valley Charter School, now Stone Bridge School. In 1990 Justin was told by one of his teachers in credential school that he would make a wonderful Waldorf teacher. Neither one of us had any idea what she was talking about.
Working my way up from teaching in the university, high school and then middle school, my career peaked as I finally made it to the Waldorf Kindergarten, first as an assistant at Apple Garden and then as the Wednesday teacher in our own Mulberry Kindergarten. I am now making my way back up the grades, very happily employed as Support Teacher for my dear husband, Justin. We are in Second grade this year.
Tim Henke- Support Teacher - Third Grade