Bio for Anne Stires
Born into a family of educators (her parents have been teaching for a combined eighty years), Anne grew up on nearly one-hundred acres of woods, salt marshes, and streams on Westport Island, Maine in the Sheepscot River, where she played to her heart’s content. She and her older sister attended Wiscasset Schools until her family moved to New York City for one year when she was ten years old. Her father was pursuing a Master’s Degree at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College and her mother was consulting in New York City public schools for Teacher’s College. Anne had the opportunity to attend Bank Street School for Children—a progressive school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side started by Lucy Sprague Mitchell.
They returned from New York City to Newcastle, ME, so that she could go to Great Salt Bay Community School for 7th/8th grades and Lincoln Academy. After awakening to what school could really be like at Bank Street, however, Anne chose to attend St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH for high school. She later graduated from Hamilton College with a B.A. in Biology and English and minor in Spanish. Anne spent her junior year abroad on a year-long marine research program. Throughout college she worked at the Darling Marine Center, developing her love and learning of marine coastal biology and natural history.
Anne is a highly regarded and experienced educator who specializes in place-based and environmental approaches. Over the last decade she has worked for and cultivated relationships with a number of area schools—both public and private, preschool through 8th grade (through classroom teaching, teacher education, and natural science/place-based education consulting), forging a rich and diverse career in education.
Between undergraduate and graduate school, Anne focused on teaching and directing natural history and environmental education at The Chewonki Foundation and Tanglewood Learning Center. The residential and outreach programs were designed for children in pre-kindergarten through high school, as well as for adults. She also taught in the classroom for several years at Sheepscot Valley Children’s House, receiving Montessori certification in the process. A graduate of Antioch University Graduate School with a Master’s in Education, Anne interned and taught 4th grade science at Boothbay Regional Elementary School in the fall of 2005. Completing the circle that inspired the beginning of her educational awareness, Anne returned to Bank Street School for Children in 2008 to teach four and five year-olds in the Lower School.
For 2008-2011, Anne was the Place-Based Education Coordinator for the Questing to Learn Program (of the Quebec-Labrador Foundation’s Marine Program based in Waldoboro, ME). She worked directly with students and classroom teachers in three midcoast Maine school districts with about 600 students and 25 teachers involved in the program.
Anne lives with her husband, Jon Weislogel, and their five year-old son, Eben, in Walpole, ME in a small cabin on their 30-acre property of woods, fields, and vernal pools. They are restoring their 1790’s farmhouse, while growing much of their own food in a large vegetable garden. They also own and run L’Acadie Catering, a local foods catering business focusing on seasonal menus.
In addition to founding Juniper Hill School for Place-Based Education Anne directs the month-long Whitehead Island Program for Pine Island Camp in the summer and operates Kinderheart YogaTM, offering nature and community-based yoga classes for children.
They returned from New York City to Newcastle, ME, so that she could go to Great Salt Bay Community School for 7th/8th grades and Lincoln Academy. After awakening to what school could really be like at Bank Street, however, Anne chose to attend St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH for high school. She later graduated from Hamilton College with a B.A. in Biology and English and minor in Spanish. Anne spent her junior year abroad on a year-long marine research program. Throughout college she worked at the Darling Marine Center, developing her love and learning of marine coastal biology and natural history.
Anne is a highly regarded and experienced educator who specializes in place-based and environmental approaches. Over the last decade she has worked for and cultivated relationships with a number of area schools—both public and private, preschool through 8th grade (through classroom teaching, teacher education, and natural science/place-based education consulting), forging a rich and diverse career in education.
Between undergraduate and graduate school, Anne focused on teaching and directing natural history and environmental education at The Chewonki Foundation and Tanglewood Learning Center. The residential and outreach programs were designed for children in pre-kindergarten through high school, as well as for adults. She also taught in the classroom for several years at Sheepscot Valley Children’s House, receiving Montessori certification in the process. A graduate of Antioch University Graduate School with a Master’s in Education, Anne interned and taught 4th grade science at Boothbay Regional Elementary School in the fall of 2005. Completing the circle that inspired the beginning of her educational awareness, Anne returned to Bank Street School for Children in 2008 to teach four and five year-olds in the Lower School.
For 2008-2011, Anne was the Place-Based Education Coordinator for the Questing to Learn Program (of the Quebec-Labrador Foundation’s Marine Program based in Waldoboro, ME). She worked directly with students and classroom teachers in three midcoast Maine school districts with about 600 students and 25 teachers involved in the program.
Anne lives with her husband, Jon Weislogel, and their five year-old son, Eben, in Walpole, ME in a small cabin on their 30-acre property of woods, fields, and vernal pools. They are restoring their 1790’s farmhouse, while growing much of their own food in a large vegetable garden. They also own and run L’Acadie Catering, a local foods catering business focusing on seasonal menus.
In addition to founding Juniper Hill School for Place-Based Education Anne directs the month-long Whitehead Island Program for Pine Island Camp in the summer and operates Kinderheart YogaTM, offering nature and community-based yoga classes for children.
Bio for Zoë Foster
Zoë grew up in the Hudson River Valley, in Southern New York State. As the only child to an artist father and environmentalist mother, she spent a great deal of her time in the woods behind her house, making mud pies, swimming, picking berries, building forts, and otherwise exploring the outdoor world. Beyond her parents, Zoë comes from a family of artists, explorers, and scientists; her grandparents climbed many of the mountains in the Alps and Himalayas, her grandfather was a lepidopterist (a butterfly scientist) and her great grandmother was a well-known portrait painter whom FDR once sat for.
In her teen years, Zoë attended a Quaker high school in Poughkeepsie, NY where, through Quaker meetings, she was first introduced to the concepts of peace education, discussion based classes, and supportive and open educational community. She also developed a love of the
theater, which has remained throughout her adult life. In fact, Zoë chose to study theater at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, earning a B.A. in Performance. While she adored the mesas, cliffs and scenic vistas of the Rocky Mountains, after finishing her B.A. Zoë chose to return to the east coast, obtaining an artists residency with Theater in the Open in Maudslay State Park on the north shore of Massachusetts. During this time she learned to make masks, stage large puppet pageants, and honed her ability to perform outdoors. She continued to work as an actor with Theater in the Open and to teach summer arts workshops in the park until last July.
After a year in Newburyport, Zoë was hired as a teacher at the Newburyport Montessori School. She had always loved working with children and knew immediately upon beginning her position that this was the perfect way to express her natural creative energies while making a positive impact in the world. Zoë received her Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education from Endicott College in 2008 and completed a year long teacher training course in Montessori educational philosophy resulting in certification from the American Montessori Society. Zoë was the lead teacher in a preschool/kindergarten classroom for five years at the Newburyport school. She and her husband moved to Maine last summer, and she worked as a teacher at the Damariscotta Montessori School during the 2010-2011 school year. For Zoë, teaching is a passion and a joy. She is constantly amazed by the children in her classes, their capacity for love and understanding, and their contagious laughter, enthusiasm and authentic curiosity.
Zoë lives in Thomaston with her husband Dylan, a chair maker and former circus clown, as well as their two lovable rescue dogs, Trouble and Rupert. They also recently added nine chickens to the family, and are having so much fun with this new adventure! In the summer of 2011, Zoë worked with middle schoolers through Youthlinks in Rockland, exploring farms, cooking, going on nature walks, volunteering in the community, and playing at the beach.
In her teen years, Zoë attended a Quaker high school in Poughkeepsie, NY where, through Quaker meetings, she was first introduced to the concepts of peace education, discussion based classes, and supportive and open educational community. She also developed a love of the
theater, which has remained throughout her adult life. In fact, Zoë chose to study theater at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, earning a B.A. in Performance. While she adored the mesas, cliffs and scenic vistas of the Rocky Mountains, after finishing her B.A. Zoë chose to return to the east coast, obtaining an artists residency with Theater in the Open in Maudslay State Park on the north shore of Massachusetts. During this time she learned to make masks, stage large puppet pageants, and honed her ability to perform outdoors. She continued to work as an actor with Theater in the Open and to teach summer arts workshops in the park until last July.
After a year in Newburyport, Zoë was hired as a teacher at the Newburyport Montessori School. She had always loved working with children and knew immediately upon beginning her position that this was the perfect way to express her natural creative energies while making a positive impact in the world. Zoë received her Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education from Endicott College in 2008 and completed a year long teacher training course in Montessori educational philosophy resulting in certification from the American Montessori Society. Zoë was the lead teacher in a preschool/kindergarten classroom for five years at the Newburyport school. She and her husband moved to Maine last summer, and she worked as a teacher at the Damariscotta Montessori School during the 2010-2011 school year. For Zoë, teaching is a passion and a joy. She is constantly amazed by the children in her classes, their capacity for love and understanding, and their contagious laughter, enthusiasm and authentic curiosity.
Zoë lives in Thomaston with her husband Dylan, a chair maker and former circus clown, as well as their two lovable rescue dogs, Trouble and Rupert. They also recently added nine chickens to the family, and are having so much fun with this new adventure! In the summer of 2011, Zoë worked with middle schoolers through Youthlinks in Rockland, exploring farms, cooking, going on nature walks, volunteering in the community, and playing at the beach.
