Welcome to Our Teachers
Meet our Preschool/Kindergarten Teacher
Hi, my name is Victoria Lucas (Vicky) and I am 28 years old. I have been working with
children since I was 13 years old and love teaching! Right after I graduated from UMass
Amherst I was an infant teacher for 4 years.
I then proceeded to get my MA teachers
license in Early Childhood Education and began to pursue a career in teaching pre-school
and kindergarten aged children. In 2003 I was hired as an assistant kindergarten teacher
at the River Valley Charter School, which is a Public Montessori school. After 1 year as
an assistant teacher I was promoted to Lead Kindergarten Teacher and I also began my Montessori
training. I completed my training and received my American Montessori Society certificate.
In conjunction with my Montessori training at Northeast Montessori Institute I completed a
Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education with a focus in Montessori at Endicott College
graduating in 2006.
I love working with young children and guiding their academic and social growth. The sense
of wonder that is innate in the young child awes and inspires me and I feel that I am learning
as much from them as they are from me! In my personal life, I am happily engaged and plan to be
married next June. I have 2 wonderful cats that I spend a lot of time with and I am an avid
nature lover. I have always enjoyed walking, biking, horseback-riding and hiking and recently
my fiancée has introduced me to rock climbing, which is rapidly becoming a passion for me.
Meet our Grade School Teacher
Carolyn Kirmes, more info coming...
Meet our Enrichment Teachers
Jeanette Schmid Lakari began her Yoga education in Daramsala, India in 1986 and continued at the Yoga Center in Portland, Maine, and with nationally recognized Iyengar Yoga teachers Patricia Walden, Gabriel Halpern, Arthur Kilmury and others. Since 1988 she has been studying and practicing with Shri Anandi Ma and Dileepji and assisting them. They are advanced teachers of Kundalini Maha Yoga.
Jeanette launched her teaching career in southern Maine in 1990, and in 1997, she founded the
“Studio for Transformation”. In her Yoga classes, Jeanette loves teaching a large variety of poses,
while working closely with each individual on their alignment. Her teaching includes “flows”,
or vinyasans, in which the student moves from one pose to the next in a flowing motion, building
strength and energy. In 1995, she began her practice of dance with a technique called “Dancing from the Inside Out”, later she moved on to “Gabriel Roth’s Five Rhythms”. In both, the dancer creates her/his own dance.
Jeanette is teaching yoga to our kindergarten and grade school classes.
Deborah Hardy holds bachelor's degrees in psychology (Univ. of Maine, Orono, 1974) and music education (USM, 1980) and has taught public school music classes and directed band programs in Farmington, N.H., and Saco, Maine. She has played many instruments in many bands, and is also an award-winning songwriter. She loves music, kids who love music, and teaching music to kids who love music. She also loves learning, and is intrigued by the learning/teaching process. She home-schooled her daughter for the past two years, and believes the experience taught her as much, and quite probably more, than it did her daughter.
Debbie is teaching recorder to our grade school class.
More info coming on our French Teacher...
Mission Statement:
The Whole School is dedicated to providing an experiential learning environment
that facilitates the growth of an individual's whole person, including mind, body, and spirit,
through discovery, inquiry, contemplation, and involvement in local and global communities.
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire"
William Yates