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Aimée Johnson, Director, began working at Mountain Road School in the fall of 1988. Since that time she has taught every class from kindergarten through 6th grade and spent three years as the school’s Director, as well as being active on the Board and Development Committee at different times.Aimée graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and holds a teaching certificate in elementary education. She has worked professionally in the field of education since 1977. She particularly enjoys working within the collaborative structure of Mountain Road School, and places a strong emphasis on building community—of teachers, students and parents. Mountain Road School with its philosophy of “heartfelt education” and its focus on nature deeply resonates with her beliefs in a child-centered and spiritually based education.
Aimee Johnson, Director
Aimée, her husband Don, and son Kyle live in the Abode of the Message community. Kyle was a student at Mountain Road School from preschool through 6th grade. Her husband is a special education teacher in the Berlin Central School District. Together they enjoy traveling, gardening, camping, swimming, hiking, cross country skiing, reading, and their pets.
Danielle Kush, Early Childhood teacher
Danielle Kush, Early Childhood, returns to Mountain Road School for her second year of teaching. She holds a bachelors degree in early childhood education from The College of Saint Rose in Albany NY and a masters degree in early childhood education with a concentration on literacy from The University at Albany. Her experiences begin in 2002 when she began her journey to become a teacher and has since worked with children ranging in age from birth to second grade. Currently she holds an initial certification in teaching elementary school and will receive her professional certificate at the completion of this school year. Danielle has a passion for teaching children and devotes each of her days to the children’s best interest
Michaelann Murphy (and children) , Early Elementrary teacher
Michaelann Murphy, Early Elementary, received her Master’s Degree in Education from Sunbridge College. Her teaching certification encompasses early childhood through high school. As a trained and experienced biodynamic farmer, she is the prior director of several farm based education programs. She has over 20 years of experience teaching and working with children. Michaelann’s love of the natural world as well as her recognition of the spiritual world, her belief that children should experience true, meaningful and practical work, and her deep understanding of child development are among her many qualifications as the Mountain Road early elementary teacher. Michaelann and her six children reside in New Lebanon, NY.
Jon Stevens, Upper Elementary teacher
Jon Stevens, Upper Elementary, is in his fifth year of teaching at Mountain Road School. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire and continued on there for his Master’s Degree in Elementary Education. Prior to coming to Mountain Road, Jon worked with children as a long-term substitute and in special education for several years.
Having strolled hundreds of miles throughout the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Rocky Mountains, Jon integrates his love of learning from nature into the curriculum. Outside of school Jon travels the region and country leading people in song and dance, recording music, and mentoring youth and young adults in awareness, rhythm, balance, and viewing one’s life as a work of art. Jon guides students in expanding their awareness of the world and their inner workings while nurturing qualities needed to overcome obstacles and conflict inside and out.
Chantal van Wierts, Art and French Teacher
Chantal van Wierts, Art and French, has been teaching at Mountain Road School for over twenty years. She is a native French speaker from Canada, a trained Waldorf French teacher and applied arts teacher from Sunbridge College, and currently she is finishing up a Bachelor’s Degree at Lesley College. When she was in college, she studied art and felt drawn to many different art forms. She discovered that through puppetry she could use multimedia art disciplines, and that to become a professional puppeteer (studying with a master puppeteer from Prague) she had to study sculpture, drawing, painting, woodworking, and mime. In addition to teaching at Mountain Road School, Chantal has her own professional puppet group, “The Magic Lantern Puppet Theater.”
Mark Kelso , Music and Choral Arts Teacher
Mark Kelso, Music. This year s Mark has primarily served as recording engineer and director of our CD project. He has been actively involved with our music and theater programs for many years, including substitute teaching and accompanying our school plays.
Primary teaching points:
Music can be really fun
The more fun it is, the more we do it
The more we do it, the better we get at it
The better we get at it, the more fun it is, etc.
Christopher St. Clair, Assistant Music Teacher, Ensemble Arts
Christopher St Clair
, Ensemble Arts and assistant music teacher graduated from from Mountain Road School in 2003 after 8 years of attendance, and has now returned to direct the school’s musical ensemble and to assist in teaching the music class. When not teaching at the school, he works as a performing and recording musician, audio engineer, electric bass teacher, musical transcriptionist, roadie, and as a part of every other facet of the music industry that he can get his hands on. A recent college graduate, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Jazz Performance and Audio Engineering from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in May, 2011. Most recently, he recorded the bass tracks to the majority of Mountain Road’s Haiti benefit album, One Fire, and to the entirety of Mark Kelso’s latest release, Grief and Grace. He co-engineered both albums with Mark, his employer at Muddy Angel Music. Christopher spends his spare time reading, practicing the bass, and running through the hills of the Berkshires.
Sara Katzoff, Theater Arts Director
Sara Katzoff, Theater, is in her third year as Mountain Road School’s theater director. After spending her junior year at The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Sara graduated cum laude from Simon’s Rock College. Among her many theatrical accomplishments, she has toured nationally with Landis & Company, regionally with A Mixed Company, and along the Pacific coast with The Dell’Arte School. Ms. Katzoff is a member of the Actor’s Equity Association and has trained as a company member with Mission Improvible!, Shakespeare Sedona, The National Theater of The Deaf, and Shakespeare & Company. She has been a guest artist at the Norman Rockwell Museum, P.S 60, The Flying Cloud Institute and was a mask-making instructor at Simon’s Rock College.
Sara Katzoff is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Berkshire Fringe Festival, a not-for-profit arts organization that presents new works of theatre and dance by emerging artists to the Berkshire community.
Chenoa Pelligra-Murphy Afterschool Care and Assistant Early Childhood teacher
Chenoa Pelligra-Murphy, Afterschool Care and early childhood assistant is an experienced fiber artist, teacher, and caregiver. She is presently completing the Handwork teacher training at the Threefold Educational Center. Chenoa will be receiving her Bachelor Degree in Education and Fiber Arts from Goddard this year. Her former employment includes aftercare teacher, handwork teacher, and director of several farm and arts based summer camps
Jordan David, Early Childhood Assistant teacher
Jordan David, Early Childhood assistant moved up here from Albany, Georgia in May, 2011 . She’s always been very good with children of all ages and has been babysitting on and off for the past seven years or so. She was also the aftercare teacher for Mountain Road School for a short time last year and had a lot of fun. This year she is in the classroom as Danielle’s assistant with the Black Capped Chickadees.
Devin Franklin, Flying Deer Nature Center Director
Devin Franklin, Co-Director, Flying Deer Nature Center, discovered his thirst for the Wilderness Teachings in 1994 and has been walking the wilderness path ever since. Devin studied survival, tracking, and awareness skills with Dan Fisher of Wilderness School in Maine and Tom Brown Jr. at the Tracker School in New Jersey. He trained for six years in Naturalist Mentoring and Community-Building skills through Jon Young and the Wilderness Awareness School, as well as with Mark Morey and the Vermont Wilderness School. Devin received a degree in Environmental Education from Prescott College in Arizona in 2001. He joined Flying Deer Nature Center in 1998, where he was mentored by Leonard Brown in the ways of Coyote Teaching and the Medicine Wheel. Devin deeply loves working with children and nature through creating a Naturalist Community that has been his home since 1998
Michelle Apland Flying Deer Nature Center
Michelle Apland, Co-Director, Flying Deer Nature Center, launched her world of wilderness skills at the age of nineteen when she spent five and a half months hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail. Soon afterward, she began taking classes with the Tracker School in New Jersey, focusing on Philosophy and Healing. Michelle continues to complement these studies with training in naturalist mentoring and community building with The Wilderness Awareness School and The Vermont Wilderness School. In 2001, Michelle earned degrees from Prescott College in Environmental Education and Eco-psychology. She enhanced her skills by studying herbalism and mentoring with Lorene Wapotich of Her Feet on the Earth and becoming a Kripalu Yoga teacher. Michelle discovered Flying Deer Nature Center in 1999 and fell in love with the beauty of what she saw. She returned in 2000 to take a leading role in guiding its growth as a Naturalist Community. Michelle is passionate about working with children and families and specializes in leading “Daughters of the Earth” Programs, a concentration for women and girls within The Flying Deer Nature Center.
Tes Reed, Flying Deer Nature Center Instructor, left her career as a state criminal investigator to begin her family and her greatest life’s work as a mother. Together, she and her husband Paul raised and home schooled their two daughters while living on the old colonial farm in New Marlborough, MA that Tes grew up on. It was this natural bond to her children that brought Tes back to her connection to the natural world. In 2001 she connected with Michelle Apland of Flying Deer Nature and Michelle began mentoring Tes’ girls in the Daughter’s Of The Earth program. By 2006 a seed was planted and Tes and her girls started a ‘sister school’ of wilderness education programs in their woods. Today the programs have grown to include summer day camps and year-long rites of passage programs. Tes continues to work with Flying Deer Nature Center in a various capacities. She is sought out by her community to run nature activities for the kids at town sponsored events. She is in her second year of working with The Multicultural BRIDGE Program creating and directing the outdoor portion of their camps/acitivities for multicultural youth. Tes enjoys life.
Linda Cain, Bookkeeper, is a vital part of the Abode of the Message community and does the books for many entities of the community including Mountain Road School. We are very fortunate to have her expertise!
