Jennifer’s dual teaching interests have woven together both elementary classroom teaching and music. After growing up on the west coast, Jen finished high school and college in Texas, then spent a decade in D.C. working in public affairs before turning her sights on teaching. She holds M.A.’s in Latin American Studies and Education, and she completed her Montessori AMI elementary training at the Washington Montessori Institute. After teaching Upper Elementary in the D.C. area, she moved with her family to Brattleboro, where her husband attended SIT and daughter Natasha landed at Hilltop (graduate 2008). In Vermont she became a licensed music teacher and taught part time in VT and NH area schools while raising children, before joining Hilltop as an Upper Elementary teacher in 2013.
As the specials music teacher at her first Montessori school and later in this region, she has also come to value the approaches of the Kodally and Orff music pedagogies. This year, Jen is loving the opportunity to return to music teaching and to work with multiple age groups, again in a Montessori environment. It is a supreme pleasure to experience the ubiquitous nature of learning and discovery at Hilltop – among students and teachers alike.