Ms. Taylor grew up in the wilds of New Jersey with four brothers, surviving thanks to the Holland Tunnel! She attended New York University before moving to Tucson, where she completed a double major in English literature and Russian language at the University of Arizona. Her teaching career began when she taught first-year Russian as a graduate student and tutored extensively. Inspired by the birth of her wonderful son (now a Waldorf teacher himself!), she started a home daycare, Little Sprouts, and found her way to the Enchanted Desert Playgarden (as TWS was then known) as a school for him and a vocation for her. She trained at Rudolf Steiner College and became the class teacher of one of the initial grades’ classes at TWS, shepherding them from 1st to 3rd. She has homeschooled, taken a class through (1 – 8) at Highland Hall in Los Angeles, and returned to TWS in 2016 — finishing a Grade 5 – 8 loop and recently another full cycle.
In recent years, Ms. Taylor has deepened her study of literacy acquisition through courses in Orton-Gillingham, Structured Word Inquiry, and the Waldorf-based Roadmap to Literacy, as well as researching math support through trainings with Peter Liljedahl and Pam Harris. Other interests include reading, crafting, hiking, indie music, minimalism, yoga, and vegan cooking.
Mentoring and faculty support have always been part of Ms. Taylor’s collegial work, and her next step will be to expand and deepen that as our new Pedagogical Director.