Erin Libby
Assistant Teacher (Early Childhood)
Erin found her love of teaching in graduate school, while pursuing her Master’s degree in Theatre and Dance in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She taught dance classes to adult learners at Santa Fe Community college, choreographed scenes for college summer interns at the Santa Fe Opera, taught studio classes in private dance studios around Albuquerque, was a teaching artist in Albuquerque Public Schools, and taught middle school and high school summer theatre camps at the University of New Mexico. In 2005, she moved to NY and began her career as a Special Education teacher in Brooklyn, New York. There, she worked with middle school girls, incorporating dance and artistic expression into students’ daily schedules. When Erin had her child in 2006, she decided to return to the Pacific Northwest to pursue a career as an AMI trained Montessori guide. After teaching primary (age 3-6) Montessori for over a decade, she returned once again to Special Education, focusing her work with students needing adaptive, social-emotional and behavioral coaching and support. For the last several years, Erin has worked with students with special needs in a variety of settings, and especially enjoys working with developing and reluctant readers, neurodiverse learners, and students who experience mental health challenges.
Erin believes that exploring the natural world, asking hard questions, learning how to care for ourselves and one another, and gaining skills related to healthy self-expression are part of a holistic education. She believes students should be presented with educational experiences which allow them to explore, gain self confidence, and experience academics in ways that combine multiple and varied styles of learning. She believes families are an essential part of the relationship web that supports students in learning and growing. She sees her role as a teacher to provide students with opportunities to practice communication skills, empathy, and creative problem solving. One of her goals is to see all students becoming leaders in their own families and communities.
Erin brings her deeply rooted lifetime in the Arts - storytelling, theatre, dance, visual and literary arts - to the Gardner School. She is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist and an Expressive Arts Facilitator, and she believes deeply in the transformative power of movement, play and open ended artistic expression.
When she is not in the classroom, Erin enjoys spending time making herbal concoctions in her kitchen, painting, collaging, writing, walking in the woods, practicing being a gardener, and visiting her awesome college Sophomore at Western Washington University. She has a black cat named Link and a brown bunny named Timothy, and she looks forward to getting a new tarantula.
