Meet Our Staff
Shannon
Shannon received her BA in Social Work in 1998 and spent the next several years working to protect, support, and advocate for vulnerable populations. In 2011 she learned the value of alternative education, Shannon started homeschooling and continued to homeschool all 3 of her children until middle school. Since then she has devoted her life to education. She started a homeschool co-op, taught English to Chinese children, and most recently spent the last four years teaching middle school in outdoor education.
In addition to experience in teaching academics, Shannon has a background in teaching kids bushcraft skills, plant and animal identification, basic wilderness first aid and survival skills. When she is not teaching, she loves being outdoors with hiking, backpacking, and foraging being her favorite activities. Shannon’s educational philosophy centers around helping children to learn to love learning. She is an energetic teacher that loves to incorporate projects and games to help aid in concept development. She loves getting her hands dirty right alongside her students.
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Mad
Mad has been working with kids in many different settings for the better part of the last decade. She has taught, tutored, babysat, counseled, and coached everything from 6-week-olds through 16-year-olds, and everything in between (6-10 year olds are her favorite, though). Through her experience working with kids, she has become very confident with her behavior management skills, problem-solving, and patience. When she is not working at Branches, you can probably find Mad at the YMCA, where she teaches, coaches, and works in the daycare. You might also catch her at the library or a coffee shop, working on getting her degree in elementary education and special education.
Mad’s favorite classes to teach are art and science. She believes that getting messy and making mistakes is important for kids (and adults, too sometimes). Mad makes a point to do crafts and STEM projects that involve lots of mess-making, cause it’s more fun that way. And it’s even better if it happens outside of your home.
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