Rob VanNood
3-4-5 Teacher
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Rob’s Class Blog

I grew up thinking about the world. My parents, both Dutch, moved to Minnesota 3 years before I was born, and from the moment I was old enough to start traveling we did. Until I was 10 years old summers were spent at a variety of campgrounds, riding horses around the Grand Tetons or visiting family in Holland. My formative middle school years were spent in Brussels, Belgium. From there I had the great fortune to see much of Europe, a sliver of the Middle East and a few countries in Africa. Each country I visited gave me deeper understandings of our planet’s interconnectedness. Those experiences germinated my desire to help make the world at least a little better for others.

I fell into teaching after I graduated from Lewis & Clark in 1993 with a degree in English/creative writing. I worked as a VISTA volunteer in two SE Portland schools running the newly established SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program. That experience revealed that working with kids, especially in schools, was what I really wanted to do with my life. Since graduate school I have worked in many different settings: summer arts camps, small private schools, and large public ones. I feel so fortunate to have been part of Trillium since we opened the doors for the first time in the fall of 2002. Working in this community has been a labor of love. It is my work, my extended family, and now the school to my own two children.

There is no other place like Trillium. As a teacher it has given me the freedom to explore those things that make me passionate about working with kids. It has given me the chance to really be with kids, to have the time to understand them, and see what will help them as they explore the world. Trillium has allowed me to make my teaching an art form. Each year I explore, and create, and change and grow right along with my students.

And what is it that I do outside of Trillium you ask? When I have time, I love to ride my bike (a century anyone?), write, paint, cook, play guitar and sitar, play soccer, do yoga, read (mostly non-fiction), work in my yard (building things, taking things apart or just pulling things out of the ground) and I have this little known desire to take a stand up comedy class.

Jeremy Neldon
3-4-5 Teacher
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Jeremy’s Class Blog

The important thing about growing up in the NJ/NYC metro area, no matter how far North and West my journey has taken me or how arguably little of the accent remains, the very open, honest and, at times, animated communication style that flourishes there still resides with me like an old, loved pair of beat up jeans. With so many different cultures living in such density, it’s no wonder that sharing ideas can be like vying for the last seat in a game of musical chairs. Ideas often pour out of me in a torrent as I recount stories of my former life in the Alaskan wilderness or as I passionately affirm the creative and unique ideas bubbling up from my students. But the important thing about growing up in “Jersey” is that we love to talk!

The important thing about my life in Alaska was that wilderness adventure and peronal growth required participation in the community. I wanted to climb craggy mountains and ski down them; I wanted to paddle my kayak around the misty fjords and barren capes in waves and wind and live off the land. So rather than go “Into the Wild” on my own, I volunteered with the local conservation council and with an adaptive wilderness recreation organization, where I made lasting friends and mentors who taught me how. I wanted to become more expressive as a storyteller, an actor and a community activist. So I volunteered and worked with our regional theater and GLBT organization, where again I gave countless hours and beads of sweat for the benefit of the community while simultaneously gaining nourishment for my soul. I wanted to share my passion for adventure and learning, so I worked in the schools and with the help of my small group of peers and mentor teachers, completed a Masters in Teaching. But the most important thing about my life in Alaska is that personal growth and success requires participation in the community.

The most important thing about teaching is collaborating with others. I began my teaching career as a “Specialist,” a Gifted and Talented Teacher for a public elementary school in Alaska and later as an Art and Drama teacher for a K – 8 public school in Beaverton. I was “special” because I, like the gym teacher or the music teacher, had the pleasure of working with most if not all the school’s students, yet I had no teaching partner with whom to share ideas and create powerful learning experiences. Luckily, I have always found other educators who wanted to put their heads together and share the work of planning and prepping lessons. But most importantly, it has been my experience that remarkable student learning happens when many educators on a staff and in a community plan, teach and reflect together.

And the most important thing about Trillium is that I feel I belong here! Moving to Portland just a few years ago, I am relieved to have found such a spiffy new profesional home that is only a five minute bike ride from the house I share with my spouse, Chris. At Trillium I have found new friends who love to laugh and share stories. Here I have found a community of willing collaborators with whom I am excited to tinker and create!

Sara Tretter
3-4-5 Teacher
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Sara’s Class Blog

I grew up in a big family (6 girls!) in New Hampshire, and went to college in New York City.  After graduating from the City College of New York with a BA in English, I became a New York City Teaching Fellow.  I taught 4th and 5th grades for 3 years in New York, then moved to Portland, where I found a job as a 4th grade teacher at Portland Jewish Academy.  After 3 great years at PJA, I spent a challenging year living and teaching in a small Yup’ik village in the Alaskan bush. When I arrived back in Portland in summer 2010, I was thrilled to find a position at Trillium.

I’ve worked with all kinds of kids in my 8 years of teaching: kids from the city, kids from the suburbs, and kids from a village so isolated you can only get there by bush plane; kids from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds; kids who speak English as their native language and kids who are just learning it; kids who read years beyond their grade level and kids who struggle to read at all. Each child is unique and wonderful, and yet there are some universal qualities shared by children everywhere that have captured my heart and engaged my intellect in every class I’ve taught: curiosity, compassion, and a natural tendency to question and push at the boundaries of the possible.

I love teaching, and my particular passion is in literacy education: I’m a voracious reader and an ambitious writer, and I find great joy in exploring and playing with the written word with my students. I recently completed my Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction through Portland State, as well as an endorsement as a Reading Specialist through the Read Oregon program.

Trillium is a wonderful place to teach.  I feel challenged and inspired every day to facilitate learning experiences that are rigorous, engaging, and meaningful, yet at the same time I have the freedom to follow my students’ leads, to follow my own passions, and to let go of my need to control my kids or my classroom.  My students and I work together and learn together, and every day brings new ideas, challenges, and discoveries.

Lauren Kristensen
3-4-5 Teacher
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Lauren’s Class Blog

It would be impossible for me to explain who I am without diving in head first and beginning by writing about my love of swimming. Growing up in Southern California I spent countless hours around the water and it seems as though from the moment I could walk, I found myself splashing around in the pool! Competitive swimming taught me how to push myself both physically and mentally, and my time in the pool showed me that success requires work and confidence in your ability to learn and make changes. There is no better feeling than realizing that your mind can overcome any limits you might have and I work every day to instill the value of practice in my students. Swimming holds a special place in my heart because coaching my local swim team was my first introduction to teaching and my experience as a collegiate swimmer at Claremont McKenna College (thank you Coach Charlie!) helped me develop a strong sense of teamwork. This year I am excited to embark on a journey with a new team and I couldn’t be happier to be at Trillium where team teaching and group thinking drive learning every day!

I come to Trillium with a strong background in behavioral therapy and an immense love for children diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. Before becoming a classroom teacher I discovered the joys of learning as the children I worked with taught me what it was to see and hear the world in a different way. As a behavioral therapist I spent three years working to develop speech and self-sufficiency in each of my children and the need I saw for teachers trained to work with special populations inspired me to become and educator. Moving to Oregon from sunny California to attend graduate school was a difficult transition, but the graduate program that I attended made every drop of rain worth it! During my two years at Marylhurst University I was able to attend graduate teaching classes in the evenings while working full time teaching kindergarten and first grade at the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences. Every day I was able to apply what I was studying at Marylhurst in my own classroom and since moving to Oregon, I have had the opportunity to spend the last three years bringing my passion for hands on learning to kindergarten, first grade, and fourth grade students.

Now to get personal! I am a California girl through and through and my students often hear me exclaim that it’s a “SUNGLASSES RECESS!” whenever a glimmer of sunshine might break through outside! In addition to my love of sunshine I also was born with a very strong sweet tooth and my cravings for frozen yogurt and rainbow sprinkles are legendary amongst my group of friends. My dog’s name is Venus and she is the sweetest Chiwennie you will ever meet. I spend my free time visiting the dog park, playing SET and hoping for sun…