WHERE CHILDREN GROW AT THEIR OWN PACE...
You Provide...
We Do Not Provide...
We Embrace...
Shannon O'Connor
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Teacher Biography
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Shannon O’Connor has been inspired by Waldorf Education since 1986. Raised by educators herself, she was exposed to alternative pedagogy young and came to North Carolina in the early nineties to attend a conference on Cultural Diversity in the Waldorf Movement. She knew instantly that she was home.
Her first step was to join the Haw River Assembly which launched a seasonal 4 week Learning Festival that brought brought grade school students from 7 counties to the river to develop stewardship, cultural history, and community engagement through connecting to a place. She then paired her love of environmental education with her burgeoning Waldorf ideals to join Emerson Waldorf as their Kindergarten assistant. After her daughter was born, she founded Little Bird Pre School-one of the areas first Waldorf home preschools. She went on to teach at Carolina Friends School, where they said she “brought the magic back” to their Chapel Hill Early School campus. Waldorf education makes sense and people who Shannon has worked with have been inspired to take up their own studies and start initiatives of their own. Shannon started and ran the Emerson Waldorf Summer Camps, served as After-School Director, High School Art Teacher, Class Teacher, Lower-School assistant, Festivals Committee member, and more.
After guiding her first class in 2012 from 1st through 6th grade, she came to Raleigh in 2018 to help launch the state’s first Public Waldorf School: Raleigh Oak Charter, where she took her class through grades one and two. This is where she met Haley, Heidi’s daughter, and how she learned about Sun Star Farm.
Shannon has personally witnessed how every child can be seen as an individual while being held firmly and lovingly in a group that they connect deeply to and learn from. She uses music, storytelling, nature, and art to enrich the academic possibilities waiting all around us. Shannon holds a dual degree in Fine Arts/Liberal Arts from Parsons School of Design and The New School for Social Research in NYC with a concentration on Ecology, Creativity, and Education, as well as a Waldorf Teaching Certificate from Antioch University.
She has traveled the country and world studying Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore, Environmental Education, and Waldorf Philosophy. She is thrilled to weave all these skills together to work with Sun Star Farm to offer you Sun Star Folk School: a mixed age natural, practical learning environment where children can grow at their own pace.
We may be a great fit for your child and family if you value…
Sun Star Folk School
Sun Star Folk School is now enrolling for our K-3 class for Fall 2021!
What We Offer…
...a school for homeschoolers, for folks who want something different
Sun Star Farm School