Nettie is a trained Waldorf teacher and remedial specialist from the Netherlands. From 1976-1993 she was a class teacher at the Brabant Waldorf School in Eindhoven. Nettie has mentored teachers worldwide. She is currently the educational support teacher at SWS. She is also on the core faculty of the Sound Circle Teacher Training Center in Seattle and co-directs the Grade School Teacher Training.
Bob received his BA in Music Education from Northern Illinois University and a MA in Music from Western Washington University. He is co-founder of the Pacific Brass Quintet and an accomplished trumpet player. Since 1992 he has brought a love of music to our students.
Patricia was born in Brooklyn, New York, a child of two very musical parents. As a seventh grader at St. Athanasius elementary school, she was asked to lead the singing at church. Her artistic interests led her to the High School of Performing Arts where she learned to play viola and enjoyed the opportunity to perform as accordion soloist with professional symphonic orchestras! Working as a singer, keyboard player and music educator helped her to earn a BFA from the City College of New York and a masters degree from the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. The years of teaching, recording, composing, arranging and performing from Brooklyn and Broadway to Nashville, inspired a move to the Emerald City. Since 1990, Patricia has earned her Ph.D. at the University of Washington School of Music, taught in Seattle Public Schools, and spent seven years working as Director of Education and Community Programs for Seattle Symphony, including responsibility for the creation and implementation of Soundbridge (Seattle Symphony Music Discovery Center). Patricia has been a Waldorf parent since 2002 and enjoys learning new ways to experience music with students, colleagues and families at SWS!
Naoki was born and raised in Niigata prefecture in Japan. From the age of three, he enjoyed skiing with his father. He studied pharmacy at Kanazawa University, and after graduating worked for a hospital in his hometown as a pharmacist. He spent most of his twenties in Tokyo, attending an acupuncture school and working as a pharmacist. He enjoyed the metropolitan busy life and encountered Anthroposophy through a friend, which changed his life. Immediately Naoki joined an Anthroposophical study group and was fascinated by Steiner’s philosophy. In 1983 Naoki and his wife Yumiko moved to Camphill Village, Beaver Run in Pennsylvania to explore Curative education and Anthroposophy. They spent four years as seminarists, caring for and living with mentally handicapped children. Their first child was born and Waldorf education became a real practice for their own child as well. Naoki trained as a Waldorf teacher at the Waldorf Institute in New York State. The Hiratas then moved back to Japan and Naoki worked for a Waldorf approach kindergarten as a kindergarten teacher. In 1992 Naoki and his family moved to Seattle and SWS, where Naoki has been teaching Japanese ever since. He loves sharing his language and culture with American students.
Anne comes to the Seattle Waldorf School with seven years experience teaching middle school, high school and university level Spanish. In 1998 she completed a Master's degree in Spanish and Latin American Literature at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She earned her B.A. in Sociology at Carleton College, the capstone of which was a study of a soil conservation project in Ecuador. She has lived and traveled in Ecuador and Spain and has led high school trips abroad on three different occasions. Her most recent adventure abroad was a year in Nagano, Japan where she had the privilege of teaching in a public high school. Anne's students appreciate her lively classes and her dedication to conducting them in Spanish. She lives in Seattle with her husband Jake and two small children, Cecilia and Joseph. Along with her passion for languages, she enjoys running, hiking, backcountry skiing, making clothes and playing with her family.
Mrs. Towles received a BA from the University of Washington is Costume Design in 2000. She pursued her sewing and design skills through her Organic Cotton Clothing business. Tiffany taught sewing to children for a few years while raising her daughter Harmony. In 2004 she began her Waldorf Teacher training with the Amethyst Class at Sound Circle Teacher Training. During this time Tiffany was the Handwork Assistant at the Seattle Waldorf School bringing much of her own creativity into the classroom. In June of 2007 Tiffany graduated from the teacher training and accepted the position as the Handwork Teacher at SWS. Tiffany is delighted to share her creative gifts with the students.
Claudia Fontana was born in Eastern Germany and came to the U.S. when she was eight years old. When she saw Eurythmy for the first time she knew that this would become her profession. She chose to study in Vienna, Austria. Upon completing Eurythmy School she was invited to join the Goetheanum Stage Group In Dornach, Switzerland, where she lived for the next six years. She then spent a year with the Eurythmy Ensemble of London, England. When the Eurythmeum of Stuttgart, Germany embarked on its six-week North American tour in 1978, she was invited to join that ensemble and remained there for eight years. In 1985 she moved to Los Angeles to teach at the Waldorf school Highland Hall. In 1992 she moved to the Mid-West and taught at the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor, Michigan. As a free-lance Eurythmist she taught both children and adults in the greater metropolitan Detroit area and gave workshops for all ages in the U.S. and abroad. In September 2007 she joined the faculty of the Seattle Waldorf School as the Eurythmy teacher.
Elaine was born in Barstow, California, in the Mohave Desert. She was raised in Everett, Washington, where, as a tomboy, she was the fastest runner. She attended Everett Community College, and received her BA from Central Washington State College in Secondary Education, majoring in PE and minoring in Recreation. She has completed a five-year training in Spatial Dynamics. Her daughter and her son graduated from SWS. Mrs. Klansnic has been named “the nicest person in the world” by our students.
Tim grew up near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and has worked in agricultural and horticultural fields for over twenty years. He received his Waldorf teaching certificate from Sound Circle Teacher Training in Seattle. While market gardening and beekeeping in Oregon, on his five acre homestead, he was active with the Oregon Bio-Dynamic Group serving a term as vice-president. In 2000, Tim trained with Gunther Hauk at Sunbridge College prior to teaching gardening, woodworking and beekeeping classes at two other regional Waldorf schools. Tim enjoys working with students at each grade level and spent one year as a kindergarten assistant. He and his wife are raising a new baby of their own!
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