Faculty

Gnomes Kindergarten Teacher – Silke Markowski was born in 1965 in a small village in Germany. After finishing her educator’s training, she traveled to the U.S., where through her work with children she discovered Waldorf education. She brings over twenty years of teaching experience to the Gnomes Kindergarten where she has shares her love of music and puppetry. Silke has been a happy Gnome teacher for fifteen years and feels blessed with the magic, beauty and love the children bring into her life and a community that makes her feel at home.  Silke is also the Director of the Early Childhood Program.

Gnomes Kindergarten Teacher's Assistant – Alina Bain was born and raised in Taos and spent her childhood exploring the mountains and rivers of northern NM and playing music.  After graduating from Taos High, she received her BA in English and Music from Middlebury College, Vermont in 2003 and eventually made her way back home to Taos.  Alina was brought to TWS by her mother, Vadan Baker, the handwork teacher at the time, and began as a kindergarten assistant in 2006.  After a few years of playing with Silke and the Gnomes,  she is excited to bring her love of music, baking and the outdoors to the Early Childhood children.  Alina has completed part of the Waldorf Early Childhood training at the Rudolf Steiner College and plans to continue next summer.

Grade One and Two – Michelle Simmons - An educational entrepreneur, Ms. Simmons has participated in the visioning, founding, and development of a number of educational initiatives.  Having worked with a variety of pedagogical models, Ms. Simmons became familiar with the Waldorf pedagogical approach in recent years, and has actively pursued it as a natural integration of effective teaching methods and process for holistically supporting student development.  Ms. Simmons is in her second year of teaching using Waldorf-inspired methodologies, capping a career of twenty years in the teaching profession.

Grade Four and Five - Beth Krieger-Fritsch moved from the Midwest to Taos in 2007. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse with a double major in English and Spanish, and then moved to Minneapolis, MN where she taught as a Certified Montessori Teacher in a preschool and kindergarten room. When she moved to Taos she began teaching at Twirl for Kidspace and Music classes, mentoring Taos youth in creative writing, and running Little Hands Playschool — an at-home daycare with Montessori and Waldorf influences. She has also taught as a swim instructor and an ESL teacher. She is inspired by the Waldorf approach to education and is very excited to teach Games and Movement at TWS where she will share her love of the outdoors and exercise while incorporating physical, emotional and social awareness into each class. Beth speaks Spanish, is an avid runner, biker, skier, and hiker, and also loves to garden, write, and read. She lives near school with her husband, Tom, and two children Oliver and Mae.

Grade Eight – Sarah Beasley earned her degrees in History and Geology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she also nurtured her love for the outdoors and traveled extensively while studying abroad in Europe. After graduating, Sarah had adventures collecting stories from Native American elders in Oklahoma, writing grants for a lake association in the northernmost part of Maine, and leading teenage boys on backpacking and climbing trips. Sarah discovered Waldorf education while working on a migrant farm crew, raking wild blueberries, and fell in love with the holistic approach to education. After completing her teacher training at the Arcturus program in Chicago, Sarah spent time in Ireland as a gardener and baker at a Camphill community. From there she was called to Taos by her wonderful class!