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    » Teacher and Parent Educator Biographies

 

Teacher and Parent Educator Biographies
           » Linda Capps ( QACP Teacher )
           » Amy Fleisher ( QACP Teacher )
           » Pam McElmeel ( Tot's and 2's Parent Educator )
           » Linda Barber ( 3's and 4's Parent Educator )

 

Linda Capps (QACP Teacher)

Linda has been a teacher at QACP since 1986.  The first two years she taught most of the classes at our preschool, and for the last twenty years she has taught all of the classes at QACP.  Linda's B.A. degree from the University of Washington is in education and English.  She discovered cooperative preschools in 1980 when her son was 2 years old, she then participated as a parent and board member over the next six years while her son and daughter attended a co-op affiliated with Shoreline Community College.  Linda's childhood dream of teaching  became an amazing journey filled with the opportunity to be a part of hundreds of young lives.  Experiencing the vitality, wonder and joy of so many QACP preschoolers has been a daily gift.

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Amy Fleisher (QACP Teacher)

Amy is excited to join Queen Anne Cooperative Preschool as a teacher in the Tots, Twos and Three’s classes. She has been a parent at QACP for the past five years (her son Jack is a graduate of QACP and her son Peter is in the morning Two’s class) and is looking forward to bringing her education background to this new role at the school. After studying early childhood development at Boston College and Seattle University, Amy earned her Master in Teaching from Seattle University. She taught second grade in California and has spent time in a variety of elementary classrooms as a substitute teacher and classroom tutor. Amy also worked for the Seattle Symphony as a coordinator of their educational outreach and spent several years working with adults as a corporate trainer. Between her education work with children and adults, and her time as a parent in the co-op classroom, Amy has many years of teaching experience. Amy is thrilled to be part of the developmental journey that is preschool and feels lucky to share the wonders of these early childhood years with QACP preschoolers and their families.

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Pam J. McElmeel, M. Ed. ( Tot's and 2's Parent Educator )

 

Pam has enjoyed working as one of the SCCC parent educators assigned to QACP since 1987.  Before joining the SCCC Parent Education Program staff Pam was simultaneously completing her Master in Education at the University of Washington and parenting two preschoolers.  Previously, as a young high school biology teacher, Pam realized that the foundations for school success were set in place long before the students reached her classroom.  After moving to Washington from Illinois in 1977 with her husband she sought out a masters program that focused on school success. Her experience as a new parent in the NSCC Parent Education Program really brought the UW Masters Program theories into practice. The parent education/cooperative preschool model combined early childhood development information and research-based child-management techniques.  This combination creates a community for families interested in opportunities for the parents to practice and share what they learned as well as get guidance from professionals.  All of Pam’s post-graduate work has been in the fields of early childhood and adult education to stay current with research in both of these fields.  Through the years Pam has seen many QA families benefit from the support and education they find at QACP.  By helping parents strengthen their parenting techniques and confidence, Pam indirectly plays a role in guiding children toward school success.  More importantly, QACP parents increase the skills needed to launch compassionate and competent citizens.

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Linda Barber ( 3's and 4's Parent Educator )

Linda Barber joined QACP in the fall of 2006 as the parent educator for the 4's class.   She attained her BA in education from Pacific Lutheran University at a time when early childhood education was not part of the curriculum.  Her first hand experience came with the birth of her two children and it was then that she started reading everything available on the topic.  She came to believe in the philosophy of Rudolf Dreikurs and went on to get her M.Ed. in education, but this time taking advantage of some early childhood classes. In Linda's last position, she worked for 12 years with 135 families for the Raising Healthy Children research project at the University of Washington. For her, it was a challenging and interesting opportunity to watch how different parenting methods worked with families and how those children turned out. Linda loves everything about her work at QACP but what she enjoys most is talking with parents about everyday challenges with their children and discussing strategies that lead to success.

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