Rainbow Mountain Second Grade Staff
West Willmore Dickinson, 2nd Grade Teacher
West brings with her several years of experience teaching natural sciences and environmental education to children of all ages. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies. West is currently completing her Master’s of Education from Montana State University.
West first became interested in teaching while working with children in environmental education centers and camps. Her own love of the natural world and her joy in sharing this world with children inspired her to pursue a teaching career that used “nature’s theater” as a primary learning environment. Much of West’s own education took place in nature’s classroom where she studied the unique ecosystems of the Appalachian region and the Southeastern barrier islands, the western United States, and New Zealand.
West’s teaching quest led her to a yearlong graduate program at the Teton Science School in Grand Teton National Park. There she studied a variety of experiential, place-based educational theories and methods. She spent an intensive year working with children in indoor and outdoor classrooms using a variety of teaching approaches including project-based learning, thematic study, discovery learning, action research and multiple intelligences theory.
As a lifelong learner herself, West is excited to help fulfill Rainbow Mountain’s educational mission to foster lifelong learners who come to understand, through a process of experiential discovery, their connection to themselves, their community and the natural world around them. She strongly believes that direct experience is the primary stepping stone to understanding.
When she is not opening the wooded, leafy doors of her students’ imaginations, West can be found hiking or mountain biking, rock climbing with her husband, and exploring the forest in search of insects, birds, mushrooms and other natural wonders to share with her students. Or perhaps just listening to the wild music of the forest and its rocky mountain streams.
Andrew Gilligan, 2nd Grade Assistant Teacher
(coming soon)
