Hi. I'm Rebecca.
Along the top of this page you'll see pictures of me doing some of my favorite things.
One thing I enjoy doing and teaching is a movement-based process know as
Brain Gym. This helps us get our brains turned on and working at it's best. In the last picture, my students are doing four different Brain Gym exercizes which we always begin with to help us get started and ready to learn. The first picture shows us doing a Brain Gym movement called Belly Breathing. We like to do this while lying in a circle with our heads on each other's belly. Can you guess what happens when one of us starts to laugh? It's a pretty hilarious chain reaction.
In all of the rest of the pictures I'm exploring the glorious outdoors with students: learning about stream creatures, the Great Lakes, snow art, raft-making from recyclables, and reading animal signs in winter.
Because of my love of nature, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan (sorry, Sparties) in environmental studies and then worked as a Naturalist for Michigan Trails Girl Scout Council,
Blandford Nature Center, and Howard Christiansen Nature Center.
Through these experiences I discovered my love of teaching and earned a Masters degree in the Art of Teaching from Aquinas College, along with a minor in Art.
This enabled me to work for Grandville Public Schools where I taught hands-on science labs, art, and then 5th grade. Some of my favorite parts of that experience was being with the same students everyday and building great learning communities. We also built a butterfly garden on our school campus which we enjoyed during our quiet reading time. AND at the end of each year we went on a wonderful excursion up to the beautiful Leelanau penisula where we explored Lake Michigan and her amazing dunes, both on foot and aboard the Schoolship Inland Seas.
In 2004 I decided to leave public school in order to start my own "mini-school", working with home-schooled students and public-schooled students who wanted to learn in a different way.
Thus HEAD TO HEART LEARNING was born.
I hope you'll enjoy looking through our website and that you'll feel free to call or email me with any questions or ideas. (or typos)
Then turn off your computer and get OUTSIDE!
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You can view Rebecca's Resume here.