Read the SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY 

TARA JORGENSEN

“Ms. Tara”  has been director and a teacher at the school for close to 30 years. Tara is Montessori trained and certified through MTP of Washington-for children preschool age through kindergarten. She uses an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, weaving in the arts and outdoors when possible. She’s attended various workshop and child safety classes, as well as CPR through Seattle Children’s Hospital and has a history volunteering and being president of a guild for Children’s.

Tara finds purpose guiding little ones, while operating the school in the same area she grew up. Over the years she’s had the pleasure of getting to know many families in the Seattle area community and finds this aspect of teaching rewarding as well. In her free time, she continues to take classes to further her knowledge base and enjoys pursuing creative outlets, one being writing. Some of her favorite moments are creating art projects with the students, as well as enjoying the outdoors- in the school garden and at the nearby P-patch. Her teaching style has been described as intuitive and compassionate.

Mr. Will is a 4th generation Seattleite and his son, Elliott, is in his 2nd year at Ms. Tara’s. Will is currently teaching music to the children on Wednesdays, which involves a lot of singing, clapping, dancing, roaring, meowing and FUN.  He runs CatVideoFest, an organization which puts on events with reels of fun cat videos (for which he also creates the music) to raise money for local animal shelters. His favorite kids song is “The Rainbow Connection” from the Muppet Movie, and he loves to make up instrumental music on the spot from the kids’ suggestions (unicorns are especially popular).

Ms. Katya is a lead teacher and teaches Spanish at Ms. Tara’s. She has a degree in Spanish from Western Washington University. After teaching preschool and elementary age students for several years in Spain, she also gained local experience as a teacher in a bilingual, mixed age preschool class. In her free time she enjoys gardening, hiking, and traveling with her family. 

Ms. Sheilah has a degree in Psychology with a minor in child psychology.  She has been connected to Ms Tara’s since 2022, when her daughter started preschool, and is now a regular teacher. She has enjoyed helping over the past couple years, especially P-patch and art days. Sheilah enjoys outings with her family that involve gardening, traveling, and cooking.