For the past decade, Clare has enjoyed being an educator in Early Childhood classrooms in the Chicagoland area, actively participating in the exploration and growth of many young children. Clare completed her undergraduate at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana with a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education and after spending some time in the classroom, she went back to study Child Development, receiving her Master’s Degree from Erikson Institute in 2017.

While teaching, Clare has always valued the importance of nurturing a child’s innate curiosity in the early stages of their developmental learning. This school year, she has been spending time at home with her one-year-old son, often in awe of his own development and growth from a parent’s lens. She misses the classroom and the teacher-student connection, and is looking forward to exploring and having fun with Bennett Live!

Ms. Powell is a dedicated educator with a passion for children’s learning and care. Ms. Powell has 15 plus years of experience with families and children. Her experience has been in both educational and home environments, with children aged birth through second grade. She has a B.A. in Early Childhood Education from Kendall College. Ms. Powell also attended Lewis University, where she completed her Masters in Organizational Leadership.

Ms. Powell is creative, enthusiastic, and sensitive to children’s individual needs. She believes that the quality of education and care a person receives in the early stages of life is essential in bringing out that child’s potential. She also believes all children should have access to quality learning and care. Ms. Powell has been a member of the Bennett community for years and she looks forward to working with other passionate educators, and families as well.

Ms. Okuda graduated from Columbia College, Chicago in May 2014 with a B.A. in Early Childhood Education, Type 04 Teaching License, and a minor in dance. Ms. Okuda also taught dance classes in various styles to children and adults of all ages for over 14 years, all over the Chicagoland area. It was in the dance studio that she realized her true calling was to teach!

During her time in a Reggio Emilia Approach-focused program, she was taught to thoughtfully integrate art and nature into all aspects of the classroom. This was further inspired when she traveled to Reggio Emilia, Italy, and attended conferences and school tours with Italian Early Childhood Educators. When Ms. Okuda is not teaching in a classroom, she is teaching at dance studios in the city and suburbs.

Miss Katie’s love for music started with the plastic box of handbells, blue rhythm sticks, castanets, and guiros her parents kept next to the piano. She was fascinated with the wooden grooves and different tones, and would play with them obsessively on the floor. Having the space to explore music from a young age is what inspired Miss Katie to become a musician and educator today.

Miss Katie’s background in music education extends from teaching early childhood classes for Old Town School of Folk to teaching on-camera lessons for Fender, one of the largest music companies in the world. She is the creator of her own kids Youtube channel, “Miss Katie Sings”. Miss Katie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and a CELTA Certificate from Cambridge’s ESL Instruction Program and is excited to foster a child’s music curiosity for creatively reimagining their environment.

Connect:

• Website: misskatiesings.com
• Instagram: misskatiesings
• Youtube: misskatiesings

Mr. Vinnie created his Pots & Pans Preschool music program to tap into the limitless ways children interact with music and sound.  In classrooms, children become instant co-creators of the music they hear around them, free from fear of “doing it wrong”.  Online, the classes have been adapted into explorations of various aspects of sound, music, and composition.

Mr. Vinnie brings expertise, experience, and dedication as a graduate of DePaul’s School of Education and a former Pre-k and toddler classroom teacher. He is a member of the Chicago Federation of Musicians and helped create critically acclaimed shows as Musical Director at The Second City Theater.

Connect:

• Website: potsandpanspreschool
• Instagram: potsandpanpreschool 

Miss Wingerter’s interest in teaching sprung from a love of working with children in theatre. As well as working with numerous children’s theatre companies in and around the Chicagoland area, performance has taken her from commercials and film to business ownership and design. Originally from Atlanta, GA, she moved to Chicago to attend Roosevelt University.

Miss Wingerter holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre, as well as a Conservatory Certificate from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. Miss Wingerter is excited to continue to work with the Bennett community supporting and developing programming for Bennett Day Camp, Bennett Live, and the Bennett Classroom.

Connect: 

• Website: susanwingerter.com

Michelle Modrzejewski joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Education Department in 2014 and serves as the Community Programs Manager. She balances her time between teaching and managing Hubbard Street’s diverse in-school contracted partnerships, the Autism Project, the Parkinson’s Project, the Youth Dance Program’s ChoreoLab, and other community outreach.

Prior to joining the Hubbard Street staff, Michelle taught dance and movement in both public and private settings for ages ranging from early childhood to adulthood.  Additionally, she worked with the Chicago based wellness organization, Mindful Practices, where she led professional development workshops for educators in and around Chicago which focused on classroom management and social-emotional learning.

Michelle has performed and choreographed throughout Chicago and the Midwest as both a freelanced artist and as a company member with Synapse Arts Collective. More recently, Michelle has taken on the role of Board Member for the non-profit ballet company, Ballet 5:8. Michelle is a 2007 graduate of Ball State University, where she earned her B.A. in Dance.

Connect: 

• Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Anne Kasdorf has taught extensively throughout the Chicago area since 2005 and begins her fifth year on faculty with Hubbard Street’s Youth & Community Programs in the fall of 2016. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography from Ohio University. As a performer and teaching artist of Zephyr Dance for seven seasons, she led several in-classroom, after-school and Chicago Park District residencies.

Anne is in her tenth season with The Space Movement Project (TSMP) as a performer and choreographer. As the Managing Director of TSMP, she manages company operations and oversees the company’s rehearsal studio, OuterSpace. Anne has appeared as a guest artist with dropshift dance and in Wili Dorner’s Bodies in Urban Spaces. She is the Chicago City Editor of the Not for Tourists and a freelance grant writer that has also been published in TimeOut Chicago, DanceSpirit and theurbaness.com.

Connect: 

• Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Shannon Johnson was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She graduated from Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and received additional dance training with Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and Jacob’s Pillow Jazz/Musical Theatre Program.

Shannon is on faculty at the Lou Conte Dance Studio, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Youth Program, and Mindful Practices.

Connect: 

• Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Mrs. Judd enjoys dual careers in both education and toy/game design (having worked with Hasbro, Playskool, and KBooM! Games.) She is a faculty member at Bennett Day School, teaching in the EC TESLab for Early Childhood Tinkering and Engineering Sciences. Curating this unique maker-space involves presenting tangible materials, tech tools, and tinker-tray resources to promote cause & effect learning that is dynamic, self-directed, and open-ended.

As a fellow at Bennett Labs, Judd leads student co-design projects, such as Osmo Kaleidoscope iPad app, and Story Dealer storytelling cards. She is also a member of Northwestern University’s TIDAL Lab (Tangible Interaction Design and Learning). Mrs. Judd’s educational background includes: Special Ed., Art Ed., Elementary Ed., and Early Childhood Ed.

Born and raised in Brownsville, TX, Layzabeth Gonzalez received her BFA in dance from Sam Houston State University, where she performed works by Elijah Alhadji Gibson, Joshua L. Peugh, Joshua Manculich, Dionne Noble and Andrew Noble. In 2018, Gonzalez was the President for the Sam Houston Dance Honors Society, where she promoted dance as a tool for growth and unity throughout the community. She was the recipient for Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Endowed Scholarship and recognized as an Outstanding Non-Traditional Student Leader by the Sam Houston State University.

Gonzalez has attended the Gus Giordano College-Pro Intensive in Chicago, IL, as a scholarship recipient in 2017, worked for Ballet Hispanico in New York City as a teacher assistant and production intern in 2018, and attended the 2019 Ballet Hispanico ChoreoLab in NYC. Gonzalez had her professional performance debut in Elijah Alhadji Gibson’s show “The Black Card” in Houston, Texas and worked with Gibson’s up and coming company Social Movement Contemporary Dance.

Gonzalez is now in Chicago,IL to continue dancing and pursue her passion for Community Outreach and Dance Education by working with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Elmhurst Park District.

Connect: 

• Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Mr. Reynolds is an experienced educational leader and an award-winning classroom teacher with over 15 years of experience in making, creating and project-based learning with children in the elementary grades. He completed his undergraduate at Valparaiso University with a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, and at Loyola University, his Masters in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. A founding member of the Bennett Day School educational team, and TinkerLab curator,

Mr. Reynolds, adopts an integrated approach to teaching and learning, incorporating technology into student research, presentation, communication and assessment for enhanced outcomes. He sees his role as a guide, learning with children as they express their understanding through a hundred languages of learning and more. Mr. Reynolds is a creative problem-solver with a passion for student-centered inquiry and is inspired by making, problem-solving and design thinking. He is a natural explorer and loves discovering new ways to create, build and design the world around us.

Coach Carson is certified in functional and physical training as well as youth fitness. Through this training, he is able to breakdown movements and exercises for people of all ages and fitness levels. He is a personal trainer in a Chicago based Health Club and has been training for nearly 8 years. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to meet and work with people of all different ages and backgrounds.

One of his favorite aspects of training is seeing his clients progress and watching them reach goals they didn’t realize they could accomplish. Coach Carson has a background in powerlifting and is enthusiastic about fitness, health, movement, and daily activity. He is excited to connect with youth and adult audiences alike, spreading his passion for active play, and getting everyone up and moving.

Miss Lipke has taught Physical Education and Health in Chicago K-8 schools for the past seven years while coaching and developing a variety of after-school programs. An accomplished athlete, Miss Lipke was the Captain, MVP, and all-time season assist leader of her collegiate basketball team at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, where she earned a B.A. in Communications and a Public Relations minor. 

Earlier in her career, Miss Lipke worked in advertising but realized she was missing her true passion for health, fitness, and sports, and she felt motivated to share that passion with others. She then earned a B.S. in Physical Education from DePaul University as well. Miss Lipke enjoys being active with her students in class and works together with her students to create a fun, positive, and energetic environment. She is excited to help Bennett Day students use their creativity to explore individually and in a team environment while building confidence to become lifelong movers.

James “Mr. G.” Garrison is a passionate elementary teacher and explorer of Chicago Architecture! An ELL/ESL teacher in the Winnetka Public School District, and the University of the Potomac, Mr. G. is a bilingual first grade teacher (English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese) who completed his teacher-training and education at University of Winter Haven, Florida and served as a Special Library Project Director, design and set-up of a new library at Ball Horticulture.

Mr. G. has a deep appreciation for Chicago’s rich architectural history, having grown up in a family of architecture buffs and runs a small tour company that focuses on the best of Chicago’s architecture, culture, and history.

Connect:

• Website: cwetours.com

Ms. Fairty grew up loving to learn through exploration and investigations in nature.  Her sense of adventure and love for the outdoors has followed her throughout her teaching career both in Chicago and in Nepal. After graduating with her degree in Elementary Education, she moved to Kathmandu, Nepal where she taught 4th grade at an international school and explored the country. Tara trekked during school breaks, took a couple of kayaking trips, and explored the beauty of the terrain.  In addition to many adventures, her experience in Nepal allowed her to teach in an inclusive, diverse, and globally-minded community.

In 2017, Ms. Fairty moved back to Chicago and has taught at various schools in the city. While Chicago does not have access to the Himalayan Mountains or raging whitewater, it has incredible beauty of its own that Ms. Fairty has enjoyed exploring.  In addition to learning in the classroom and growing as an educator, Ms. Fairty has completed her M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction with a minor in Trauma and Resilience in Education from Concordia University. She seeks to foster a love for learning and curiosity and has found nature to be the best classroom.

Mr. Granquist received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Musicology from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Moving to the vibrant, progressive, education community of San Francisco, he worked for 5 years as a 3rd-grade teaching assistant at The San Francisco School while simultaneously being mentored in the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education.

After teaching music at various Bay Area schools, Mr. Granquist spent the last 2 years establishing and growing a music program at The Presidio Knolls School, a mandarin immersion, Reggio Emilia-inspired independent school. He has completed all three levels of the Orff Certification Course with the world-renowned teachers of the San Francisco International Orff Course.

Mr Granquist brings joyful energy and a firm belief in Orff’s power to develop the mind and uplift the soul. When not teaching, Mr. Granquist gigs as a professional drummer and vocalist.

Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah is a filmmaker and cultural worker from Ghana. His film practice is in an ongoing dialogue with images, objects, sound and space. With an MFA from Columbia College Chicago Cinema Art + Science and a BFA in Television from the National Film and Television Institute in Accra, Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah’s work spans four continents. He has taught television at the National Film and Television Institute in Accra and participated in a residency at Beijing’s China Radio and TV Association, and Serbia’s Documentary Master Class (InterDoc).

In 2014, he received a 3arts fellowship and a Gamec hangers Project fellowship, a US-based national fellowship program for emerging filmmakers of color. He is also a recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award, Chicago, and The City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Individual Artists Program (IAP) Grant Award, among others. 

Kofi Ofosu- Yeboah has developed media content for the National Black Programming Consortium’s (NBPC) Black Public Media. The filmmaker has presented work at the annual convening of the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) at American University in Washington, D.C. and Montana State University in Bozeman. His recent work, Public Toilet Africa, set in the land of his birth debuts at the festival circuit in 2021.

Miss Vander Pluym has thirteen years of progressive education experience and is currently a Lead Teacher at Bennett Day Upper School. She received her BA in Secondary Education, Social Sciences from Millikin University and her MA in Anthropology from The University of Chicago. Lauren is a trained diversity and inclusion facilitator through The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), and she loves telling unique and varied stories through the medium of photography.

Prior to her time at Bennett, Miss Vander Pluym served as Technology Coordinator at The Logan School for Creative Learning in Colorado, where she fell in love with the art of photography. The incredible natural landscapes inspired her to learn as much as she could about the craft, and eventually, she formed Lauren Vander Pluym Creative. She specializes in family portraits and also photographs weddings. Lauren also enjoys newborn portraits and photographed families at Prentice Hospital for Bella Baby Photography. For Lauren, no photo is more beautiful than those that capture the learning of her students.

Connect: 

• Website: Lauren Vander Pluym Creative

A social and digital innovator, entrepreneur, educator and learning consultant, Dr. Page has a PhD in the Psychology of Web Knowledge and an obsession with social digital storytelling. She has over 18 years experience working at the intersection of social innovation, social design and learning of mediated social experiences for Startups, Universities, Schools and School Districts, to Fortune 500 companies.

Kelly believes that at the heart of innovative and entrepreneurial thinking is creating truly social cultures, organization, and leaders.Her work has been published in leading peer-reviewed academic business, education and technology journals, and been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal. Her work has received awards from IDMA and a BIMA – Best in British Digital.

Kelly is regularly invited to speak on topics such as Social Leadership, The Art of Social Media and Women in Business, Technology and Leadership. A member of the TEDx community, Kelly has has spoken at TEDx, Ignite and Pecha Kucha, locally and internationally. Kelly is director of Bennett Labs, a learning innovation and development lab at Bennett Day School.

Connect:

• Website: LWYL Studio