Micha-el School

♥️ Meet Our Teachers ♥️

Deborah Markus has been teaching elementary and middle school students for over 15 years. In 2017, she completed an eight-year journey with her first class at Micha-el. She then picked up a second class the following autumn and spent 4 years with them before making the difficult decision to step away from her full-time teaching duties to focus on my M. Ed. program. Before working in Waldorf schools, Deborah spent a year in Thailand teaching English to second-grade public school students. In addition to teaching children, Deborah has been on the summer faculty of the Micha-el Institute since 2017. As an instructor at the Institute, she teaches curriculum courses to Waldorf teacher trainees and practicing teachers seeking refresher material before moving into the next grade in the autumn. Last semester, Deborah had the opportunity to work on some part-time projects at the Waldorf School of Limassol in Cyprus.

♥️ Meet Our Teachers ♥️

Jaia has been a class teacher since 2011, and is a Waldorf Alumna herself! As a lifelong lover of learning, Jaia appreciates the fact that she can be immersed in the wonders of the Waldorf curriculum along with her students as they learn through the grades. She loves her students deeply, and enjoys seeing each of them develop their strengths as they grow into full human beings. Jaia grew up in the jungles of Hawaii, and loves being able to revel in the green beauty of the Pacific Northwest’s woods, rivers, and coastline. Jaia received her Waldorf Teaching Certificate from Micha-el Institute, after completing a MEd in Elementary Education at Portland State and a BA in International Affairs at Lewis and Clark College.