Meet The Team
Administrator
Position Available
We are searching for an administrator for the 2024-2025 school year and beyond. Here is a link to the job description: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ykqX1ZYGPJN-1tuSYUMYGXopERysnzLT/view?usp=sharing
Office Manager
Birdie Segal
Brittany Segal loved her most recent job as Attendance Secretary at Clear Lake High School as it combined two of her favorite things: kids and activity planning. She only left because she became a first-time mother. Since then, Miss Birdie has spent the past six years at home raising her three children with her husband, John. Now she is thrilled to once again be around children and planning as the Office Manager of Shade Canyon School. The strong, loving and trusting relationship between a Waldorf teacher and a child is the component of Waldorf education that drew Miss Birdie and her husband, John to enroll their children in Shade Canyon. In addition, artistic activities and time spent outdoors in nature allow children to learn at a relaxed pace appropriate to each child’s level of development, an aspect she has observed while parenting her own three children. Miss Birdie has lived in Lake County for eleven years. She likes living here for the quiet, the dark night sky, the small communities, and the farms. In fact, the family of five (plus three cats and one dog) just moved to a nine-acre property on Cobb that they hope to turn into a small family farm of their own! Miss Birdie enjoys needle felting, crafting, and gardening.
1st / 2nd Grade Teacher
Savannah Mitchell
Early in her teaching career, Savannah Mitchell taught at Head Start in Clearlake and was an early interventionist for Easter Seals, working with children with developmental disabilities all over Lake County. Before she had her first child in 2017, she taught at a Waldorf-inspired charter school in Sonoma in grades 1-3. Savannah holds a B.A. in Early Childhood Education from Pacific Union College and a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from Fresno State University. She also earned a Waldorf Teacher Diploma from the Center of Educational Renewal, which represents four years of deep study. A wife and mother of two, Savannah has lived in Lake County for most of her life and desires to see her community thrive.
Kindergarten Teacher
Rachel Anderson
Rachel Anderson taught Kindergarten in public school for five years before staying home for another five years to raise her children. She loves that Waldorf education allows children to learn through play and exploration at their own pace. She is excited to lead Shade Canyon School’s first kindergarten using this method of developmentally appropriate learning. Miss Rachel has a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with a Concentration in Music from California State University, Stanislaus, and a Cleared Multiple Subject Credential from the State of California. Her husband, Mark, is an elementary teacher and a pastor of a church on the north shore. They both enjoy the natural beauty of Lake County where they have lived for nine years. They are outside often with their energetic and playful, young sons. In her spare time, Miss Rachel likes to play piano, knit, crochet, cross-stitch, garden, bake, and cook.
Kindergarten Assistant
Kacey Lucero
Kacey Holsworth’s first experience of Waldorf education was through her daughter’s pre-school. She fell in love with the idea of outdoor learning and learning through play. She believes storytelling, singing songs, exploring nature, and making art should be a part of every child’s day, just as it is in Waldorf schools. She is excited to be the Morning Kindergarten Assistant for Shade Canyon School. After growing up visiting generations of Lake County relatives, Miss Kacey fulfilled a childhood dream and moved here in 2019. She lives in Hidden Valley Lake with her husband, Michael, three children, and a chocolate Labrador retriever. The whole family loves to be outdoors in the rain, snow, or sunshine enjoying Lake County’s beautiful mountains, trees, and fresh air! Miss Kacey loves to read, go on hikes, and visit the ocean.
Kindergarten Assistant
Tatiana Lucero
Tatiana Lucero is a recent graduate of Middletown High School, who has plans to pursue a college education sometime in the future. She has been a teacher's assistant and has experience babysitting and playing with children. Miss Tati believes that Waldorf education provides an environment for children to thrive, creatively, academically, and emotionally, at a developmentally appropriate pace. She is thrilled to be assisting Miss Rachel with the afternoon kindergarten in Shade Canyon’s first year! Miss Tati loves the beautiful natural scenery of Lake County, her home for the past seven years. She likes to spend her free time hiking, swimming, reading, and journaling.
Handwork Teacher
Tessie Abel
Miss Tessie moved to Lake County in 2019 and immediately fell in love with the natural beauty of the area. She lives in Kelseyville with her husband and two daughters, and enjoys spending as much time outside with her family as possible. She is also an enthusiastic knitter, and makes a variety of knitted stuffed creatures in her spare time to raise money for charity. Miss Tessie is excited to be working as a specialty Handwork teacher in Mrs. Mitchell’s 1st and 2nd grade class. She was recently accepted into the Waldorf Handwork Educators Teacher Development Program, and is eager to expand her knowledge of Waldorf handwork projects and teaching methods. She is especially drawn to Waldorf’s emphasis on unhurried education, and loves to see how students’ natural curiosity emerges when they are allowed to work at their own pace.
Games Teacher
Lance Giroux
Lance Giroux holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the US Military Academy at West Point. He served in the Army until 1977, when he was hired by a seminar company to teach leadership and effectiveness seminars for the public. In 1995 he founded his own firm and expanded his efforts to include organizations, government agencies, schools and universities. In 2000 the University of San Francisco hired him as an adjunct professor. He served USF until 2005. Also, in 2000 he started training Aikido, a Japanese martial art that he continues to practice and teach. Lance is most known for his connection with the American author George Burr Leonard (1923 - 2010) and The Leonard Family Trust. They retained him in 2000 as their sole facilitator training and certification agent for Leonard’s copyrighted live-action leadership simulation “The Samurai Game”. In that capacity he traveled regularly to Asia, Europe, SE Asia, Egypt, Australia and Mexico until the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. He bought a home on Mount Hannah near Cobb in 2017, and two years later opened the Aikido of Konocti dojo where he teaches classes for adults and youth. Sensei Lance (as Shade Canyon students call him) has four adult children and nine grandchildren. He likes to fish and enjoys the forest where he can slow down, listen to nature, teach Aikido, study music and write. He deeply appreciates Shade Canyon's commitment to whole-person education through love, contribution, service, and honoring our connections with each other and nature.
Garden Teacher
Angela White
Miss Angela lives a Waldorf lifestyle in relationship with the universe as a basis for her own lifelong learning. She believes that understanding the four senses in early childhood development is foundational to helping children mature through body, mind, and spirit. She is currently finishing her bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education with an advanced degree in Waldorf pedagogy. Miss Angela is a graduate of Bauman College in Nutritional Sciences and is a Nutrition Educator with more than ten years of experience teaching nutrition to all grades. She specializes in bread making and the history and cultural significance of bread which she also brings to the Shade Canyon students. In addition to baking bread, Miss Angela is an heirloom rose gardener and after homesteading for thirty years, is a master at preserving foods and baking. She moved to Lake County in 2021 from Tomales Bay, is the mother of three grown sons, and has two dogs, Ruby and Swami. She has a prayerful heart, a meditative mind. Little-known fact: she has translated 1st and 2nd century Tibetan Buddhist scriptures!
Clay Teacher
Ann Hubbard
Bio coming soon