Christine Martin – Principal / Administrator

I was raised in Montreal and Toronto and attended University of Western Ontario, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations and Social Organizations and Psychology in 1988 with honours. I traveled for 16 months through South Pacific, Asia and Europe. In order to help finance the trip I worked for IBM in Sydney, Australia, taught children to ski in the Swiss Alps and cleaned at a hotel in Germany (it was after this that I decided it was time to come home!). Upon returning I secured a sales position with Warner-Lambert Canada. After a year I went into marketing, followed by account management. In 1994 I requested to be transferred to Vancouver and was promoted to Area Sales Manager for Western Canada where I met my husband James. Mikayla was born in 1997 and we moved to Squamish. I returned to work when Mikayla was eight months and James stayed home (after a year I realized working in management in the corporate world and being a ‘good’ mother was challenging). I quit Warner-Lambert a year later when Shondra was born.

While I was home with the girls, I read about Waldorf Education and became very inspired by it. In 2000 I, along with a small group of other parents, came together to create our dream of a Waldorf school in Squamish. In the fall of 2000 I enroled in the Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher training program through the West Coast Institute of Anthroposophy and subsequently received my Independent School Teaching Certificate from the Ministry of Education. MorningStar Kindergarten was opened in fall of 2002 and the school has grown every year since. When I am not doing school work I love to spend time with family, ski and mountain bike.

Gabriel Alden – School Secretary

I was born in 1973, the second child of five in a small town near Philadelphia, PA. My mother was a nurse and my father a minister in a small church based on the teachings of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg was alive in the 18th century, and like Steiner was a scientist and clairvoyant whose work influenced the spiritualist movement around the turn of the 20th century. With this upbringing, I have felt a natural affinity to the Waldorf principles that resonates from my early foundations. I studied music composition at Simon Fraser University and after graduation worked in an arts centre as operations manager and started a non-profit music production company. My husband Ken and I have a daughter, Mira, who was born in 2004. When she was a year, I trained in early childhood music and movement and taught classes. Family circumstances brought us the opportunity to move to Squamish and when I discovered Cedar Valley School, it kindled great excitement in me. Our daughter attends there and I am thrilled to be working as school secretary.

Astrid Lackner – Preschool Teacher

I grew up in the foothills of the Austrian Alps and spent my childhood roaming the forests with my two brothers. My parents were practical people; they built their own home and grew a lot of their own food. My father made most of our furniture and my mother sewed identical clothes for us children (which I eventually refused to wear). This way of life still influences me and I find myself recreating (it in a small way) by having a vegetable garden, making preserves and knitting socks for my friends. I spent my high school years trying to escape the confinement of a boarding school run by nuns. My destiny brought me to Vancouver as a nanny after I graduated and my love for the mountains brought me to Squamish.

Throughout my career I have worked with children in various ways: as a preschool teacher, special needs worker, in a Montessori playgroup and such. I have continuously taken courses – among them pottery, folkdance and how to use a chainsaw safely. I have also worked on my credits to receive Early Childhood Certificate in 1991 and Special Needs Certificate in 1995. Working with children has always brought many questions for me. I was constantly searching for answers and finally through my own two daughters’ discovered Cedar Valley School and Waldorf Education in 2002. Longing to learn more I enroled in the Early Childhood Waldorf Teacher Training which I completed in 2006. Anthroposophy, the philosophy behind Waldorf Education has given me a better understanding of my work, my own children and myself. I’m inspired to be working in a community of dedicated and amazing people.

Shannon Johnson – Preschool Teacher

Born and lived in Vancouver area most of my life, we joyfully moved to Squamish in 2005. My husband Djordje and I have three children, 17 year old Breeanna a student at Quest University, and twin boys, Jovan and Alexandar at CVWS. Interests: making things (anythingreally, as long as I can figure how to operate the tools to make it!),  belly dancing and good eating. My greatest interest in life is the study ofhuman beings and how they grow and develop. I am most grateful for my job at Cedar Valley for the opportunity to enjoy and learn from the little “case studies” in kindergarten. Childhood dream: to be Laura Engles from “Little House on the Prairies” when I grew up. Hobbies and endeavours still to come: to learn to sew my own clothes and to build a straw bale structure. By 2011 I will have completed my Early Childhood Waldorf Teacher Training.

My favourite quote: “What is asked of us as parents (and teachers) is sometimes more than we would expect from any person. That is as it should be; wehave been given the wonderful challenge of growing as human beings while at the same time giving the highest service possible.”
~Franklin Kane

Lynn Surowich – Kindergarten Teacher

Lauren Baldwin – Kindergarten Assistant

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to find a way to combine my interests in working with children, building community and safeguarding the natural environment. My early teaching experiences included coaching competitive swimming and leading a Junior Forest Rangers crew while balancing a career in environmental engineering. While my environmental work was valuable, it didn’t nurture my soul. When I joined the Waldorf Education Society of Edmonton I discovered a place that fed all my passions – the environment, my love for the outdoors, my need to express myself artistically and working with children.

While I didn’t go to a Waldorf school myself as a child, I did grow up with parents who modeled much of what is important in a Waldorf community and classroom – making things from scratch, appreciating the outdoors, working co-operatively and reaping the rewards of hard work. These values and skills remain sources of enjoyment for me and my siblings. My other interests include working with fibres, being outdoors and cooking. When I’m not preparing for class I can usually be found sewing, exploring the nearest trail or cooking up a new dish. I’m looking forward to sharing these passions and more with my students over the coming year. After completing my teacher training in June 2010 my partner Kevin and I headed to Squamish.

Caroline Bergin – Class 3/4  Teacher

Born in Southwestern Ontario, Caroline Bergin received her formal education at the University of Western Ontario. Later, she received a Master of Science in Education from Medaille College, Buffalo, NY.  She spent 10 years studying and teaching holistic health and nutrition in Vancouver and London. She is a registered holistic nutritionist and a certified children’s yoga instructor. Caroline became a Waldorf enthusiast in 1998 and enroled her daughter into the London Waldorf School in September of 2003. In 2009, she completed her practicum work in the Grade 3 class at the London Waldorf School. She continued working there as a supply teacher and parent volunteer. She and her daughter returned to British Columbia in 2010. She is wholehearted about becoming a Waldorf teacher.

Fritz Bindseil – Class 5/6 Teacher

I was born in 1950 in a little village in East Germany. I spent my childhood moving from city to city because of my father’s job as a manager of a steel factory. For 10 years I lived in Berlin by a river where we had our own dock and I became a passionate fisherman. I started competitive rowing at the age of 13 and I did this for 10 years. During my rowing career I was the GDR champion several times and also a member of the extended Olympic Rowing Team for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. I graduated high school in 1968, where I also took an apprenticeship as a bricklayer. After high school I studied sport pedagogy and became a rowing coach. Getting into competitive sports was the only way to travel to western countries because East Germany was a communist country. I became a successful rowing coach and my sportsmen and women won medals at World Championships and Olympic Games. After 16 years of coaching I sought a more creative way of expressing myself.

After the reunification of East and West Germany, Waldorf Schools in the east shot out of the ground like mushrooms. I lived in Magdeburg, a town with 300,000 people near Berlin, and friends of mine started a Waldorf School and they asked me to become a teacher at the new school. I quit my rowing job and went to school again. I studied at several universities as a class teacher and a language teacher. I also traveled to England every summer for about 10 years and took extra courses in Speech Formation, Drama, Clowning and English Literature and Grammar. I taught in Magdeburg, a school with 350 students and 30 teachers, for 16 years as a class teacher and as a teacher for English and sports. We also had a big workshop with two sections for woodwork and metalwork, a theatre, a gymnasium, workshops for weaving, bookmaking, sculpturing, painting and more. There were also laboratories for chemistry and physics. I always wanted to improve my English and spend some time in another country, so I applied for a sabbatical and came to Canada in 2005. I worked for one year in the Okanagan Valley before I came to Squamish. I love it here and I plan to stay and do my best to help our school to grow.

Peter Morris – Class 7/8 Teacher

Most of my teaching career has been spent at Sunrise Waldorf School in Duncan, where I was the first class teacher hired at Sunrise and went on to take two classes of students from Grade 1 through 8. I have taught classes six through eight an additional two times. In addition to teaching the grades, I carried portions of the physical education program for classes four through eight. Bringing a wide range of games and sports to students is something I thrive on and I have seen how offering Bothmer Gymnastics and Spacial Dynamics brings an added dimension to the movement curriculum. I have a great love of the outdoors and enjoy sharing that with my students by taking them hiking, biking, skiing, camping and on other outdoor pursuits. I also enjoy bringing my guitar into the classroom to accompany our singing.

During my 24 years at Sunrise, I served for a number of years as the Faculty Chair as well as for many years as the faculty representative on the board. These additional responsibilities served to round me out as a colleague and brought me in touch with the challenges and rewards of running a school.