Teacher & Student Voices
“Monica ignited my child’s love of language. Now that she attends a bigger school, with students from a variety of educational backgrounds, the benefit is crystal clear. My child works at writing assignments as a diligent craftsman, confident that the effort she puts in is worthwhile and that she is equipped beyond her peers to succeed.”
Andrea, parent
“Monica is a fantastic teacher. My eight years in Monica’s Waldorf class laid the foundation for my personal development and academic success, and I still feel lucky to have been one of her students.”
Ian, Lecturer, Stanford University, President of Etho Capital
“Monica is an inspiration to watch in the classroom, a true master teacher. As a colleague she was always generous with her time and willing to listen and share ideas as I worked on forming my class.”
Jenn, Colleague and Waldorf Class Teacher
“Monica is a lovely mentor who has provided me with digestible advice, encouragement, and a framework for growing my potential as a class teacher. When we have check-ins, she listens intently and gives relevant advice based on current and past conversations. Her knowledge of Waldorf Education, Anthroposophy, and classroom management comes through in her advice every session we have. When she visits my class, she is personable with my colleagues, students, and class parents. She even volunteers to give demo lessons! As a class teacher I love that she points out my strengths and respectfully challenges other areas.”
Joy, Waldorf Class Teacher
“As my class teacher for elementary and middle school, Monica created space for me to thoughtfully and self-assuredly approach whatever challenges came my way. Her guidance helped me hone the capacity to think critically about complex systems while gaining the tools to understand deeper context. I attribute much of my ability to conceptualize and execute a career change (from film design to medicine) to the foundational lessons and freedoms my mind was granted by being her student.”
Sylvianne Shurman, student of medicine and public health
.jpg)
“I have worked with Monica since 2016 through our collaboration in Waldorf-inspired outdoor education at Kroka Expeditions. Monica began to bring her Waldorf class and then her homeschool group on canoeing and backpacking expeditions and daylong winter trips. Working together, we developed a progressive curriculum from grades 3 - 7 that integrated Monica’s academic teaching with a rich life in the outdoors. While we worked together, Monica expertly tied our experience in nature to her work in the classroom, bringing ceremony, poetry, and exercises of self-reflection into our daily routine with students, and then bringing their experience in nature back into their main lessons.”
Ezra Fradkin, Managing Director, Kroka Expeditions
“For eight years, I was one of many lucky students to learn and grow under Ms. Marshall’s firm, compassionate, and devoted tutelage. She made learning magical. Lessons took on the form of engrossing stories, many ending with us begging to hear what happens next. Ms. Marshall keenly observed our strengths and challenges and made each of us feel special, seen, and worthy. Her praise gave me courage, and her feedback filled me with a hunger to be a better student, friend, and human. She saw the potential in each of us, and by holding us to the highest standards, she ensured we strove to reach them.
I could wax on about Ms. Marshall’s breath of knowledge on a vast array of subjects, her astute writing abilities, her talent as a playwright and director, and her unparalleled devotion to teaching us in the classroom, in the woods, and even in the canyons of the Southwest. But most importantly, Ms. Marshall possesses the most critical, elusive skill you could ever ask for in a teacher: she cultivates a love of learning in her students. I will be forever grateful to Ms. Marshall for seeing that spark within me and nurturing it for eight years, kindling a flame that burns bright to this day.
After graduating from Ms. Marshall’s class, I arrived at Phillips Academy (Andover) hardly knowing how to type on a keyboard and yet I felt wholly prepared to take on the rigors of my classes, from biology to geometry to English. In fact, I felt ahead of many of my classmates in many subjects, and in every class, I felt hungry to learn and equipped with the tools to think with a critical eye and an open mind. I graduated with the highest honors.
This foundation once again proved solid at Princeton University, where I won the freshman year writing prize and graduated Magna Cum Laude. The hardest part of college was having to choose a major; I wanted to learn about everything, just as I had in Ms. Marshall’s classes. Now as a writer and editor for Outside Interactive Inc, I continue to lean on those fundamental skills, work ethic, and an insatiable desire that Ms. Marshall cultivated within me.
Ms. Marshall pours her heart and soul into her work. She will forever be like a third parent, and I am indebted to her for sharing her mirthful wit and curiosity with me as a student and still now as an adult.”
Abigail Levine, former student, journalist and long distance runner
