Meet Noel Battista, KVFS Kindergarten Teacher!
Q: What are your favorite activities, hobbies or unique talents?
A: My favorite activities are the ones I can do with my family and loved ones. I am happiest when I’m connecting with my people, especially through sharing food. I love spending time cooking and baking. I also spend a lot of my time reading books, walking outside, sewing, or knitting.
Q: What is your favorite childhood memory of time spent in nature?
A: The house that I grew up in had a pond in the backyard. I would spend time with my siblings and cousins catching fish and frogs. We also would use an old survival book to try build traps and forts. We would get an idea and run with it. Having nature to fuel our play made the possibilities seem endless. We always had the best time by the water and willow trees.
Q: What is your "why" for working at KVFS?
A: I began working for KVFS because I feel passionate about teaching children outside. I feel blessed to be able to work at a school that values and respects nature. I love teaching outside and helping to guide littles as they find magic and wonder outside.
Q: What are your favorite activities, hobbies or unique talents?
A: Some of my favorite hobby activities are gardening, playing music, painting, beekeeping, paddling, reading Shakespeare, and exploring the woods.
Q: What is a favorite childhood memory of time spent in nature?
A: Favorite childhood memories are times spent on my family's farm here in Driftless WI - scrambling up gullies, folding myself into mossy roots and rocks, taking stream walks, stargazing on warm summer nights, playing in the snow all winter long, and watching the gullies rush with water every spring. The magic of my childhood came from time spent in the woods and veggie fields. I love being able to share these types of moments with children at KVFS.
Q: What is your "why" for working at KVFS?
A: It is an honor to encourage and inspire curiosity, gratitude, observation, play, and respect for the natural world. Adults who are dedicated stewards of the Earth grew from children who once romped around in the wild spaces of the world. Each day at KVFS we discover more about ourselves, each other, our nonhuman kin, and the natural spaces we love.
With our school year underway we wanted to introduce our amazing staff!
Meet Hannah Bigjohn one of our two 4K teachers.
Q: What are your favorite activities, hobbies or unique talents?
A: Over the past few years, my hobbies have shifted as I’ve focused on raising my daughters. Physical activity is important in my life, so my days are generally filled with playing and moving as much as I can. I love sunrise trail runs and chasing my kids around the garden. We are getting quite good at naming the trees, bugs, wild plants, and birds around our property. I also enjoy having a sauna with close friends as a way to recharge, and connect. Being in two book clubs keeps me honest and on top of my reading.
Q: What is a favorite childhood memory of time spent in nature?
A: I have so many that have shaped my path! Canoeing and doing 'all things seasonal' with my family in Lac du Flambeau, cross-country skiing through quiet pine forests, hiking off-trail with my dad in Hixon Forest every autumn (to "chase deer"), and family camping trips are all highlights. But my favorite memories are actually the small, everyday ones: walking two blocks from my house to the nearby bike trail with my friend Sammie. We’d spend entire days there building forts, playing house, and collecting bugs for my bug collection. That unstructured play in the woods really shaped my love for the outdoors.
Q: What is your "why" for working at KVFS?
A: I’ve been teaching for 12 years and have seen education across five different schools, and what drew me to the Forest School is both its philosophy and the incredible team of leaders and educators here. What keeps me here now is the children and the unique experience I get to have with them each and every day. Guiding them as we hike, explore, and learn about our relatives (plants, animals, stones, water...) fills me with energy. In our modern world, slowing down to pay attention is a skill lost when we are distracted by all the other options. It feels like the most important work now to model and guide our future generation to do exactly that: notice and pay attention to their natural world. Their curiosity, joy, honest humor, and resilience make this work profoundly rewarding.
Interested in helping out? We are looking for adults to support our 3yo program. Reach out to Meaghan Gustafson at gustafsonm@lafarge.k12.wi.us for more information!
