Faculty Teams - The Berkeley School

What Matters in Education is:
making connections between and within people and communities; learning to see our interconnectedness.

4th/5th Grade Teacher (Strawberry Creek Classroom)

Alberto Palomar

4th/5th Grade Teacher (Strawberry Creek Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:
making connections between and within people and communities; learning to see our interconnectedness.

BioAlberto Palomar (he/him) is entering into his seventh year teaching at TBS and his eighteenth year as a teacher. In those years, Alberto has taught poetry workshops as an artist-in-residence in San Francisco public schools, and taught special education language arts classes in New York City and San Francisco public schools. He has taught across grades from high school to first and second grade. His son Abraham, 10, is a fifth grader in the Cerrito Creek classroom and his son Alexander, 3, joins the Live Oak classroom at the ECC this school year. His youngest daughter, Beatrice, is 1.5 years old. He is elated to work with young people in fourth and fifth grade and to collaborate with the 4/5 teaching team.

Schools AttendedB.A. UC Berkeley, M.S. City College New York City

Years in Education15

apalomar@theberkeleyschool.org

What Matters in Education is:
guiding children to connect with their inner wisdom and adjusting the environment to the capacity of every child.

ECC Teacher (Cedar Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:

building confidence, encouraging curiosity, and fostering love for life long learning!

3rd Grade Teacher (Temescal)

What Matters in Education is:
having an inclusive, supportive, and safe environment to learn.

Human Resources & Operations Manager

UAC Extended Day & Classroom Support Teacher

What Matters in Education is:

the enrichment of culture, spirit, values and everything that characterizes us as human beings.

MS Spanish Teacher

What matters in education is:

That children and teachers learn, grow, and enhance their well being together. This creates truly transformational education.

ECC Music & Movement Teacher

What Matters in Education is:
always remembering there is more to learn.

ECC Teacher (Mariposa Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:

...

6th/7th/8th Grade Science Teacher & STEM Program Director

What Matters in Education is:
fun! When activities are fun, students want to stay engaged which allows for true learning to happen.

K-8 Physical Education Teacher & After-School Sports Coach

What Matters in Education is:
joy. With joy comes a freedom that allows magical, powerful, important learning experiences to take hold.

Kindergarten Teacher (Sweet Briar Creek Classroom) & K-2 Team Leader

What matters to me in education is:

A connection with all students, letting them know that we are here for them through the ups and downs.

UAC Extended Day Coordinator

What Matters in Education is:
nurturing a child’s understanding of the world through exploration and self-expression.

ECC Associate Teacher (Cedar Classroom)

What matters in education is:

A solid foundation, giving children the tools they need to lead.

ECC Associate Teacher (Magnolia Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:
helping students develop their curiosity. They need to build their ability to seek the truth.

7th & 8th Math Teacher & MS Team Leader

What Matters in Education is:

Empathy, accessibility, self-expression, collaboration, and critical thinking

Chief Financial Officer

What Matters in Education is:
nurturing a child’s understanding of the world through exploration and self-expression.

ECC Teacher (Magnolia Classroom)

ECC Ex-Day Teacher & Enrichment Specialist

What Matters in Education is:

Embracing the "uh oh" moment and relishing in the "aha" moments.

MS Dean of Students & MS Math Learning Specialist

What Matters in Education is:

Patience and Faith

8th English Teacher & MS Executive Functioning Coach

What Matters in Education is:

Consistency, application of what you are learning and ensuring a great learning environment for everyone in the classroom.

K-5 Spanish Teacher

What Matters in Education is:
awakening curiosity beyond your own culture and respecting different beliefs.

ECC Teacher (Live Oak Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:
knowing no matter how young you are you still can change the world for the better!

4th-8th Teaching Artist

Jennifer Tilson

MS Academic Learning Specialist

jtilson@theberkeleyschool.org

MS Academic Learning Specialist

What Matters in Education is:
that each student’s world and heart is expanded.

4th-6th Academic Learning Specialist

What Matters in Education is:
helping students understand themselves as learners through the process of art making.

ECC-3rd Teaching Artist

Julianne Hughes

ECC-3rd Teaching Artist

What Matters in Education is:
helping students understand themselves as learners through the process of art making.

BioJulianne Hughes (she/her) is a Teaching Artist / Arts Educator entering her 28th year at The Berkeley School. The range of her teaching practice has provided the great opportunity to work with groups from preschool through adults, and she finds joy in collaboration with her colleagues. Julianne has an MFA from the California College of the Arts. Her career at TBS began as the first through sixth grade teaching artist while also directing the extended day program. She spent the last 13 years teaching early childhood through fifth grade, and this year she will be teaching early childhood through third grade students. Julianne‘s work is relational and her influences in educational pedagogy include time spent with Harvard Project Zero, study of the Reggio Emelia principles; advancing identity-affirming classrooms and neurodiversity in learning; achieving an anti-bias, antiracist classroom; and promoting art as social practice. Julianne‘s art teaching practice is informed by her own studio practice. She brings her experience in a vast array of art processes and her understanding of materials. Julianne’s work springs from domestic and historically undervalued work of women. She uses the languages of sewing, collage, assemblage, clay, and textile techniques as metaphors to convey ideas of identity, memory, family, home, and a sense of place. Her collections of readymade objects are often in dialogue and relationship to those she creates. She is drawn to material culture and sees that it can provoke dialogue and engage others. She spends her days in collaboration and connecting with students and other educators. In Julianne’s art studio classroom she is dedicated to building a community of learners, helping students understand themselves as creatives, find their artistic voice, and think like artists. She is active in the artistic community with the Wideawakes and For Freedoms, an initiative for art and civic engagement named the "largest creative collaboration in United States history" by TIME Magazine. Love, hope, art and agency are her guiding principles.

Schools AttendedM.F.A. California College of the Arts

Years in Education28

jhughes@theberkeleyschool.org

What Matters in Education is:

Preparing students for our ever changing world by giving them the tools and opportunities to question, collaborate and innovate with both empathy and resiliency. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin ...Read More

K-3rd Academic Learning Specialist

What Matters in Education is:
the passion and love for learning.

ECC Associate Teacher & Extended Day Team Leader

What Matters in Education is:
the freedom to create, grow, listen, question, make mistakes, wonder, belong, and build in a safe environment that values and challenges you.

ECC Teacher (Caterpillar Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:

Creating an environment where all types of learners feel comfortable asking questions and sharing their ideas.

Director of Admissions & K-5 Dean of Students

What Matters in Education is:

connecting

1st/2nd Grade Teacher (Blackberry Creek Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:

Creating a space where youth can thrive and be their best selves

UAC Front Office Administrator

Louisa Mascuch

ECC Teacher (Eugenia Classroom)

lmascuch@theberkeleyschool.org

ECC Teacher (Mariposa Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:
that every student feels empowered to reach their full potential.

Data Manager & K-8 Program Coordinator

What Matters in Education is:

empowering students to boldly ask "why?" and "how?". Pursuing the answers drives innovation and change-making.

6th Grade Math Teacher & K-8 Civic Engagement Coordinator

What Matters in Education is:

Each child’s innate capacity to learn and providing each child an equal opportunity to learn in a nurturing, multi-cultural environment.

ECC Teacher (Magnolia Classroom)

ECC Teacher Aide (Caterpillar)

What Matters in Education is:
Imagination. Knowledge is powerful, and imagination can help us see different things and opens brand new paths to knowledge.

ECC Associate Teacher (Live Oak Classroom)