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The Middle School Faculty at Sparhawk
2010-2011
Individuals qualify to teach at Sparhawk if they are broadly literate, demonstrate a zeal for life and learning, know child and adolescent development, are expert in a particular area that complements the rest of the teaching team and have a passion and talent for teaching.
The teachers presently employed at Sparhawk School are experienced educators and idealists united in the belief that Sparhawk's philosophy embodies their values. Teachers experience success and satisfaction working with small classes of motivated students and find the collegial atmosphere of our small school supportive.
Faculty
Arts Domain, Chair
Georgia Bills, Director of Music for grades K-8, and Arts domain Chair joins Sparhawk this year bringing with her a rich depth of experience as a teacher, performer, arts administrator, musical theater director and composer. She has been leading singing, dancing and theater activities for many years in numerous schools working with “wee” ones through adults in college. She holds a Bachelors of Music Education from Ithaca College and a Master of Arts from The University of Connecticut. She also studied at the Royal College of Music in London, England and deeply regrets selling back her violin at Portobello Road before she flew home.
Her classroom experience began in public schools in Montville, Connecticut where she traveled to five schools each week, and had a middle school band with 90 students. After moving to the Boston area to become the Artistic Director of New England Theater Guild for Children, she also began a 15-year tenure as Director of the Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall Summer Theater School in Waltham. A Beverly resident, she was delighted to join the faculty at Glen Urquhart School where she worked for 16 years as the K-8 Music/Theater teacher and Arts Team Leader. Most recently, she has been teaching Musical Theater at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick.
She is a frequent performer on bass trombone and piano, playing with various local orchestras and for many functions. She has accompanied various vocal ensembles in the greater Boston area, and sung and recorded with Revels and Cantemus. A favorite professional organization is the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild that she has judged at all levels for many years.
She looks forward to merging her many musical interests and ideas and helping to spark some musical moments at Sparhawk this year.“Life is a lot like jazz, it’s best when you improvise” - George Gershwin (Sparhawk, year 1)
Catherine Debrocke teaches art to all the students
at our Lower and Middle
School programs. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of
Massachusetts. She is a Sparhawk treasure. An artist by trade, she
spends her time, outside of Sparhawk, teaching at the Essex Art Center
in Lawrence, MA and in her studio, working on her own art which she has
exhibited in many shows in the Greater Boston area.
Catherine is very in tune to the needs and interests of her students, and because of her dazzling, yet gentle, essence, her enthusiasm is contagious. She creates a safe and excitement-charged atmosphere where students can express themselves artistically using a variety of materials and techniques. Art history, color theory, and art appreciation are also components of her program.
She makes it all come to life with her occasional portrayal of
characters from the art history curriculum of the moment. She has come
to school as a Renaissance patron of the arts who wishes to commission a
portrait, having heard of the talented artists at Sparhawk School, and
as a kooky, bright blue-wigged modern Miss Ruby Moon, or as a visiting
Left Bank artist. One never knows with Catherine. The students suspend
disbelief, most of them, and delight in these surprise visits from
interesting characters of the past, present, and future. We are truly
lucky to have her as part of our team.
Bob DeLibero teaches science at Sparhawk Middle School. Bob can be found in his middle school science room exciting students about electricity, bacteriology, chemistry, and other areas of scientific exploration. Bob has a Master’s degree in Elementary Education from Cambridge College and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Bob has taught at the elementary and middle school levels in the following grades: 6th-8th at Sparhawk middle school, 3rd grade in Amesbury, where he also served as behavioral tutor for one year, 6th grade science in Merrimac, and 7th grade science and 8th grade theater at Glen Urquehart.
An accomplished actor, Bob was trained in theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as, HB Studios in NYC. He has performed, directed and produced theater for more than 25 years – locally, as well as in Boston, NYC and Los Angeles. Bob spent five great summers working as Theater Director for Camp Manitou, a boys sports & theater camp in Maine. He is also the Artistic Director of Waterfront Productions, a theater group he began in 1991. Bob directs the fall play each year at Sparhawk School.
Writing poetry and stories is another of Bob’s favorite endeavors. He recently finished a children’s adventure novel about pirates and is working on another with a baseball theme. When he is not working with kids in the classroom Bob can be found coaching them on the baseball field where he has coached all ages, from 6 to 16, for over 15 years now. When he is not teaching, performing, coaching or writing, Bob enjoys playing softball, cooking with his son, Brad, who is the owner of Mad Martha’s Beach Café on Plum Island, or just hanging out with the love of his life, Paulette, and the rest of their sons Billy, Jordan, Davi and one year old, Caden. (Sparhawk, year 4)
Gregory Noyes teaches woodworking to high school and middle school students. Greg has his Master's degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Keene State College in Keene, NH.
As a woodworking teacher his focus is on finding projects that demonstrate the properties of wood and wood movement that make construction so challenging and successes so gratifying. Many construction elements that give visual appeal, such as frame and panel construction and dovetail joints, have evolved as a way to keep wood movement from pulling joints appart, and by incorporatng these features into projects, students get a more functional insight into the evolution of design.
We use the powertool extensively, as well as some small machienes. Students become adept to setting up routers, at edge jointing boards, and using the band saw. The work benches and saw horses we use were made on site by the students, as well as the scale model and the timber frame addition at the farm campus. (Sparhawk, year 10)
Diane Platt is excited to be joining Sparhawk's middle school staff
as a homeroom and core math and science teacher. She will also be
integrating her love of art and math in enrichment classes.
Diane brings a 25-year-long professional background in architecture combined with a variety of classroom experiences to the middle school. She graduated from New York Institute of Technology in 1985 with a five-year bachelor of Architecture Degree. While working in a New York architecture firm, designing residential and commercial architecture, Diane was the Architect in Residence for the Shoreham-Wading River School District where her work involved infusing architectural projects into the daily curriculum of grades K-12 including architectural presentations, field trips, model-making and drawing.
After moving to New Hampshire to be closer to the mountains, Diane worked in Nashua and then Portsmouth as an intern Architect, and in 1991 opened her own architecture business, Platt/Hichborn Architects in Exeter, NH. While building this business, Diane also began building a family. With her three girls she volunteered in the schools, church, and scouting as a teacher, leader, and mentor. Her natural love for math and art was extended to working with students specifically on problem-solving math programs, picture-in- writing, and spirit-enrichment murals in the Exeter School District.
Recently, Diane made the choice to shift her career to teaching full-time so she began working in the Exeter and Rye School Districts as a substitute teacher instructing math, science, art, and band as well as serving as a media specialist aide assisting staff and students with reference materials and media equipment. She also teaches watercolor classes and 3D perspective drawing at Adult Education in Portsmouth, and at the Exeter Center for Creative Arts she teaches architecture to students K-8 in an artful fun way. In her spare time, Diane loves hiking, camping, tennis, sewing and creating projects of all proportions. (Sparhawk, year 1)
Laura Ritchie is a homeroom teacher for grades 7/8. She teaches Language Arts and various enrichments involving hands-on art, cooking, and generally making a joyous mess.
Laura’s background in teaching and understanding children comes both from her formal education and her home life. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1992 with a B.A. in French and Women’s Studies, and went on to have three children of her own. When her baby trooped off to preschool, she returned to school to pursue graduate studies in teaching foreign language and writing. Wanting earlier experience with foreign language for her own children and community, she helped to pioneer a World Language Club at Mast Way Elementary school in Lee, NH. She was its main French teacher for 5 years. She also developed and taught a Girl’s Writer’s Group of her own design for both the elementary and middle schools in Durham, NH from 2000-2005. She switched gears for a couple of years to complete certification as a Doula and Childbirth Educator with the Boston Association of Childbirth Educators, and wrote curriculum for and taught childbirth classes for Families First prenatal clinic in Portsmouth, NH, 2006-7. Her first job at Sparhawk came to her out of the blue, and she is glad she followed it to where she is today.
A lifelong artist, writer, musician, and bookworm, Laura incorporates her love of these things into her teaching and classroom. Passionate about the value of books and a virtually fearless writer, Laura hopes to transmit her enthusiasm for words and all that they evoke to her students! Equally passionate about the fascinating developmental stages kids go through from the ages of 11-14, she is thrilled to work in the adventure-filled environment of the Middle School community. She enjoys living near the water and trees of the Seacoast , NH with her three children: Katja (15), Branwyn (12), and Eben (8). (Sparhawk, year 5)
Bob Watson is excited to be joining the Sparhawk Community as a Spanish teacher, and looks forward to sharing his passion for the Spanish language and Latino culture with Sparhawk students. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of New Hampshire with a concentration in Race, Culture, and Power. Between 2005 and 2006, he and his partner Daniela, Sparhawk's high school art teacher, spent 18 months on the road in South America, Central America, and Mexico. He became fluent in Spanish over the course of this 13 country odyssey. The couple spent time volunteering at an orphanage, a youth jail, a summer camp, a group home, a wheelchair distribution team, and working with communities in the jungles of Panama and Ecuador. Before leaving for Latin America, Bob spent two and a half years at AS220’s Broad Street Studio in Providence, Rhode Island, where he began as an Americorps*VISTA volunteer. This volunteer stint evolved into a full time position running writing workshops and teaching magazine production to high school students in Rhode Island, including those incarcerated in the state's juvenile detention facility. Most recently, he taught students with autism and acquired brain injuries. Last spring, he began substitute teaching at Sparhawk and assistant coaching the school's Cross Country team and looks forward to working with the team again next year. Besides running, Bob enjoys discovering new music and spending time working on his first home: a 19th century farmhouse that provides him with an endless supply of construction, demolition, and renovation projects. (Sparhawk, year 3)
School Counselor
Catherine Mannheimer, LCSW, is a teacher, artist and psychotherapist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bradford College in Creative Arts and a Master of Social Work from Simmons College. She has taught art therapy, a survey of visual, and performing arts at Bradford College, and creative process at Northern Essex Community College. She worked for a number of years as a clinical social worker at Lowell High School, and presently maintains a private practice. She enjoys looking for the creative and expressive aspects in everyone.
One of her favorite ways of doing this is through teaching. She has taught drum making, creativity,
relaxation techniques, Humor in the Work Place, and the Social and
Artistic Implications of the Renaissance, which she taught in Florence,
Italy.
Guidance and College Counselor
Barbara Coutinho
is experienced in the field of guidance and counseling. As a member of
Triton Regional School’s founding staff, Barbara began as a counselor
and retired in 2005 as Guidance Director. She served two terms as
president of the Northeast Counselor’s Association, and is now a
life-long member of its executive board. In 2007 Barbara was elected president of the North Shore Guidance Director's Association.
At Sparhawk, Barbara teaches a course in College Readiness to second semester juniors and first semester seniors to explain the process of planning and preparing for applying to college and to personally assist them in this process. She has instituted a developmental model for guidance. Her monthly newsletters posted on Edline give valuable college planning information to parents and students. Using ACT and College Board, Sparhawk now administers Explore for freshman, PLAN for sophomores and PSAT/NMSQT for juniors.
The Massachusetts School Counselor’s Association selected her for the
“Outstanding Leadership Award” in 1991 and in 2004. In 2003, her Public
Relations Handbook for Counselors received national recognition. She
earned a B.A. in English and a M.Ed in Counseling from Salem State
College, and a C.A.G.S. in Educational Leadership from Northeastern
University. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her family and
spending summers at the Cape. (Sparhawk, year 5)
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