After doing some service leave cover for the retiring art teacher, Verena is now our permanent art specialist. Heralding from Australia, Verena speaks some German from having worked in Switzerland as an English Language teacher for four years. Before employment at Perth Montessori, she worked at Curtin University as a casual tutor for about 12 years. teaching intensive English language bridging and academic communications.
Verena also unit coordinated a couple of Arts Education units online and was the Visual Art Specialist teacher at Central Midlands High School. What inspires Verena in her role is the fact that young people have such creative and original ideas, and she loves witnessing the joy students experience when they express themselves and discover new artistic skills.
When it comes to the Montessori way, Verena loves the holistic nature of the Montessori approach to education, in particular, the way the cosmic curriculum is organised around five great stories. When not in her role, Verena is a practicing artist who carries a sketchbook in her handbag as she often draws or paints. Other hobbies include riding her bike and breeding tropical albino guppy fish.
Her favourite Montessori quote is: “If we try to think back to the dim and distant past, what is it that helps us reconstruct those times, and to picture the lives of those who lived in them? It is their art. It is thanks to the hand, the companion of the mind, that civilisation has arisen.”