L&WL Magazine Features Villa Teacher Christine D'Ambrosio

Laurelhurst

MARCH 2020

& Windermere

A Social Magazine for The Residents of Laurelhurst & Windermere

Meet Christine

D’AMBROSIO

Beloved Villa Academy Teacher

YO UR STOR I E S. YO U R P H OTO S . YO U R CO M M U N I T Y. 1 Laurelhurst & Windermere Living • February 2019

CHRISTINE D’AMBROSIO meet your neighbors Written by Jenny Hart Danowski Photos by Nancy Dunbar

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Finds Passion In Teaching, Music, And The Environment

hristine D’Ambrosio has always loved learning, which is no surprise considering she was raised by two educators. Her father taught Finance at the University of Washington and her mother was an elementary school teacher on and off when she wasn’t staying at home raising Christine and her six siblings. Born and raised in Laurelhurst, Christine attended Laurelhurst Elementary, Assumption St. Bridget, Seattle Preparatory School and the University of Washington. “I spent my childhood at the Laurelhurst Beach Club and haven’t strayed far since then,” she laughs. “I haven’t gone far because I’ve loved where I am — it has sustained me.”

Being in an academic environment has also sustained her. “I’ve always been in love with school,” she admits. “In fact, if I were independently wealthy it would be very hard to get me to stop actually going to school myself,” she says laughing. Instead, for the past eight years, she has found her passion as a preschool teacher at Villa Academy “In all honesty, this work is, for me, equally gratifying because it has the same level of stimulation.

I enjoy working with children, but they don’t have to be 3-yearolds. An eighth-grader is still in middle childhood,” she says. “It is an important service to provide, as we humans require a lot of knowledge and skills to be successful as adults.”

Christine began teaching at Villa when a past supervisor thought she would be a good fit when another teacher had to unexpectedly depart. She accepted but worried that teaching at the preschool level might involve more daycare than educating. She was wrong. “Villa provides age-appropriate challenge at every level,” she says. Christine demonstrated this to me as we sat in her

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classroom chatting. “All of these learning stations you see may not look challenging, but they are. Each includes a lot of disparate elements that provide an opportunity for exploration and discovery. They also promote concept acquisition by connecting big ideas through continuity of experience around a central theme of learning,” she explains. “The real joy of being a teacher in a school that encourages this kind of depth is that you get to play a part in designing the learning environments and the curricula.”

Aside from the teaching environment, the history of Villa Academy was intriguing to Christine as well. “It’s a beautiful history.

The building is coming up on its 100th birthday in a few years, and it was originally an orphanage and a school. Founded by St. Francis Cabrini, who was an extraordinary woman, it supported one of the immigrant groups most discriminated against in the

United States at that time — Italians. In fact, part of the verve of this school is maintaining a belief in the dignity of all individuals and, also, having the self-awareness that prevents those types of biases here,” she continues. “We have professional development workshops for our staff that promote the inclusion of all.”

What Christine (or “Miss Christine”, as she’s known at the school) loves most about teaching is the natural inspiration that comes from providing young children with the opportunity for exposure and practice, which helps refine their fine motor skills and gross motor skills, and then opening them up to bigger ideas through theme and variation in the classroom. “The other component is social-emotional — being a loving caretaker of my students — meeting them on their own terms and supporting their development throughout. They grow and change so fast, and I can see it in just a week,” she says. Outdoor Education is another love of Christine’s, so Villa’s 31-acre campus with its own forest is another big draw for her. In fact, she was instrumental in creating “Forest School,” where she takes preschoolers outside to explore nature and learn about the environment.

Along with her Masters’ Degree in Teaching from the University of Washington with a K-8 endorsement, Christine also studied psychology and music during her undergrad years. In fact, she’s a trained classical singer and still performs occasionally around the area. She also uses music to teach and writes many of the songs her students learn. “My songs are very specific so my students can latch onto the different ideas and concepts. They love them!” she says, smiling. Hiking is another passion for Christine.

She belongs to groups comprised of other outdoor educators who also talk about the future, climate change, and our changing culture. “Those are the things that dominate my thinking — education, music, and the environment,” she says.

To see someone so passionate about her work is truly inspiring, and it’s clear that Christine takes the educating of our youth very seriously. In fact, when she’s not actually teaching, she’s reading about teaching. “I dedicate 30 minutes a day to reading about education,” she says. “You may not ever be able to take a class or attend a seminar, but there are great writers — people who have done a lot of research on play or on cognitive development in preschoolers,” she adds. “Other than that, it’s just doing laundry,” she jokes.

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