I am passionate about empowering children through culturally responsive educational opportunities, social emotional learning, personal connections, and challenging growth mindset. I am committed to advocacy and social justice work. I believe that children who are encouraged to discover and learn about issues that matter to them build the capacity for empathy, leadership, and self-awareness.
Personal Message
Background Information:
I have worked with children and families in various capacities for over 22 years and have taught at Wedgwood since 2012. Before joining the Wedgwood community, I worked in early childhood education through high school and college. Fun facts: I’ve also been a barista and a hotel concierge.
I feel so grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of so many family’s lives over the years. Kids are complex, joyful, hilarious, interesting, kind, and sometimes frustrating humans. I love being around them and gain so much hope and strength from building connections with them.
Some of my favorite activities include spending time with friends and family, reading, making music playlists, going to Mariner's games, engaging in activism, spending time with my 2- year old niece, Mavis, floating on lakes, creating soup recipes, and sleeping.
If you talk to Donna for more than a few minutes, you can tell she began her teaching career on the East Coast -- over 30 years ago in Washington, D.C. She and her family moved to Seattle in 2001, and she has worked in many SPS programs over the past 15+ years. Donna currently supports students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) at Wedgwood, helping them to access general education, grade level curriculum.
When not in the classroom, Donna loves to spend time with her 3 adult children, to dig in her garden, and to wander the Wedgwood neighborhood.
I am excited to work together this year and to discover how to best support your Wedgwood Marmot!
Amanda Jacobs joined the wonderful staff at Wedgwood Elementary during the 2016-2017 school year. Prior to coming to Wedgwood, she taught in California. When her family moved from CA to WA in 2015, she quickly fell in love with the Wedgwood community; joining the staff a year later felt (and still feels) like a dream come true!
Raised in the Bay Area in CA, Amanda earned her Bachelor's degree at the University of California at Berkeley (Go Bears!) and her teaching certificate at San Jose State University. She is currently working on earning her Master's degree in Education. She has always loved working with young children; her first job, when she was 13, was teaching ballet and tap to preschool-age and elementary-age dancers.
In her free time, Amanda loves reading (especially fiction -- any kind of fiction -- classics, historical, YA, fantasy, dystopian, etc), practicing yoga, baking, playing board games, and exploring the globe with her family. She and her husband have three kids -- Gracelyn, Haven, and Maston. Gracelyn and Haven were Mighty Marmots before promoting on, and Maston is going into second grade at Wedgwood.
