Meet Our Teachers
Torreyanna Suttle
Co-founder, program director
Torreyanna brings with her a lifetime of outdoor education, over a decade of experience in early-childhood education and an enduring love for the young child. Her father was a mountaineer, her mother an avid gardener; learning to scale heights to heaven and to nurture seeds to fruition informs her teaching style. Her childhood gave her a deep reverence for our earth, as a magical home to be cared for with kindness and respect. She continues to find council in the wilderness, and feels most at home by the river or the seashore!
Maui was the perfect place to deepen these connections, where she earned her Waldorf teaching certificate, taught in a preschool and kindergarten and led the early childhood aftercare program. Waldorf education honors the 'head, hands and heart' and includes an emphasis on connecting with the elements, teaching through song and story, proper nutrition, daily rhythms, and mindful media consumption. After returning to California, she was hired as a lead teacher in creating the Santa Cruz Forest School program, where she worked devotedly for three years. Previously, she earned her BA from University of California Santa Cruz in dance and anthropology while working in the Santa Cruz Waldorf School.
Torreyanna maintains a private practice as a Hakomi counselor and body worker and is also trained as a vision fast guide and Wilderness First Responder. Some of her favorite memories are child-centric outings to caves or waterfalls where songs are shared, questions explored, and exhilaration embodied. She teaches through her felt-sense of trust in the seasons and cycles of life, her love for our planet, and is grateful to work in service of the child.
Sarah Bobertz Larue
Co-founder, program director
Sarah is a mother, naturalist, craftswoman, and student of traditional life ways. She is deeply committed to connecting children with nature. Her work is inspired by the idea of "slow childhood," or preserving the simplicity and wonder of the early childhood years. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies and a focus on ecosystem restoration and conservation from Lewis & Clark College in Portland. After graduating, Sarah continued working with children both as a farm educator at a nonprofit called Zenger Farm, teaching kindergarten students about gardening, beekeeping, animal care and wetland ecosystems. The next year Sarah moved to Southern Oregon to take a farm internship at Seven Seeds Farm in Williams, where she fell in love with the Southern Oregon landscape. In the years that followed she began studying ancestral skills, indigenous wisdom and life ways. She became deeply passionate about living close to the Earth and teaching our children to do the same.
Sarah and her husband Adam caretake a 40-acre piece of land called The Sharpening Stone, where they host gatherings, workshops and other events focused around ancestral skills education. Together they have two sons, ages 6 and 9.
Sarah is also a naturalist, trained through the Kamana Naturalist Training Program from Wilderness Awareness School. Jon Young and his work on nature connection and becoming "native" to wherever you are has been deeply influential on Sarah's path. Bringing her passion for earth connection to early childhood education, she has been teaching forest school for the past 5 years. Sarah especially loves to cultivate students' understanding of bird language and ability to listen using all of our senses.
Jordan Lambert
Saplings class lead teacher
Jordan is passionate about inspiring children's connection with the natural world and bridging Earth rhythms with education. She has a Masters of Arts in Teaching and an Elementary Education Teaching Credential from Southern Oregon University. Her teaching style weaves together elements of Earth-based education, Waldorf practices, and creativity and curiosity, creating a holistic way of learning. Jordan brings with her a variety of experiences with children: as a first grade teacher, leading children in outdoor education, as a teaching assistant for grades K-6, and supporting in various outdoor and Waldorf education settings. She loves exploring the beauty of Mother Earth with children, discovering all of the magic and learning that being outside has to offer.
Jordan received her BS in Anthropology and Geography from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, with a focus in Sustainable Agriculture. After graduating, she interned at a few permaculture farms, and taught gardening and animal care to children. Her experiences in both public school and outdoor education create an understanding of the diversity of learning that children need to thrive and be held. She is passionate about exploring the natural world with her students, and loves teaching mindfulness and supporting children in being connected with their emotional body.
Jordan has been the lead teacher of the Saplings Class for 4 years. She loves weaving nature-based academics, songs and stories, crafts and wilderness awareness skills, and mindfulness in the daily rhythms she creates with her students. She is grateful to support children in a heart-centered way in presence with the Earth.
Arielle Spayd
Sprouts class teacher
Arielle is passionate about fostering a sense of belonging for all our children in these modern times. She believes this is woven from plentiful time in nature, demonstrating respect for the plants and animals that share our home, and connecting to our ancestral skills in rhythm with the seasons.
She spent much of her life with children. Fond memories abound of playing with children making potions, and reveling in the planting of magic seeds of wonder within these young friends.
Growing up in Boulder, Colorado and attending Waldorf schools for the majority of her K-12 education, she was raised close to the land, while being steeped in the arts and imaginative play.
Arielle attended college at Fairhaven College at Western Washington University. She reveled in the creative environment of folks engaging in their interdisciplinary education with such passion and awe. She was drawn to study in the fields of Environmental Education, Sustainable Food Systems, and Botanical Medicine, eventually creating her major called Community Education Through Food & Medicine.
During her exploration of plants as medicine, Arielle found her way to Williams, Oregon, to intern at the Herb Pharm- to live and work on the farm and attend classes for 10 weeks. Arielle moved to Williams permanently after graduating in 2014 to be with her husband who she had met in the fields of calendula and chamomile.
In Williams, Arielle found great joy in working with the SO Farm to School Program, as a Nanny for a Waldorf family, and then becoming the Assistant Teacher at Forever Flowering Children’s Garden with Miss Misti at the SCA for three years. She enjoyed her time in the classroom so much that she began to embark on her own Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Training program at Sound Circle Center for Arts & Anthroposophy, building on her knowledge and inspiration for melding anthroposophical elements into nature and outdoor-based education.
Arielle is incredibly thrilled to be involved at Earthwise, cultivating her passions right in her backyard with her son Rowan, and all the amazing children who honor us with their presence during our days at forest school.
