MEET THE TEACHER
Heidi Martin
Heidi Martin was born in Berkeley, California. She and her two siblings were the children of a busy, corporate executive who kept his family on the move every four years, up and down the West Coast. After living in Huntington Harbor and the Wine Country of California during her elementary school years, she then attended high school on Mercer Island, Washington. She has always maintained a longing for adventure after all those moves!
Heidi left high school in the U.S. to travel to Tubingen, Germany at age 16 to live as an exchange student for a full year. She was first enchanted by Waldorf Education there, in Germany through her host-sister’s experiences at the local Waldorf High School. After living in Europe for a year, she returned to her homeland to attend college at U.C. Berkeley for four years, majoring in English.
At 21, Heidi left the Bay Area and moved to the picturesque land of Southern Oregon. She settled in Williams and became a tutor and teacher for children of all ages for many years.
At age 30, Heidi was inspired to deepen her skills in the art of teaching and enroll in the Waldorf Teacher Training in Eugene, Oregon. She completed the program in 2003. Subsequently, she taught kindergarten at the Corvallis Waldorf School from 2003-2005. Then, in the Spring of 2005, she accepted an invitation by Waldorf parents in Southern Oregon to move back to Ashland and open a Waldorf-inspired kindergarten for the community.
After having a second son in 2008, Heidi finished her undergraduate studies at Southern Oregon University with a B.A. in English and Writing. She continued to teach preschool and kindergarten in the Rogue Valley out of her home, while also mentoring other Waldorf Early Childhood Teachers.
In May of 2012, she was hired at the Siskiyou School to teach First grade. For eight years off and on until 2023, she taught first through fifth grade at the Siskiyou School, alternating with teaching preschool in her backyard yurt. In 2019, she was the lead teacher of the Pear Blossom Kindergarten at Madrone Trail, guiding parents in a home-based kindergarten program during lockdown in Spring of 2020.
Heidi’s emphasis as a teacher of all children is in nurturing the foundations of learning through rich sensory experiences, integrative movement, music, puppetry, arts and storytelling. Her favorite thing to do is play her guitar and sing with her students. She has attended numerous supplemental teacher trainings and workshops over the years and has gained a wealth of knowledge in the realm of therapeutic work, nutritional support for children and the art of Waldorf teaching, both grades and early childhood.
Heidi feels deeply rewarded to look back on over 19 years of Waldorf teaching, both Early Childhood and grades. At present, she lives in Talent, Oregon with her husband, Greg, and sons Ayani and Oliver. They love to garden together, fish in Oregon’s pristine, wild rivers and take trips to the Oregon coast with their three beagles!
