Stacey Hicks

Early Childhood Assistant
Parent & Child Program Teacher

Stacey hails from Oklahoma City where she has most recently served as the lead teacher at Back to Earth Forest School for 4-6 year olds, where she enjoyed helping the children grow in an inspiring, loving, homelike environment. As a member of the land committee, she spent time developing the trails and outdoor class and play spaces, mulching, planting herbs and flowers with the children, as well as supporting all festivals, community activities, and assisting faculty development and parent education nights. She believes that having varied play spaces (in sand and mud, climbing trees, and outdoors - even in snow or rain) combined with frequent trail walks or daily imaginative play among the trees on campus offer children a richness that can only be felt while immersed in nature and surrounded by loving guides.

She has also worked for the past six years as a fully certified TEFL English teacher, spending over 6,600 hours teaching English, maintaining lessons with long-term students, and joyfully watching them grow and develop their language skills. She did this by holding a high standard, while keeping her classroom playful, singing songs, and eliciting responses in an encouraging environment for ages three to twelve years.

As a mother of three, Stacey initially connected with Waldorf Education in 2009 in Bulgaria and again in Spain in 2012, where she served as a full-time parent volunteer, supporting English learners as well as supporting seasonal gardening and facilitation of festivals. The joy of Waldorf-inspired learning persists as her youngest daughter thrives in a unique combination of unhurried days, a heart-centered, arts-based curriculum, and daily immersion in the enrichment offered by the great outdoors. She is a strong advocate for Steiner Education and has worked tirelessly with her current program to encourage growth in the direction of a Waldorf-inspired school. Stacey also has a growing interest in learning to help people integrate retained primitive reflexes and has completed her LifeWays Early Childhood Teacher certificate this year.

She is inspired by our work here at Living Oaks and has many gifts to share as we continue to grow our initiative.