Our GWO Family
Children learn so much by watching adults. Our staff models behavior that shows trust, patience, respect, humor, kindness, and love for others. We work out difficult moments together with kindness and forgiveness. We celebrate our victories, and we comfort one another’s losses or sorrows.
Ms. Sandra
Sandra came to Great Wide Open with over 27 years of experience working with young children. Most of those years were spent as a teacher of 3-year-olds in a traditional preschool setting, and in later years she was fortunate to be able to care for her grandchildren when they were born. She was very excited to become part of the Great Wide Open in 2021 and is a huge advocate for active hands-on learning and multi-age classrooms. She feels that Great Wide Open offers the best balance of preschool and homeschool ideologies and loves to see the children thrive. Ms. Sandra not only shares her valuable teaching experiences but also her kindness, nurturing personality and endless patience. She is dearly loved by the staff, kids and parents at GWO.
Ms. Amanda
Ms. Amanda has become an important part of our "village" at Great Wide Open. Although she is a wonderful teacher for all age groups here at GWO, her primary focus is working with our Homeschool group. She has a special knack for connecting quickly with kids and making school work and learning fun.
She spent three years as a nanny to her two young nephews, and worked as a media center assistant as well as a teaching assistant in 3rd and 4th grades at Union Academy for six years.
She is a mom of two teenagers and loves to read, take walks, listen to podcasts, watch movies, and go to Disney in her spare time.
We love her calm and patient personality and her sense of humor, and we are so happy she is here!
Ms. Becky
Becky spent her teen years working as a nanny while homeschooling herself through high school. She graduated from UNCC with a degree in English and continued working as a nanny for 4 different families. She later worked as an early educator in a daycare setting for several years before having children of her own. Becky has nearly 20 years combined experience working with preschool aged children and has been a part time teacher here since we began in 2020. While Covid was shutting everything down, it was also the catalyst for the beginning of Great Wide Open, and Becky was instrumental in helping to launch the school. Having been a homeschooler herself, she contributes a wealth of knowledge about homeschooling to our program here. Becky is a busy mom who spends much of her time in her greenhouse growing succulents and raising chickens, and is always happy to share her knowledge with us. She is a kind and caring teacher.
Ms. Linda
Linda taught school in North Carolina for 33 years before retiring in 2017. Since her retirement she has worked as a math teacher at Grace Academy in Stallings, and more recently as an assistant at Great Wide Open. We are fortunate to have Linda on board because no one understands math as well as she does! Although Linda’s teaching experience has been mostly with older kids, she enjoys working with the younger children and finding creative, fun, hands-on ways to teach math. The kids like her easy-going manner and her willingness to be silly sometimes, as well as her kind demeanor.
