A space for educators to engage in mindfulness, build resiliency, and connect with likeminded global practitioners
The Enlightened Educator Project is an intentional community of education practitioners who are seeking their own self-development on the path to serving their students.
In a time of burnout and poor teacher retention, we are turning inward to our own development and collective strength to build resiliency and transform our systems to make education holistic and humanizing for all: students, teachers, families, and communities. Whether this is your first year or your twentieth year in education, this community is a place for you to process, grow, and heal so that you can bring your best to your students.
The Enlightened Educator Project provides synchronous and asynchronous spaces for dialogue with a global cohort of practitioners, monthly professional development, and weekly resources designed to guide you in your self-development as an educator and as someone who serves our young people. As a member, you will have a say in what is offered and will play a critical role in shaping our community!
Is Our Community for You?
Do you want to experience rejuvenation and lighten your mental load as an educator?
Are you looking to foster more learning and less teaching in your classroom- or what we might call "minimally invasive education?"
Are you looking for a brave space to unpack your own experiences with schooling to free yourself and your mind to envision new possibilities for your learners?
Are you looking to build community with other educators who will lift you up?
What are people saying about our professional development?
Join The Enlightened Educator Project!
Become a Member
Full access to our community and unlimited opportunities for personal growth! Free to join through Fall 2024.
Are you a School Administrator?
Bring our community to your school if you want to strengthen your schools culture, staff morale, and staff longevity. Get in touch with us today for a personalized quote!
“When we are mindful, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace, and love.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Join the Enlightened Educator Project Today!
Meet the Co-Founders
Andrew Faulstich
Andrew believes in the potential for education to be transformative for all children as an aid to life. This means creating learning environments that are learner-centered, antiracist, equitable, and liberatory for all. It is this belief that has fueled his career teaching all age groups from early childhood through higher education.
Andrew has worked in learner-centered and Montessori schools in the U.S. and internationally. He began his career working in China as a teacher and program leader. Andrew went on to start two Montessori adolescent programs as a founding Lead Guide.
Andrew's experience in Montessori environments instilled a deep belief that transformative education impacts all involved: students and teachers. His blog, Breaking the Paradigm of Traditional Education, is aimed to engage educators in dialogue around their own inner paradigms and beliefs about children, learning, and schooling.
Currently, Andrew teaches at the adolescent level and is the Montessori Pedagogy Coordinator at the Oneness-Family Montessori School. He is also the Faculty Development Trainer and Coordinator for the alternative education certification programs at Montgomery College, Maryland.
Andrew holds a Master’s in International Educational Development from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, a Montessori adolescent certificate, a certificate from the Exeter Humanities Institute, and a Teaching for Equity Micro-Certification. He is currently taking an AMI Adolescent Diploma Course and is a part of an antiracism cohort with Embracing Equity.
Wendy Fisher
Wendy Fisher is a lifelong Montessori educator, leader, parent, and advocate.
She was the longtime Head of School at Mountaintop Montessori in Charlottesville, Virginia, an independent Toddler - 8th grade school. She has also served on the board of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools.
She is Association Montessori Internationale-certified at the Children’s House and Elementary levels, has completed North American Montessori Teachers Association Adolescent training, and has taught at all three levels. In addition, Wendy has served as an AMI examiner for trainee guides at the Elementary level.
She has served as a school leader in a Grades 1-12 public charter Montessori school in the Twin Cities; as a Montessori trainer and administrator for an international Montessori training center; and as Vice President of Education for a nationwide Montessori school network.
Wendy currently serves as Head of School at Many Rivers Montessori in Duluth, Minnesota.
Wendy completed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction training course through the University of Virginia School of Medicine Mindfulness Center. She holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism, a Masters of Education, and completed her doctoral coursework in Educational Leadership at the University of Virginia.
Wendy believes deeply in the interconnectedness of educator wellbeing and fostering optimal teaching and learning. In her practice, she has built on the Prosocial Classroom model to promote mindfulness practices for educators that result in healthy social-emotional classroom and school cultures.