jen bridge Zahiri

jen@MANZANITASCHOOL.ORG

Jen acts as the teacher and mentor for Manzanita’s 4th grade class. She is dedicated to authentic and meaningful education, with her greatest passion being engaging with nature and acting as a citizen naturalist. She’s taught in multiple countries around the world, including Mexico and Burma. Jen started and wrote the curriculum for drama programs, managed theatre productions, and taught High School theatre and the 4th grade. At Manzanita, Jen began a Monarch Warriors project where she restores and tends narrow-leaf milkweed with her class to support the endangered Western Migratory Monarch Butterfly. One of her favorite Manzanita Moments is when someone donates a treasure to the 4th grade nature table. The 4th grade nature table is well known at school, so when a child finds something amazing on the land it often gets donated to the class as there is an understanding that more people will experience it that way. Outside of school hours, Jen loves running long distances in the chaparral, utilizing her background in performing arts to sing or play music, gardening native plants, and respectfully bothering wildlife in a practice lovingly known as “Botherology”.

Educational Background: Jen has a BFA in Musical Theatre and is a licensed Drama teacher with 13 years of classroom experience in 4 different countries.

Joined: 2021(Year Eight)