Faculty
Stephanie Piper
Seventh Grade English Teacher
Stephanie Piper is entering her 25th year teaching middle school English, history, and the humanities in Bay Area independent schools! She received her A.B. in English from UC Berkeley, and her M.A. in English (with an emphasis in American Studies) from the University of Washington. Stephanie appreciates reading good books, discussing current events, and developing individual writing skills with the seventh graders. In her downtime, she enjoys needle felting, traveling, reading books that are not on her syllabus, attending live theater, concerts, and the opera, and hiking the East Bay hills with her two daughters and her partner. Next, Stephanie would love to learn how to sew, but hasn’t quite found the time to teach herself that skill yet. She joined the Black Pine Circle School faculty in 2015.
Why I Work with Children
I love teaching middle school students, and seventh graders in particular, because they have one foot in the adult world and one foot in the kid world–the same student who can appreciate the complex ethical conundrum of Hamlet can then turn around and dissolve into giggles about some silly cat meme.
A Favorite Book
I will never forget the first time I read Beloved by Toni Morrison, when it first dawned on me what the dark premise of the book was. I still find the contrast between the beauty of the writing and the horror of the story stunning. Up until that point, I’d never realized a book could make me feel so many feelings all at once.
Quick Fact
Obsessed with the Salem witchcraft trials
