K-8 EXCELLENCE SINCE 1973 2027 7th Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 (map) • 510‑845‑0876
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“The relationship among the adults has more to do with the character and the quality of a school than any other factor.”
Roland Barthes
Faculty
This is Maria Palmer’s 31st year at BPC. Maria received both her B.A. in English literature and her kindergarten through eighth grade teaching credential, with a specialization in teaching English, from UC Berkeley. Maria has also taken graduate courses in English literature at UCLA and completed the coursework for an M.A. in design at UC Berkeley. She taught sixth grade at both Franklin School in Oakland and Altadena School in Altadena, California. Maria was also on the curatorial staff at the Berkeley Art Museum before joining the Black Pine Circle School faculty in 1993. She is the proud mom to two grown children, adores being a grandmother to her four grandchildren, and travels frequently to visit her family in Berlin. Maria enjoys traveling, being in the mountains or at the beach, listening to jazz, making art, reading great novels and poetry, and teaching sixth grade!
Teaching Since
1993
Pronouns
she/her
Contact
Email >
Why I Work with Children
I love thinking, exploring, and learning with the children – they teach me so much!
A Favorite Book
Impossible to answer – but Watership Down and To Kill a Mockingbird are among my all-time favorites.
Quick Fact
Loves to write or paint
Eighth Grade History & Geography Teacher
Keen on floating houses and mutant Basset Hounds
Full Bio >
Eighth Grade Spanish Teacher
I speak several languages.
Eighth Grade Math Teacher
Loves to travel
Fourth-Sixth Grade Music Teacher
Tamed a mechanical bull in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sixth Grade Science Teacher and Sixth Grade-Level Coordinator
Herded sheep by motorbike in Australia.
Upper School Physical Education Teacher and Upper School Athletic Director
Eighth Grade English and Eighth Grade Drama Teacher
Ask me about the time I had a magical and terrifying stand-off with a bison in the Badlands.
Seventh and Eighth Grade Music Teacher, Band Director
Performed music in South Africa during the end of legal apartheid.
Eighth Grade Science Teacher
Apprenticed with a luthier, adept with a paddle
Sixth & Seventh Grade Math Teacher
Upper School Assistant Teacher
Fluent Russian speaker
BPC String Orchestra Leader
Creates musical arrangements for fun
Sixth Grade Spanish Teacher
My birthday is April 1st, no joke!
Sixth Grade History Teacher
Played Gaelic Football as a youth, and won a Minors championship in Ireland
Upper School Mandarin Teacher
Once ate deep-fried silkworms
