Meet Alisha meyer

Alisha Meyer grew up in Whitefish, Montana. Her love for nature developed at a young age and grew into something that would inspire her in all her endeavors, especially her teaching strategies and personal growth. Her multi-generational roots of family nestled in the small northwestern Montana ski town crafted a deep connection to native plants, animals, and the landscape that is soulfully her true home. After high school, she moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and sought something new. Alisha found a job as a kindergarten assistant in a classroom with children with Autism. She was a one-on-one aide to a nonverbal student who taught her about seeing the world from a different perspective. Her connections with those students left a lasting imprint on her spirit. Alisha related what she was learning about Autism to the natural world she had always loved. Not long after her first encounter with children, she became a mother at nineteen, and her path toward teaching quickly became her reality. Alisha was dedicated to making a better life for herself and her new daughter and later son. She juggled all that new parenting, school, and work had to offer and earned her BA at the University of Montana with a 4.0 GPA. Alisha moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, for her first teaching job as a self-contained K-5 teacher for students with varying exceptionalities. The first year of teaching gave Alisha her “voice” as a teacher. She found a passion for wanting to help students who were constantly in a state of emotional dysregulation. She recognized that the extreme behaviors were merely masks of sadness and frustration. Again, her roots innately fostered an authentic way of being that naturally gave her tools to connect with challenging students, somewhat like the wildness of nature does. Alisha’s career and desire to be closer to family moved her back to Montana in 2006. She started her district's first behavioral intervention class and developed an effective system to support students of all abilities. Alisha earned a Teacher of the Year award in 2009 from her district and countless words of encouragement from her community. She has led professional development sessions for adults and written a curriculum guide called Rooted Elements that fosters connecting kids to their natural environment and how to build positive relationships with themselves and the world. Since moving back to Montana, Alisha has earned her MA in Integrating Arts into Education and an MA in Art. Alisha has taught a variety of ages and classes throughout her years with the Whitefish School District. She has taught for about 20 years and feels blessed to have such an accomplished career. Alisha is switching job titles one last time. Her new title is the WMS Art Teacher this upcoming school year, which has been a lifelong dream. Alisha’s children are now adults, and her role as a mother has shifted along with her new job title. Her fur babies keep her occupied, along with her passion for continued exploration of nature and art. She loves to capture the beauty of nature on her outdoor adventures and then turn them into paintings. Her recent works of art have come from her life-long obsession with huckleberries. She is enamored with the way of the berry. Montana’s huckleberries are purely wild. They cannot be cultivated and taken from their roots. To harvest the huckleberry, you must find it in its natural environment and hike to find the beautiful purple gems. Alisha feels a close connection to the huckleberry as it is much like herself. She cannot be pulled and transplanted from her roots. She is wild and pure in her natural way of existing. Alisha plans to continue learning from and living in her ever-changing, growing community. She feels the most at home in her quiet favorite mountainous places, where fresh-water lakes and native plants and animals surround her. She will continue taking in all the natural beauty to stay connected and bring her native roots back to all she continues to pursue in life.