My name is Claire Malone. I’m the lead teacher in the Detectives Pre-Kindergarten (4-5 year old) classroom soon to be the teacher of the Preschool (3-4 year old) classroom and have been working at Middle Earth since January 2012.
My family consist of my husband, David, myself, and our two furry pups, Abby and Zoey. We met while attending Norman North High School in 2007, happen to take a debate class together and have been best friends ever since. We recently got married in June of 2018 and life hasn’t slowed down since!
I love to spend time outside, camping, swimming, walking my dogs, thrift store shopping and live music. I also really enjoy being cozy at home, watching movies, playing board games, hanging out with friends and just spending time with the ones I love the most.
Within the community, I usually find myself enjoying local festivals that explore music and the arts. I have begun to explore local political activism and can’t wait to see where that leads me.
After completing high school, I took a year off and traveled the United States with my husband, meeting new people and learning a lot about myself. Once we came back, I got a job working with children and got accepted to the University of Oklahoma. After a few years, I took a break from school and began to work full time at Middle Earth as the Explorers Preschool teacher. Over the years, I became the Pre-Kindergarten teacher and can’t wait to see where my next journey leads me. I’m currently finishing up my Certificate of Mastery and will continue to pursue my education in the future.
I love that Middle Earth helps individuals thrive with what makes them unique in the world. We like to engage in activities weekly that help them learn life skills along their journey here with us. I like to give the children a safe space that they can take pride in and call their own. I teach from a place of love and respect and I truly believe that if you treat children as equals they will rise to the occasion and impress the heck out of yah!
One day to hope to teach other teachers how to teach from from their heart and with kindness in their classrooms. My goal as a teacher is to teach children to ask questions, get messy and know that the only thing holding them back is their own imagination.