Julie Mountcastle, Founding Head of School and Chief Innovator at Slate School, is an experienced elementary educator who joined Slate School's team early during its founding. Throughout the course of a 20-year career as an educator prior to Slate School, she taught at nearly every elementary grade level, in both traditional and project-based classrooms. She developed and leads Slate School's curiosity-driven curriculum that is both developmentally appropriate and academically rigorous. She designed a school which trusts each child in their learning, and which responds to each child’s wonderings and creativity. She leads Slate School’s ability to dive deep into recognizing and maximizing opportunities for discovery toward realizing a student's potential, and she creates a framework that allows for authentic assessment in all aspects of the classroom. Julie believes that trusting the natural curiosity of the child to drive learning leads to the most joyful and meaningful discoveries for the student, the teacher and, ultimately, our beautiful world. In addition to leading Slate School and its curiosity-driven philosophy, Julie is proud to continue teaching in the classroom, and she is currently the Grade 2/3 Teacher. As interest in Slate School's unique model continues to grow, Julie works with other educators through workshops, expert panels, and other educational forums. She frequently gives presentations at large conferences about curiosity-driven education, including TedXUConn.Before becoming a teacher, Julie was a professional actress and appeared in plays and musicals on Broadway, on London’s West End, and in regional theatre across the country. She has also produced and directed many original theatre works with student performers ranging from elementary school to high school. She continues to sing and perform locally, while also integrating the arts throughout every day at Slate School. Julie received her BFA from Florida Atlantic University and a Teaching Certificate from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is also an alumna of Columbia Teacher’s College Summer Institute.