If you are interested in becoming a Mosaic Freeschool Class Facilitator, please email us with class ideas or proposals and a brief description of your background and/or experience in homeschooling or education.
Meet the Facilitators!
Jayne Besjak |
Jayne is co-founder of Mosaic Freeschool and homeschooling mom to three wonderful children. She and her husband Chuck decided to explore homeschooling as a transition vehicle when their family relocated from the Midwest to New Jersey in 2008. What began as a temporary and pragmatic evolved into a highly rewarding and welcomed lifestyle of personal freedom and enthusiastic, engaged learning.
Prior to diving into the world of alternative education, Jayne worked for 13 years as an Environmental Research Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, and lectured in the School of Continuing Studies at Northwestern University. She holds an M.S. in Geoscience from Oregon State University where she worked with the EPA's Global Climate Research Program and has completed PhD coursework in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. Jayne is passionate about fostering a life-long love of learning in her own children, and is dedicated to the development of learning communities and academic enrichment opportunities for homeschooling families. |
Jennifer Filannino
Sandra Lynch |
Jennifer has focused her educational lens on the humanities and holds an Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts from Morris County, a B.A. in English/Writing from Kean University, and an M.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration. Upon graduating from Monmouth, Jennifer was invited to teach College Composition at both Monmouth and Kean, which led to her also teaching World Literature and Creative Writing at Kean. She's also a private tutor and writing enthusiast, and has a secret penchant for Tarot reading.
Recently, Jennifer has focused her lens on growing her family. She has two "babies" at home with her: 3 year old son Henry and 8 month old daughter Francesca, and 2 month old kitty Marley. In her down time (a rarity) she loves to spend time with her favorite people; read, write, and reflect; walk, bike, and run; listen to music, dance, and sing badly; and laze about at her parent's Cape May beach house. She is passionate about helping, guiding, and supporting young adults to learn to love the written word, as well as appreciate the importance of proper and effective communication, especially in a technological age. Sandra comes from a background in protein analysis and research, having investigated the effect of mutations in the development and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases ALS and Parkinson’s disease, while pursuing her PhD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, and postdoctoral research at the New York State Department of Health.
She realized that she had a gift for explaining complicated scientific concepts, in a meaningful way to students, as she mentored them in the labs she supervised on research, and while teaching at schools in Vermont. Subsequently she chose to continue her career as a Science Educator, and currently tutors students privately in her own business venture in Chemistry and Math. She hails from Barbados where she taught chemistry at Barbados Community College for 6 years before coming to the US to pursue her graduate studies in the area of biochemical sciences. She has worked with the Upward Bound program (University of Vermont), and has served on the Vermont Women in Higher Education Board. Sandra is enthusiastic to enable the next generation of chemists, and pass on the scientific tools to help make this world a better and safer place for everyone. She likes to travel, going to concerts, listening to gospel music, cultural cuisine, hiking, and other activities exploring and enjoying nature. |
Cristen Pantano |
Cristen received her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Vermont in 2005. While she loved the lab environment, her true passion has always been teaching. Cristen began homeschooling her own children in 2011, and that same year began teaching biology to local homeschooling middle-schoolers and loved the experience. Since then, she has developed hands on, child centered, science curriculum for the nonprofit Curiosity Hacked while teaching middle school and high school biology online.
Cristen is passionate about science education, science literacy and making sure that each of her students comes out of her classes with a deeper understanding of the world around them, and their connection to that world. When not teaching, Cristen can be found driving her kids around and feeding the family chicks, bunnies, and sheep. |
Silvia Muller |
Silvia is currently a curriculum developer, education researcher, and instructor for Rutgers University as well as part of a game-designing, theater-enthusiast family including a fourteen-year-old thespian! She began her career as an IT specialist at Rutgers in 1994 and has been designing course materials and teaching every chance she gets. She has received a B.A. in the Humanities at Sarah Lawrence College and an M.L.S. and Ed.D. at Rutgers University. She is currently working on a book about the trans-atlantic origins of the New York City school system in the early 19th century.
Silvia is very excited to get to work with students on all topics, but particularly History which she has snuck into nearly every class she's ever taught - even Web Page Design! |
Natasha Benkendorf 
Hope Pressler |
Natasha discovered her love for debate, mock trial, and public speaking through tournament competition early in life, and it led her to pursue a B.A. in Communications at Austin College in Texas. While there, she continued to fine-tune her debate skills through participation in political science classes and circles and by assisting with high school debate clubs and tournaments. Simultaneously, she regularly participated in theater performances and acted as a teacher’s assistant in advanced drama and Shakespeare classes. She also began working with underprivileged kids – to give them the opportunity for theater and dance.
These experiences and a desire to help inner-city youth brought Natasha to New York City where she worked as a tutor and camp director with the Bronx YMCA. She also co-led the Youth and Government program, designed training classes for program leaders, taught many drama classes, and developed original productions for the camps. Natasha has always loved teaching – specifically with middle school students. When she became a mom, she quickly realized a desire to teach her own children at home. Learning alongside her clever and wacky four kids has been a tremendous blessing. She currently teaches writing, and she has been waiting for the day one of her kids would be old enough to begin debate and mock trial. Hope is a veteran educator who has spent twenty-five years teaching in schools in California, Ohio, New York and New Jersey. She has taught students in grades pre-K through 8, most recently serving as a middle school math and science teacher at Greater Brunswick Charter School in New Brunswick, NJ from 2000-2012. Hope has been homeschooling her four children since 2014.
Hope has a special passion for math and science and has continued her own learning as she teaches her children at home and by taking online classes. Throughout her teaching experience she has worked with all types of learners. Hope has a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from City University in New York. In addition to educating children Hope has explored the world working for a peace organization in Austria, a Quaker guest house in Mexico, a national park in Alaska, a kibbutz in Israel, and volunteered with a teacher education program in South Africa. She loves to travel and has had adventures in numerous foreign countries and throughout the United States. She loves nature and her current passion is kayaking with her family. |
Lisa Young |
Lisa is the founder and owner of Artfully Young Art Studio in Warren, NJ and has been specializing in teaching art to adults and children for over ten years. She is a member of the New Jersey Pastel and Watercolor Societies and her art work is held in private collections in North America and Europe. Lisa is a regular exhibitor at Art Fairs and exhibitions across the Tri-State area.
Lisa is passionate about wildlife and environmental conservation and this is reflected in much of her artwork. Many of her paintings and drawings depict endangered wildlife in natural settings. She is also an avid landscape artist and particularly likes painting places in her local neighborhood. Lisa uses a wide range of mediums, but tends to favor pastels, pencil and oils. |
Sachi Tripp |
Sachi is a homeschooling mother of four children, two of whom are transitioning into a formal school setting. Sachi’s family began their homeschooling adventures years ago when their first-born daughter came of school age. A long-time advocate of alternative learning models, she initially chose to homeschool in order to shield her children from the long hours in a classroom, in favor of more time outside and with family. Homeschooling turned into a lifestyle for the Tripp family, enabling them to travel both at home and abroad, to explore alternative ways of learning (and different models from unschooling, to Waldorf, to Charlotte Mason), and to move from the East Coast to the West and back again with as little disruption in the education of their children as possible.
Sachi received her undergraduate degree in Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Following this, she joined a program called Teach for America and committed to teach two years in rural North Carolina. After living and working in Gaston, North Carolina, Sachi moved west to Oakland, California where she taught Language Arts and History in an urban classroom. While Sachi never envisioned herself as a teacher, she found it deeply fulfilling and decided to pursue a Master’s of Education at the Teacher’s College of Columbia in New York City. After earning her M.A., Sachi took a job with Teach for America supporting teachers in classrooms throughout the five boroughs. Throughout her years in education, Sachi strove to maintain the highest standards for all students, especially those who the system seemed to have forgotten. When Sachi is not teaching, she can be found walking her dogs, exploring fiber arts, reading, and/or hiding from her children while doing the aforementioned walking, reading, or knitting. |
