Julia Gold has been teaching third grade at Lawton for 22 years and homesteading arts at the Michigan Folk School for over 10 years.  This year she gets to move up in the world and teach 4th grade!  She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and an Elementary Teaching Certificate with an endorsement in language arts from the University of Michigan, a Masters of Curriculum and Instruction from Marygrove College, and a Waldorf Teaching Certificate from the University of Detroit Mercy. Teaching is one of her favorite things to do.  

Mrs. Gold‘s Educational Philosophy:

The first door to effective teaching opens by building strong relationships with students, parents and colleagues. It’s through the joy of being together in a respectful learning environment that allows opportunities for learning to make the greatest impact. It is important to create meaningful and memorable experiences that integrate the whole child into every lesson. Lessons that incorporate the head, the heart and the hands allow children to learn using their whole being.  Learning should be engaging and your child should come home excited to tell you what happened at school today! 

A Few Facts About Mrs. Gold

My husband, Jason, and I moved our family outside of Ann Arbor to a small farm when my daughters were still small.  Since then, we've allowed our curiosity and the land to be our teachers. We spent several years as homesteaders raising a flock of chickens and a small herd of dairy goats. We grew, canned, dried and stored many herbs, fruits and vegetables for the winter and taught ourselves how to work with our hands.  It has become obvious that objects made with our own hands have far greater quality in both their craftsmanship, value and meaning. Our skills of woodworking, leatherwork, homesteading, herbalism and many other things we picked up along the way slowly became the basis of the coursework at the Michigan Folk School.  With the support of more than two dozen other passionate craftspeople, Jason and I founded the school over 10 years ago to offer coursework that promotes the renewal of traditional folk arts while preserving human relationships with one another, the Earth and our history as we collectively look towards the future.  The school was acquired by Washtenaw County Parks in January of 2023 and the opening of our brand new school building is happening this fall!  We are over the moon!