Who we are

Siera Tibbetts

Siera and I first met as colleagues. She was one of the staff assigned to my room to support learners with accommodations. It quickly became apparent that she was a versatile addition who didn’t need any input from me to make a positive impact. She sought out students who needed help, efficiently determined the necessary scaffolding or adjustments, and got them back on track. Whether the support was executive functioning, social-emotional, or content-related, she helped learners work toward success.

That same year, Siera volunteered to help with our school’s JV Tennis team, which I was coaching. Each day, she helped plan drills appropriate for our players, instructed them, and coached them positively, helping them become better, more confident players and individuals. Through tennis, she further demonstrated her understanding of kids, their social-emotional needs, and what motivated them.

Over the next few years, we took over both girls’ and boys’ varsity tennis and realized that our coaching philosophies aligned with our visions for education. Where I had an idea, she had data or research to support it and ideas for implementation. She found books to help the players learn about mindset and other aspects related to the sport. She also found videos and other materials that we showed to the team and discussed to help build a positive culture.

During matches, she came up with the idea of having players track data for each other’s matches, making them active participants in providing feedback and praise. We used the data to create practice plans, and she showed the players their growth throughout the season.

While I was vocal and communicated the ideas and direction, she organized the path and provided the system that made tennis about more than just tennis, connecting it to how they behaved as individuals.

Her passion for teaching and helping players was mirrored in the classroom. Time and again, I saw her earn the respect and compliance of some of the most challenging learners in the building. She taught with empathy, working with all types of kids, including the stereotypical valedictorian, kids with anxiety or depression, kids full of anger or empty with apathy, kids going on to college, kids going on to careers, and some who will spend many more years, or their whole life, at home. She always helped them grow and showed them that they had value and could find personal success.

Kids, and I think most people, don’t pick fights with the few people (maybe the only person, in some cases) who understand them, support them, and help them find success despite their traumatic experiences and adversity.

Siera brings structure, organization and the ability to connect with students by forming positive relationships so that they want to work. She has the disposition and mindset needed to help students improve and grow so that they can work towards returning to a more traditional setting.

Zach Arnold

My journey to Tipwik Tree started in education 12 years ago in Lincoln, ME, where I taught biology, physics and chemistry and coached alpine skiing, soccer, football, baseball and tennis. I was a class advisor and advisor to a one act play as well as the improv troupe. Professionally in the district, I was the proficiency based learning leader, a stipend position where I attempted to support colleagues, created professional development workshops and provided support to staff who were expected to change the way they instructed, assessed and graded. As a teacher in his early 20’s, I gained a lot of eperience fast and quickly realized that education goes far beyond content and included thinking skills and social-emotional skills. Some of the most important lessons require patience, a positive connection and the ability to express empathy toward all students regardless of the challenges and trauma they experienced.

When my wife and I decided to start a family, we chose to move a bit further south (closer proximity to more ammenities and entertainment). I took a job at Orono High School and quickly begin to take on course loads full of students who didn’t enjoy traditional education and many of whom were students with anxiety, depression, ADHD, learning dissabilities and other challenges. As my course loads got more challenging, I realized I truly loved working with these kids, pulling them into courses, mostly to teach them communication skills, and critical thinking skills but also to give them the most important science content that they might need in the future.

Siera and I began to pull kids into tennis who I thought would benefit from positive connections in a positive environment and a place free from grades and judgement where they could develop a mindset that gave them the confidence to grow toward success.

I have enjoyed my years in Orono so very much. The students I have worked with on the tennis team and in the classroom have meant the world to me. Nothing has given me more joy than seeing some of the most anxious, off task, frustrated, angry students find success and positive relationships in the classroom, on the courts and later on in the careers that they built the courage to pursue. 

Leaving my job as a traditional public, secondary education teacher is a choice that I have made to continue to work with the kids who struggle to fit the typical classroom in smaller, more easily adaptible environment where they can make mistakes free of hurtful judgement, grow as learners and people, build the confidence to take risks and try as many times as necessary to find success.

Tipwik Tree Educational Services, LLC, up until now has been a dream. I am beyond excited to be able to start this along side my co-founder who seems to be my mirror in terms of philosophy while also being able to compliment my skill set.