Misty Meredith

I was born in Wisconsin. In 2007, I moved to Nashville TN and I currently live in East Nashville with my husband and son.

I like my name and it was never shortened.

I started teaching through a work-study program in high school at a small preschool. On my very first day, I ended up taking a group of restless nappers outside—despite some hesitation from staff—and we colored with chalk, ran up slides, and talked about life. I taught there for two years before moving to a bigger school, where I had six two-year-olds and no co-teacher. Limited outdoor time led me to ask if we could use the meadow behind our classroom. With the director’s support, paths were mowed, and it became our regular outdoor space for picnics and exploration among Wisconsin wildflowers.

When I moved to Nashville, I found a small preschool with tiny class sizes and its own outdoor space—a dream setting for teaching toddlers. I stayed until 2015, when I took a break to be with my son. In 2017, I came across a posting from a Reggio-inspired nature school called A New Leaf. When I visited, children were cooking with pinecones, painting logs, turning over stones barefoot in the sand garden—it felt like home. I met Elle in her office after climbing a creaky wooden staircase of the old house that was the school and we talked about the language of water before hiking to Overall Creek, where I’d later spend afternoons with children searching for crayfish and snails. In 2020, I was thrilled yo move to the Farm Campus and become a Magnolia teacher. The chance to teach in a farm setting was too good to pass up.

At A New Leaf I now wear many different hats. You can find me leading farm related projects with the school groups, preparing and teaching our Triangle Play program, tending to the gardens and animals, organizing special events, celebrations, and festivals, or directing the summer camp program on the Farm Campus.

As a child when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would answer that I wanted to move out west, be a cowgirl and own a dude ranch where people could come to let their hair blow in the wind, free themselves of their inhibitions and connect with nature. Just like in the movie City Slickers - except no cattle, just long horse-back rides through flowering meadows and quiet forests with midday picnics by a babbling creek. Now, while I may have traded horses for goats and chickens I still get to spend my days with people who want their hair to float on the winds, who find joy in being “wild and free” and enjoy spending time with the flowers and trees.