Tara Schneider is an educator, curriculum leader, and contemplative practitioner with over 18 years of experience in K–12 education. She has spent much of her career in special education, supporting students with diverse learning profiles through individualized academic support, literacy intervention, and inclusive instructional design. With specialized knowledge in executive functioning, attention, and learning disabilities, Tara brings a nuanced, strengths-based lens to both teaching and school leadership.

Over the years, Tara developed the Bodymind Approach to Learning™, a framework that integrates evidence-based instruction with mindfulness, movement, and metacognitive practices. This method builds both academic confidence and inner awareness, supporting students in becoming more focused, resilient, and self-aware. Bodymind Microschools is the newest expression of the Bodymind Approach: a visionary learning environment grounded in presence, neurodiversity, and spiritually aligned education.

Tara holds an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from Penn State University and a Certificate in School Management and Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Business School. She is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Transformational Leadership and Coaching, utilizing consciousness-based frameworks.

Tara’s educational vision is deeply informed by long-standing contemplative practice, including training in restorative and yin yoga, children’s yoga, and mindfulness in education. Tara also spent a decade at the nation’s only K–12 Friends school specifically designed for students with learning disabilities, an experience that shaped her understanding of learning as a meaningful, relational act. The Quaker tradition of silence, an experience of stillness, presence, and expectant listening, continues to guide her approach to leadership, teaching, and spiritual presence in educational spaces.

Through Bodymind Teaching, her professional development platform for educators, and now through Bodymind Microschools, Tara offers a model of education that honors the full self: body, mind, and spirit. She invites educators and students alike to engage with presence, curiosity, and compassion, co-creating learning environments that are focused, spacious, and soul-aligned.

Tara was raised in Anchorage, Alaska and often finds herself homesick for the Chugach foothills of her childhood. Despite a very different climate, the Catalinas evoke that same sense of wonder and belonging. When she’s not busy developing a new school, Tara teaches yoga and meditation to adults, gardens when she can, reads widely, and creates lovingly crafted recipe booklets for friends and family. A lifelong learner, she finds joy in learning something new each day.