Meet Our Educators

Dedicated & Certified

FPI has the best preschool teachers in Fredericksburg! Each class has a teacher and a teacher’s aide. They are responsible for planning and implementing the school’s curriculum which is based on monthly themes that also correlate with the seasons. Both teachers have earned bachelor's degrees and are trained in first-aid, health screening, and CPR.

Wendy Cannon

Program Director /Four's Program Teacher

Wendy Cannon has been the teacher for our 4’s class since the spring of 2002. Her love for FPI began when she was a member from 1999 to 2001 while her daughter, Hannah, was a student. After a long-term substitute job at Head Start, she realized how much she loved working with preschoolers and accepted the position at FPI!

She is also the Program Director for FPI, so you can contact her with any questions about our curriculum at program_director@fpionline.org.

Currently, Mrs. Cannon also works for a local non-profit, The Doctor Yum Project where she is a cooking instructor, outreach specialist, and preschool curriculum liaison. She enjoys developing new recipes and teaching families that healthy food is delicious and fun too! Mrs. Cannon can also be found volunteering at The Table at St. George’s every Tuesday helping people in our community who are struggling with food insecurity. Mrs. Cannon loves the beach, cooking, running, reading, music, playing games, and hanging out with friends, family, and her dog, Gus!

Kaelan Moses

Three's Program Teacher

Kaelan Moses is excited to transition from being a parent to teaching with the FPI family. Her two children attended FPI from 2019-2022, and she learned so much from teachers and other parents that she is excited to teach to future FPI families!

Kaelan has an M.Ed from the University of Mary Washington, and has several years of working with preschoolers as well as five years of teaching high school biology (which is surprisingly not much different than teaching preschool!). She looks forward to creating a safe, comfortable environment for your little ones to experiment, grow, create, and learn!

Debbie Michel

Assistant Teacher

Debbie Michel is the strong rock that holds up FPI. Before her start as the assistant teacher in both the three and four-year-old class, Mrs. Michel also had two of her children in the FPI program. She keeps the classroom organized, clean, and running smoothly from one transition to the next. She is often responsible for setting up the manipulatives and puzzles at the beginning of the day and the centers during the day. She also helps keep students on track so that there is minimal interruption and maximum engagement. Mrs. Michel has been a dedicated member of FPI's staff since 2001!

Marcia Ransom

Music Teacher

Mrs. Ransom received a bachelor's degree in Music Education from Brigham Young University. While a student, she observed and worked at a weekly Preschool Music class, sponsored by the university to provide students with more learning experiences. In later years she completed 3 levels of Kodaly Music Certification. When her five children were little, she taught lessons and music classes out of her home. Now that her children are all big, she found she missed those little preschool years.

Mrs. Ransom really enjoys teaching music to this age group and the children really love their music day at FPI!

Susan Barber

Yoga Teacher | E-RYT500, RYT200, YACEP Provider, Warriors at Ease Certified, IAYT

Susan Barber began her yoga journey in the late 90’s when she fell in love with classical Ashtanga yoga studying with her first and primary teacher Beryl Bender Birch. She spent 5 years training to become a teacher of yoga, traveling to India to immerse herself in the culture of the ancient tradition and spending time at Swami Satchidananda’s Ashram. Susan taught internationally for many years while living in Singapore, Bahrain and Europe, including several years in Germany working with Wounded Warriors and those healing from trauma. After spending 3 years teaching full time in the NYC area, Susan has returned to her home state of Virginia where she continues to offer group classes, private sessions and workshops.

Mrs. Barber is very excited to be returning to FPI as our new yoga teacher. She is a mom
of two grown up kids! Her son, Luke, attended FPI back in 2003.