I imagine the Washington Montessori School leaves a lasting effect on the lives of all its alumni, but the role of my WMS education has shaped my life perhaps more directly and more consistently than most, and I am deeply grateful.
When I finished my undergraduate degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2003, I returned to Connecticut with little direction beyond an abstract belief that I’d enjoy being a teacher someday. To my utter delight, WMS was hiring a primary classroom assistant, and I got the job. I spent the year working with master teachers Joan Gwillam and Nancy Binns, and for the first time began to understand the thoughtful care and planning that went into the curated educational experiences I’d had as a child. In fact, I was once a student in Joan’s class, and getting to experience her classroom as a young teacher brought back countless vivid memories of my own time as a student in her class, and those memories helped me empathize with the student perspective while teaching. My interest in teaching as a career path was entrenched during that year in the classroom at WMS, and I haven’t looked back.
The coming school year will be my 18th year as a full time elementary educator, and though I’ve worked in different schools and in different roles, I continue to see my own Montessori experience, both as a student and a teacher, as a guiding force in my professional work.
After my year back at WMS, the pull of my California community was too much, and I moved back to the Bay Area and taught at a small Montessori school for two years, deepening my understanding of Montessori pedagogy. I eventually chose to return to graduate school for a more general education degree, and found a happy home at the Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA, where I have taught second grade for 14 years.
I’m grateful for the freedom to design my curriculum and classroom as I see fit, and my own teaching practice borrows extensively from what I’ve learned from Montessori education. Certainly from Maria Montessori’s theories and writing, but even more so from my own lived experiences as a Montessori teacher, and even my memories of being a Montessori student. I remember what it felt like to have autonomy as a student, to choose activities I was drawn to, and what the sense of independence did to my intrinsic motivation. I also remember how working with Montessori materials helped me understand abstract math concepts more readily, and to this day I rely on Montessori materials to help introduce tricky math concepts in concrete ways before moving to more abstract applications.
As holder of the Anna-Head Distinguished Chair of Teaching Excellence at Head-Royce for the past three years, I’ve had the great privilege of pursuing extensive professional learning specifically focused on curriculum development, and am trained in all the newest and fanciest programs. But in the end, it’s the warmth and the child-centered focus of my WMS memories that informs my work most of all. If you’re ever in Oakland, CA, I invite you to come visit my classroom. If you’re a WMS kid, you’ll feel right at home.
