I am a lead teacher at a Montessori school in Belmont. I don’t believe that the group school setting is going to be effective during the Coronavirus pandemic because I do not believe children will cooperate with masks in large groups and because I believe many children will have negative experiences with the necessary rigidity of mask wearing, social distancing and sanitization.
I teach young children because I understand that early life experiences have an extreme impact on development and life success and happiness. The importance of early childhood to human development means I have more opportunity to positively impact others’ lives through early childhood education than in any other field.
Plus, I really love working with young children!
Many mental health professionals share the opinion that after the first six years of life, many tendencies have been acquired that are later difficult to change. I choose to be involved in children’s lives during the early years in hopes I can set them on the road to success.
In addition to being AMS-Montessori certified, I have a master’s in clincial psychology from Harvard and a bachelor’s in human development and family studies. During my undergrad, I studied under Kevin Rathunde, mentee of Mihalyi Csikszentimihalyi who formalized the academic understanding of flow.
Flow has had a major positive impact on my life and has allowed me to find health and happiness despite many difficult circumstances. I attribute my well-being and any successes I have achieved to flow and the concepts I share with the children in my classrooms and their families.
Maria Montessori witnessed flow in her classrooms at the turn of the 20th century and I believe the Montessori method of education has the potential to positively impact individuals and society through preparing environments that facilitate flow in students and teachers.
I also volunteer on the MAAEYC policy committee to argue for pay parity for early childhood educators because I believe poor early childhood care and education is associated with mental health difficulties later in life. The pay is so low in the field that many teachers working with young children are not qualified to be doing work that has such a tremendous impact on individual lives and the collective mental health of our society. I believe that pay parity in early education is one of the first steps towards reversing some of the major mental health and educational issues we are witnessing across our nation.
I have over 25 years working with young children in crisis nurseries, treatment programs, and preschools.
I am a mother of three.
I also accept parenting coaching clients.