Veronica Sias is the Montessori District Coordinator in Dallas for the Dallas Independent School District. In her first year in the position, she developed a district-wide professional development day to serve all the Montessori schools. Gathering for a day, and rotating through a variety of workshops and speakers, the staff of the schools learned together, connected and felt the power of their community. Join us as Veronica talks about her journey creating this experience for her district.

Dr. Montessori writes in Citizen of the World “What is most wanted is no patronizing charity for humanity, but a reverent consciousness of its dignity and worth.” This next conversation with professor, consultant, and author Donna Hicks explores her most recent book Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People, which was published by Yale University Press in August 2018. Her dignity work is a result of her unofficial diplomatic efforts to bring peace to places in conflict around the world. Our discussion takes us into the importance of dignity work in classrooms and how our awareness is the beginning point of that work.

In this episode we learn about the Black Wildflowers Fund, a new entity and sister organization of Wildflower Schools that will be co-led by our guests Maia Blankenship and Dr. Erika McDowell. This fund has been created so more Wildflower Schools led by proven black educators can flourish in neighborhoods across the country.

This episode features two Montessori trainers who talked with us about the experience of serving their communities.  Isabel Arce Garcia works at the Instituto Nueva Escuela in Puerto Rico and Khairieh Al Kalam works at the Sharjah Education Academy in the  United Arab Emirates.

Our next episode is a conversation with Victoria Johnson, who shares the results of her research, Education Anywhere: A Constructivist Grounded Theory study of Montessori Around the World. In this study, Victoria spent multiple years exploring the experiences of individuals and communities connected with diverse Montessori environments across the globe. Her research has produced some insightful theoretical models that help us understand the deeper meanings and processes of diversity and adaptability within Montessori from a worldwide perspective. Together we discuss important aspects of these findings, including the tension we often experience between authenticity and adaptability in our journeys of Montessori implementation.

As times change, the preparation of Montessori educators must also. In this conversation, primary trainer, Uma Ramani shares ways in which she has shifted both the course and content to address the needs of the adult learner and in pursuit of reaching all learners.

This month is a conversation with Vonnie Brown, the new Chief Operating Officer at Association Montessori International- USA. Her Montessori connection began through the doorway of a Wôpanâak language cultural immersion Montessori school founded on her tribal land. She joins the team at AMI USA with a vision of greater access for all learners and an interest in inclusivity.

Our next episode features the emergence of public Montessori in Ukraine. Anna Volokhova and Viktoriia Shcherbyna and talk about their Montessori journeys, the impact of the war in Ukraine and their work together to support Montessori schools during this time. Anna is the CEO of Montessori UA, an organization founded this past spring in response to the war in Ukraine with a goal of bringing people together and spreading the Montessori method across the country.  Viktoriia is the director of a Montessori program who working with the government to support open access to Montessori education.

Our next episode is a conversation with Trisha Moquino and Marcus Trujillo, the creators of new Montessori material coming out through Montessori Services. This material offers Montessori classrooms nomenclature cards created by Indigenous educators that represent Indigenous people across the land. Trisha is the author and Marcus is the illustrator of this new work created to reach children and educators with their words and beauty.

Rungano Montessori on Wheels is a mobile learning incubator whose mission is to create Montessori-based learning environments within Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities. 

In this episode we hear from Tatenda Blessing Muchiriri, the Founder and executive director of Rungano Montessori on Wheels as he shares the inspiration for and journey of actualizing this project.