Montessori in Action Podcast

A Principal Perspective

Last month we heard from Dr. Jaime Aquino, the Superintendent of San Antonio Public Schools. Our episode to start out the new year is a conversation with the Principals of the two public Montessori schools in San Antonio- Natasha Akutekwe and Roxanna Montes. Their two schools comprise a Montessori Network and they talk about their experience as part of a network as well as part of a public school district.

Public Montessori Research

Our guest this month is Dr. Ian Parker, a career educator and researcher, who joins us to talk about Re-envisioning School: Lessons on School Reform from Montessori District Schools. This research, done with Katie Brown and Annie Frazer, uses Montessori as a focus to investigate how district leaders come to decisions about implementing alternative education models in their schools. Dr. Parker is currently a senior lecturer of early childhood education at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates. 

https://www.aasa.org/resources/resource/re-envisioning-school-lessons-on-school-reform-from-montessori-district-schools

Public Montessori School Programs

This month, our podcast focuses on public Montessori programs. Superintendent Dr. Jaime Aquino joins us to talk about his experience supporting public Montessori schools in the district setting. Dr. Aquino has held top leadership positions in several districts, serving as deputy superintendent of instruction in Los Angeles deputy superintendent in Hartford, chief academic officer in Denver, and an Instructional Superintendent in New York City. He is now the Superintendent of San Antonio Independent School District which currently has two public Montessori programs.

Finding Ground: Building Strong Elementary Practice authors' interview

This month we have a special guest who joins PMAI Executive Director, Elizabeth Slade, to celebrate the launch of a book they co-wrote, titled, Finding Ground: Building Strong Elementary Practice. Allison Jones, a long time Montessori educator, and Elizabeth got together to set down some thoughts about teaching at the elementary level. In this episode, Elizabeth and Allison interview each other about the book, their writing process, and share experiences as co-authors.

Find Finding Ground here!

 

New Montessori Decodable Books

Our guest this month has created a new set of Montessori decodable readers. Hannah Richardson is the founder of Montessori Makers and after years in the primary classroom and as a school leader, she has created a set of books specifically for Montessori children who are emerging readers. Join us to learn more about this new material.

2025 Summer Reads Bonus Episode

Welcome back to the next episode of Montessori in Action Podcast. Our first conversation of season 6 was our Summer Reads episode where we celebrate authors as they release books in our Montessori community. Fortunately, there are an abundance of new Montessori books coming out and so we decided to add a Summer Reads Bonus Episode. In this bonus episode we welcome Teresa Angeles author of The Montessori Home and Beyond, Tatenda Blessing Muchiriri, author of Montessori on Wheels and Jamie Watts, author of Montessori for Grown Ups. During the episode, we talked about sending Montessori books to Tatenda for families to read as their children explored the Montessori bus. If you would like to contribute, please send a book to this address: 

Tatenda  Blessing Muchiriri

Montessori on Wheels

6343 E Girard Pl #262

Denver, CO 80222

Summer Reads

Welcome back to another year with Montessori in Action Podcast! Our first conversation of season 6 is our Summer Reads episode where we celebrate authors as they release books in our Montessori community. This July we welcome Susan Zoll, author of Powerful Literacy in the Montessori Classroom who joins us to talk about her new book, Effective Literacy Assessment in the Montessori Classroom. Susan is joined by new author, Katie Keller Wood, who wrote Alignment: A Montessori Approach to Reimagining Work-Life Balance. Congratulations to these Montessori authors!

Rewilding Montessori

Our final episode of the season is a conversation about rewilding Montessori. Montessori in Action Podcast is joined by two deep thinkers- Lucy Recio and Frank George IV and they share their ideas about the concept of rewilding and how it relates to the moment in history we are in right now. 

Black Montessori Conference

Coming up in June is a unique conference opportunity- the first ever Black Montessori Conference will take place June 20th-22nd at Howard University in Washington, DC. This episode of Montessori in Action Podcast features the organizers of the conference: Meisha Perrin and Dr. Ayize Sabater. They share the inspirations and aspirations for the event.

Starting a Public Montessori School

Have you ever wished you had superpowers? In this next episode, meet four people with superpowers who are starting two public Montessori schools- one in Columbus, Ohio and one in Oklahoma City. These two couples envisioned tuition-free Montessori programs to serve their communities and they are bringing them into being! Both schools will open their doors this August. Rachelle and Josh Smith will be opening the school in Columbus, and Rufus and Summer Howard will be opening the school in Oklahoma City. Join us to hear about their visions and journeys.