Multilingual Montessori

Beth Allison is a mom, educator, and entrepreneur who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Beth is Navajo and grew up on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, but she is not fluent in the Navajo language. When her son, who is now 2 and a half, was born, Beth decided to learn Navajo along with him. She quickly found that there weren’t as many teaching resources for an indigenous language like Navajo as there are for world languages like Spanish and Mandarin. So she began creating and sharing resources and videos for other parents teaching their children Navajo as well, which she now shares on her website The Allison Exchange. In our conversation, Beth talks about what it was like to grow up hearing Navajo spoken around her but not speaking it herself, and why she made the decision to raise her son speaking Navajo. She shares a history of the Navajo language and why it means so much to her as a Navajo woman and mother to keep the Navajo language and culture alive and pass it down to the next generation.   This episode originally aired on January 19, 2022. Follow Beth: Website Instagram YouTube Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Diandra Morse is a bilingual mom, licensed clinical social worker and child advocate living in Syracuse, New York with her husband and two bilingual sons. Diandra is Dominican American and was raised in both the Dominican Republic and New York City. You might know Diandra from Instagram as Bilingual Playdate, where she promotes positive language attitudes towards all languages, language variations, accents, dialects and reminds parents that they are the heart of their child’s bilingualism. In this conversation, Diandra shares her experiences raising two bilingual sons, and what it has been like to watch her husband transition to speaking Spanish to their children as well. She talks about how she decided to use her Instagram platform to focus on advocating for bilingualism by dismantling myths about bilingual children, drawing attention to discriminatory and linguistically oppressive practices, connecting parents to bilingual parenting community supports and providing parents with play-based Spanish learning ideas that they can incorporate in their home to preserve their Spanish heritage language. Diandra is so insightful and enthusiastic and I definitely left this conversation feeling inspired - I think you will too. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Diandra! Follow Diandra: Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Jesse Gevirtz is the Director of Adolescent Programs at Austin Montessori School in Austin, Texas. Jesse has been teaching in Montessori schools for 25 years, 21 of them at Austin Montessori School. He holds an AMI Elementary Diploma and an AMI Diploma in Adolescent Studies. Jesse attended Montessori school as a child in Houston, Texas in the early 1970s. He is the parent of two Montessori children: both of his young adult daughters attended Austin Montessori School from their early childhood years all the way through the adolescent program. In this conversation, we discuss Jesse’s path to Montessori and what he loves most about working with adolescents. We also discuss what it was like having his two daughters in his class, and how parenting adolescents is different from teaching adolescents. Jesse shares his insights about what children need most during their adolescent years, and how parents can support adolescents in a Montessori way even if they don't go to a Montessori school. Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Yuna Seong is a language educator and assessment expert living in New Jersey. She is the Director of the Community Language Program, the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Certificate Program, and the Language Program Management Certificate at Teachers College Columbia University, where she hires and trains language educators and language program professionals who aspire to teach and manage their own language programs. Yuna earned her MA in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa with a focus on language Assessment, measurement, and program evaluation, and she is expecting her doctorate in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College Columbia University in 2023. Having grown up bilingual in both the United States and Korea, and always having to code-switch between two different cultures and languages, Yuna values the importance of intercultural communications skills, and she is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion across global language teaching and learning contexts. In this conversation, we talk about Yuna’s journey as an educator and higher education program administrator, as well as her own experiences growing up bilingual.  Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Melina Gac Levin is an educator and bilingual parent who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is the founder of Pueblo, which supports multicultural families through parenting classes and consultations. She is also the co-founder of Nido Forest, NYC's first forest school en Español. Melina has a dual Masters from Bank Street College of Education in Infant, Toddler and Family Development and Early Childhood General and Special Education. She is a former preschool teacher, and currently teaches graduate students at Bank Street College of Education. In this conversation, we discuss Melina’s experiences growing up with multiple languages and how they shaped her identity. We also discuss her journey to becoming a teacher and what led her to found Pueblo and Nido Forest. Melina shares her experiences raising two bilingual daughters, and offers advice for parents raising bilingual or multilingual children. Follow Melina: Parent Pueblo Website Parent Pueblo Instagram Nido Forest Website Nido Forest Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Jackie Howard is a bilingual educator and former Montessori child living in Austin, Texas. Jackie grew up speaking Spanish and English at home, and went to a Montessori school from kindergarten to 8th grade. She has worked in the education field for 13 years, first as a bilingual elementary teacher, then as an instructional coach mentoring teachers, and now as a high school humanities teacher and college consultant. In our conversation, we discuss Jackie’s childhood memories of Montessori school and how she thinks her Montessori education has influenced her as an adult, as well as what it was like transitioning from Montessori to a Waldorf high school and then to college. We also discuss her experiences studying abroad in Spanish-speaking countries, first in high school in Peru, then in college in Mexico, and finally in Spain where she got her masters degree in Spanish Language. Jackie shares her experiences as a bilingual Spanish-English educator in low-income public schools in Texas, and what advice she has for parents who are raising bilingual children. Follow Jackie Howard: Website Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Lynda Apostol is a Montessori teacher, parent, and homeschool coach who lives in Southern California with her husband and two children. Lynda has worked in both public and private schools as a teacher, instructional coach and administrator. During the pandemic, she decided to homeschool her young children, and we talk about how that decision came about in our conversation. When she began sharing her homeschooling experiences on social media, she found that other parents were seeking guidance about how to homeschool their own children in a Montessori way. She decided to share her knowledge and experience by becoming a homeschool coach, and she developed a coaching program to help parents homeschool their children guided by Montessori pedagogy and principles. Social justice and global perspectives are important to Lynda’s work, and we talk about how homeschooling can be a way to work towards social justice and creating inclusive Montessori spaces. Instagram accounts that Lynda mentions in the episode: Afrocentric Montessori Modern Montessori Guide Montessori Madre Whole Child Home Follow Lynda: Website Instagram Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Sophia O’Brien-Udry is a Children’s House guide at a Montessori school in New York City. Although Sophia is monolingual herself, she teaches at a bilingual Montessori school, and we talk about her experiences working in a bilingual environment, and what she has learned about language from her bilingual colleagues and students. Sophia is also the Director of Culture at her school, where she partners with families to narrow the gap between the Montessori classroom and the home. In this episode, we talk about ways that parents and teachers can support children’s language development in the preschool years, and what Sophia believes is the most important reason to expose children to multiple languages. Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

The guest for this episode is…me! I invited my good friend and former coworker Claudia to interview me about my education background and how I came to start Multilingual Montessori. Claudia was a podcast guest a few episodes back (linked below) and in honor of my 20th podcast episode, I thought it would be fun to be in the hot seat myself. I asked Claudia to interview me and she came up with some great questions for me about growing up in Manhattan and going to NYC public schools, teaching English in Italy, how I discovered Montessori, training in London, my teaching experiences, the masters program I’m finishing up, and of course, how Multilingual Montessori came to be. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little more about me and my journey! Episode 15: Claudia Lundahl on Montessori with Toddlers Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon

Siri Panday is the Director of Education for Toddler and Primary at Marin Montessori School in Northern California. Siri is trained as both a 0-3 and 3-6 AMI Guide, and she has worked in Montessori schools as a guide, administrator, and consultant for over 20 years. Early in her teaching career, she had the opportunity to help open a Montessori Children's House classroom in Kathmandu, Nepal, and we chat about her memories of teaching in Nepal and learning to speak Nepali. Siri grew up bilingual in English and Norwegian, and she now has two daughters who are trilingual in English, Norwegian, and Nepali. In this conversation, we talk about navigating identity and moving between cultures, raising multilingual children, and how Siri's understanding of Montessori evolved once she became a parent. Follow Multilingual Montessori: Website Instagram Consultations Patreon