Roots and Wings Montessori Podcast
For Montessori educators, Roots and Wings is a podcast offering classroom strategies, professional development, Montessori philosophy, and community building. Dr. Montessori said, "The greatest gifts we can give children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." Join Jess Davis of Montessori Minds Consulting and fellow Montessorians to explore what has made the Montessori method a highly effective education and movement for social change for over 100 years!
Episodes
Challenging behaviors are part of being a teacher. We are there to help guide children and help them learn from their mistakes. Sometimes all the lovely ideas we have brought back to the classroom from workshops and trainings are not enough, though. Sometimes a child may be so dysregulated that they engage in damaging, violent, or extremely disruptive behaviors and nothing we have tried seems to be working. What then? In this "...
Join host Jess Davis of Montessori Minds consulting in conversation with Dr. Eric Dustman about school leadership. Eric is a school leader, consultant, author, and presenter. You can learn more about Eric at https://nuancegroupllc.com/ . Eric is also co-facillitator of the AMS Emerging Leader Fellowship Program (ELF).
Jess and Eric discuss ways to help school communities heal after big changes, how to build trust within faculty and ...
This month host Jess Davis discusses the breadth of Montessori education across the ages with co-authors of the new book Implementing the Montessori Method: Learner Centered Education from Birth through Adolescence, Trisha Thompson-Willingham and Dr. Susan Zoll. This includes discussion of how differnt the environment, goals, and roles of the adults are in the different planes of development, highlighting how the Montessori method ...
Join host Jess Davis for an engaging conversation with Dr. Laura Saylor of Mt. St. Joseph University about the many intersections of Montessori and cognitive science research.
Discussion covers routines, formats, and language to decrease cognitive load for students, the importance of nonlinguistic representations (visual learning materials to go with verbal information), and the effects of technology on learning.
Resources mentione...
Host Jess Davis, MEd and EL I-II, dives into ways schools can build proactive, resilient practices to support students with disabilities. Jess reviews major components of visionary leadership for inclusion, the importance of building community investment, and dives into Multi-tiered Systems of Support (or MTSS) to effectively use a school's limited resources for greatest positive impact for the most students.
In this "part 2" conversation, host Jess Davis talks with one of her favorite Montessori leadership coaches, Jonathan Wolff, about the science and art of applying Montessori principles to supporting adults in our school environments (Montessori andragogy).
Jonathan is a consultant, trainer, speaker and author who infuses his work in leadership development with 30 years experience as an educator and administrator.
Jonathan p...
In the second episode of our series on Montessori and the Science of Reading, we discuss decoding and word recognition with Dr. Laura Saylor, author and academic.
Join host Jess Davis of Montessori Minds for this episode of Roots and Wings with Montessori leadership coach and consultant Jonathan Wolff. We discuss how to apply Montessori principles to professional learning and personal development of the adults in our organization, known as Montessori andragogy. In this first part of a three part series, Jonathan walks us through the principles of Montessori education he finds most vital to s...
Host: Jess Davis, MEd and Elementary Montessorian, Montessori Minds Consulting
Guest: Dr. Kateri Carver, director of the Montessori Studies program at the University of Wisconsin River Falls
Join us for a discussion about everything from the Montessori movement in Africa to the unification of Montessori in the United States with Dr. Kateri Carver. We will discuss one US Montessori research group, the Montessori Research Collective, o...
Host Jess Davis of Montessori Minds and AMS Living Legacy Dr. Gay Ward discuss the optimistic research landscape in part two of the Montessori Research series on the Roots and Wings Montessori Podcast.
Resources and Citations from the show:
Bray, P. M. & Ward G.C. (2025) Equity-Based Assessment Practices in Montessori: Dialogues in Higher Education and Community Educator Preparation Pathways. AERA Conference Denver, Colorado. Apr...
Host Jess Davis of Montessori Minds Consulting discusses the importance and role of research in the Montessori educational landscape with UVA's Dr. Corey Borgman.
Dr. Borgman is a Montessori educator, administrator, speaker, researcher, advocate, and consultant with 17 years of experience in the classroom and 12 in administration. She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from UVA's School of Education & Human Dev...
Dr. Sara Suchman, executive director of National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector, leads us through an overview of public Montessori and how NCMPS supports schools, districts and teachers. She talks about how public Montessori schools get established, relationships with communities and districts, challenges and strengths, and more.
We mention a previous episode with public Montessori principal Kathy Lause, of Indianapolis...
Join Jess Davis of Montessori Minds Consulting in a discussion with Dr. Susan Zoll, co-author of Powerful Literacy in the Montessori Classroom, to discuss the importance of nurturing language development as a foundation of literacy.
We discuss how adults can nurture language development and how to tell when a child may need extra support.
Jess mentions Scarborogh's Reading Rope, and more information on this infographic can be ...
Title: Positive Discipline and Parent Communication
Guest: Chip DeLorenzo, Co-author of Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom
Host: Jess Davis, Montessori Minds Consulting
This episode is part two of a two-part series on Positive Discipline. What is unique about Positive Discipline is that it has been intentionally aligned with Montessori principles in the book Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom. Today we ...
Guest: Chip DeLorenzo, co-author of Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom
Host: Jess Davis
This episode is part one of a two-part series about one guiding system, Positive Discipline.
Chip DeLorenzo has been a Montessori educator since 1995. He is the co-author, with Dr. Jane Nelsen (author and co-founder of Positive Discipline), of Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom. As a teacher trainer and school consul...
Join me in a discussion with public Montessori principal Kathy Lause of School 91 in the Indianapolis Public Schools district as we talk about the highs and lows, benefits and challenges of being school leader of a public Montessori school.
Kathy shares details on two "big ideas":
1. Creating documented agreements about what Montessori schools look like in the district, with a unified voice among Montessori building leaders
2. Bui...
In today's episode about Montessori education, we talk to Montessori inclusion experts Catherine Massie and Barbara Laborsky from the Montessori Medical Partnership for Inclusion. We discuss the history of inclusion in Montessori, the modern evolution of the Montessori inclusion movement, and what resources exist to support teachers and school leaders in building more inclusive, welcoming, and supportive classrooms for all chil...
Join host Jess Davis and guest Dr. Vanessa Rigaud to discuss what works and what doesn't in teacher evaluation, strategies for supporting teacher capacity, tips for building a positive culture around teacher evaluation, recommendations for evaluative tools, and more.
Host: Jess Davis, Lead Consultant, Montessori Minds Consulting
Guest: Dr. Vanessa Rigaud, Xavier University
Vanessa M. Rigaud, Ed.D. is an Associate Pro...
Learn about how public policy affects both private and public Montessori teachers, schools, and families. Hear how advocates make positive change through collaboration meet Denise and Vyju from the Montessori Public Policy Initiative (a joint nonprofit advocacy organization from AMS and AMI/USA).
Host: Jessica Davis
Guests: Denise Monnier and Vyju Kadambi from the Montessori Public Policy Initiative
Resources:
MPPI websit...
Join host Jess Davis of Montessori Minds Consulting in conversation with Dr. Paul Epstein (professor, coach, trainer, Montessorian, and author) about observation as a tool in the Montessori classroom.
Learn why observation is essential (and challenging), understand the C.O.R.E. method of observation, get tips on different ways to record observations, and more.
Dr. Epstein will be presenting a keynote, master class, and breakout se...
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