Dear Twin Parks Community, This has been a difficult time for our community as we mourn the loss of Kathy Roemer. Here is a great article about Kathy from the American Montessori Society (AMS). We have a New York State Montessori Alliance meeting at Central Park Montessori, with a tribute to Kathy at 4:30 via Zoom. All are welcome. We also have an intercampus committee forming to think of ways to honor her memory. This past week I attended an AMS Leadership Conference with Montessori educators and leaders from across the country. The keynote was Jaime Casap, a Google "Chief Education Evangelist" for over 14 years. In addition to hearing from Jaime, the conference was an active working session to attempt to solve issues through collaboration, sharing, and brainstorming solutions. In small groups we were asked to talk about our real world issues, identify the what contributes to these issues, and identify steps we can take to make change. Issues included everything from: How do we create opportunities for a variety of populations to access and understand Montessori? to How do we hire and retain teachers? to How to we raise the profile of Montessori education? and How do we redesign Teacher Education Programs to inspire, guide, and develop excellence in Montessori? One of Jaime's messages was that all workplaces have three key elements that help to attract and retain great employees. The first is to make sure that all know and believe in the mission and purpose of the organization. The second is that people have autonomy. Feeling empowered to do your work in the way you think will work best. The third thing is mastery. We like to be good at what we do, so it is important to support employees by providing excellent professional development and give them tools to do their best work. Additionally, the conference was great to make connections and discuss school issues and ideas with other school leaders. The classrooms have really enjoyed the parent visits! We are very thankful and proud of our teachers who have taken the next step in their teaching career and are on their way to becoming credentialed Montessori teachers. See their photos below! Re-enrollment and summer enrollment forms have gone out! Please let us know if you have any questions! Sincerely, Susan Susan Kambrich, Ed.D. Executive Director Twin Parks Montessori Schools

Dear Families, Happy New Year! It was so nice to see everyone again! Over the next few weeks, we have several parent programs coming up. During this month, you will be invited to come into the classroom to work with your child. This is an exciting event as all of the parents have a special time to visit the classroom. Your child will show you their work in several areas of the classroom. At the end of the month, we are also are hosting Stepping Up Parent Education Events. Watch for your invitation. These sessions will help you learn about what happens at the next level of your child's Montessori journey. Teachers from each area will provide an overview of each program, pointing out the developmental elements that change at each level. Parent Teacher conferences are on February 10. We look forward to sharing information with you about your child. Teachers will invite you to sign up for a time to meet with them. We also have several other parent education workshops on food, speech, and toilet learning that I will let you know about in the next newsletter. Our teachers have two professional development events coming up this month. We are renewing our CPR and First Aid certifications, and we have a Teacher Art Workshop, presented by Scribbles who has been conducting our Artist in Residence program. In March, we are sending 10 teachers and staff to the national American Montessori Society conference in Boston. This 4-day conference with over 4000 attendees features keynote speakers Ibram X. Kendi, Chris Barton, Susan David and Jamil Zaki as well as over 100 workshop sessions. For our children, we have a couple of school wide events in addition to Work with Your Child. The Therapy Dogs coming to visit again. We are also having the NYC Fire Department come in to do a Fire Safely program for the Early Childhood children. We are working on re-enrollment and summer information and hope to get information to you within the next two weeks! We are thankful to have your children and family as a part of our Montessori community. Sincerely, Susan Susan Kambrich, Ed.D. Executive Director Twin Parks Montessori Schools