(Newswire.net — January 6, 2013) Bozeman, MT — The prestigious Wisdom of the Elders award is granted annually to outstanding educators who have distinguished themselves in Montessori education through a lifetime of devoted service. Mary Ellen Maunz, Master Teacher and international presenter, was recognized this year for her accomplishments and contributions to the Montessori community by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE) and the International Association of Montessori Educators (IAME).
Mrs. Maunz is Founder and Program Director of Age of Montessori, a provider of early childhood Montessori certification training for teachers and parents. Located in Bozeman Montana, AOM offers an online course in a flexible format combining online learning and onsite instruction. Maunz has been a leader in her field by developing methods to move Montessori training online and still maintain the high quality standards required in her training. The student cohort test group assessed her program at 95% satisfaction for both online and face-to-face training.
Maria Montessori launched a revolution in education in Rome in 1907. Based on her observations of children and her insights into how they learn, she developed a teaching method and an environment of learning materials to unlock and expand the child’s inner potential according to the child’s own timeline of development. Montessori’s friend and direct student, Dr. Elisabeth Caspari, gave Montessori education in the United States a big boost in the early 1950s with the opening of her Montessori school in Missouri and the establishment of a Montessori teacher training course in the 1970s.
Mary Ellen Maunz was a student and longtime friend of Dr. Caspari. In 1980, she and Dr. Caspari launched a Montessori teacher certification program that has continued through the years. In 2011, Maunz founded Age of Montessori to carry on Maria Montessori’s legacy
Maunz is a well-known speaker and teacher. For over thirty years, she has presented at major Montessori venues and other educational conferences such as the International Dyslexia Association and the International Reading Association. She has been invited to speak at several of Ecuador’s and Russia’s most prestigious universities, and toured several South American countries as a guest of a UN sponsored event. Mrs. Maunz has also trained hundreds of teachers in Russia and surrounding Eastern European countries over the past twelve years in cities that would not otherwise have had access to Montessori training.
Maunz has distinguished herself as a published author. Her first book, Learning to Read is Child’s Play, is based on her remarkable understanding of literacy. She specializes in early reading, designing programs and materials and training teachers in the Montessori system of reading in the Chicago Public schools and in the Winona, Minnesota, public schools as well as in hundreds of private preschools. Her second book, Nurturing Your Child’s Inner Life, is currently in demand, having been published in English, Spanish and Latvian.
Mary Ellen also served on the MACTE Commission and Board of Directors for ten years and was Vice President of IAME for three years.
Maunz has been teaching and training since 1972. She holds an AMI diploma for early childhood, earned in 1972, a Pan-American Montessori Society for Elementary I and II, earned in 2002, and received the highest Montessori credential, her Master Teacher diploma, from Pan-American Montessori in 1983 after a four year apprenticeship with Dr. Elisabeth Caspari. In 2004 she earned her MS in Integrative Education from Endicott College.
At Age of Montessori, she is now educating parents as well as Montessori teachers, providing professional development through both free and paid webinars in a wide array of Montessori topics. Under her guidance, Age of Montessori is leading many new developments in online Montessori teacher training and producing educational books and products for parents and teachers.
Author: Brian Stevens Google+