Early Childhood Faculty/Staff

It is a delight to be here at Headwaters. I have a Bachelors in English from UT at Austin, and have spent many years working in schools - from UT Austin as a LAN Administrator, through volunteering at an elementary school supporting struggling readers, and volunteering and then working in a middle school.  I’ve also spent the last 20 years teaching childbirth classes. Through it all, I have learned to surround myself with lovely people and fully experience the joy in these connections.  

 

I have been married for 26 years to Dan Brown (not that one) and we have 3 remarkable children who all attended Montessori preschool, for which I am immensely grateful. 

 

For fun, I read, hike, and focus on the good. 

Susie brings invaluable wisdom and experience to this position and our school, having served in a range of leadership roles at both Parish Episcopal School and at St. Alcuin Montessori School in Dallas. During her time at Parish Episcopal, she served as the head of the Lower School (Pre-K − grade 4 on two campuses) and their Upper Elementary Division (grades 3 and 4). At Alcuin, she served as their Associate Head of School and Middle School Director during a 15-year tenure.

A graduate of Texas Tech and Pepperdine, Susie is thoughtful, reflective, and extraordinarily skilled as both a teacher and administrator, especially in Montessori program and philosophy. Susie writes, “Great educators are facilitators providing the structure for the child to continue a lifelong journey of personal discovery through authentic application.”

My name is Paula Sanchez and I am a guide in the Chickadee Casita. I started working at our school as a substitute teacher in April 2009. I worked in Primary until spring 2013, when I had my daughter. I had the opportunity to move to the Young Children’s Community and I love it! During my time here, I’ve realized the impact a teacher can make and how a community like Headwaters can make a difference in a child’s life.

What I love about Montessori is how it allows children from an early age to be independent, and how we can create works based on their interests. What I love most about the YCC age group is that the world  is new to them and everything can be a learning experience. You can see the excitement on their faces when they are successful at a task after trying a few times. I feel very fortunate to experience Headwaters as a guide and a parent–my daughters Andrea  and Camila are excited about school. This is a special community, and I feel very blessed that my family is a part of it.

What I love about our school is the culture, and the way each relationship unfolds as a staff member, a parent, and a student. You can see that everyone deeply cares about each other. I am inspired by the many different ways to teach. I love getting to know each student and his or her family, and I’m glad to be a part of Headwaters.

My passion for working with children began the day I met my daughter’s first Montessori teacher. The amount of consideration she held for each child in her care, and the absolute faith that each one was capable was immensely inspiring to me. This realization set me on the path of home-schooling myself about what Dr. Montessori’s work was all about. Shortly after that I began my classroom work as an assistant to an AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) guide at a small Montessori school in central Austin. While there I was offered a lead role and had the honor of working with Gio Bellonci, an extraordinary woman trained in the AMI Assistant to Infancy Program. In 2008, I joined the staff at Headwaters (then called Primavera) to work with the school’s youngest students. Each day in this work, I learn more about what it means to be human through the children and what it takes to create a strong community through the partnerships I share with my co-workers and parents. It is an immense task to raise little women and men and one that, I believe, brings us closer to the truth and understanding of ourselves and each other. It has certainly been a chance of a lifetime to have had this opportunity to blossom along with a community of people strongly holding the space for meaningful work and a better world.

After earning a B.S in Psychology from Texas State University, I decided to follow my childhood dream of teaching and returned to Texas State to complete their certification program in Early Education. While completing my student teaching, I was invited to observe a classroom at Headwaters (then Primavera), and I instantly fell in love. I was so impressed by the drive and maturity of the children, their obvious ownership of their own learning, and the caring, loving, respectful relationship between the children and guides.

When I was offered the opportunity to be an assistant classroom guide and Creativity Club guide for Primavera’s summer camp, I leapt at the chance. It was an amazing experience! The children and guides are all fantastic people. The knowledge and love of the staff is immediately apparent, and the relationships that I made with both guides and children will live in my heart forever. I am so excited to continue my work in the Hummingbird Casita this year.

I spent a year substitute teaching on both the Early Childhood Campus and Elementary Campus at Headwaters School, as well as with Mariposa Montessori. The time I spent in each and every classroom was incredibly meaningful, rewarding, and stimulating. I am amazed every day at the learning capacity of these children at such a young age and I appreciate the respectful and calm learning environment provided for them. I am so honored and excited to be a part of this community next year and look forward to this new chapter in my life.

Still feeling relatively new to Austin, I also look forward to spending my free time exploring everything this wonderful city has to offer with my husband, Chris; specifically all of the culinary amazingness! When I am not in the classroom or enjoying dining at a local restaurant, you can find me teaching fitness classes at Pure Barre Austin or out walking my dog, Ralph!

 

Starting as a Headwaters substitute in the fall of 2017, I had visited all three campuses but there was something special about the YCC community. I'm thrilled to now be a part of the Hummingbird team with Emily and Darla.

I grew up living abroad, and traveling seems to be encoded in my DNA. From living in Mexico and Guatemala as a child and into adulthood, traveling to China at the age of fourteen, to now regularly traveling our country and Central America on family vacations, we just cannot get enough. Other cultures and world views have molded who I am and my philosophy of education and life in general. My husband, Dom, and I love having our daughter tag along with us now! Nothing better than having these experiences together as a family!

From my childhood, I knew I would work with children in some capacity: Babysitting and working in our church nursery in my youth, then following the dream to work with orphans after high school, I knew it was part of my future. After five years of volunteering with indigenous tribes in Mexico while working with all age groups, I decided to pursue a degree and a career that would support my vision for my future. This led me to studying Spanish and Communication Studies at University, then on to getting certified for public education, allowing me to work with at-risk students for eight years. While I will cherish those experiences, memories, and students for a lifetime, being blessed with my own little miracle moved me to reflect on what both her and my academic future should consist of. I knew I needed to find a new home. More freedom and individualized learning experiences propelled my research, which led me to Headwaters.

Subbing in Spring 2017 across all three campuses gave me a broad view of how amazing the continuum of Headwaters is, and I fell in love!  My first day I subbed in the Hummingbird’s classroom, witnessing how independent and strong these little humans can be in the right environment and nurtured by their loving guides, then I moved on to sub in Primary, Elementary, Middle and High School. I noticed a common thread across all campuses: love and respect, independent learning, deep and critical thinking, and a certain freedom to be who you are with acceptance. Oh, the list goes on.  I could envision my daughter growing and coming into her own here at Headwaters. Following a “meant to be” chain of events this spring, I was thrilled to accept the support position in the Hummingbirds Classroom, working with Emily and Rebecca.

I worked the Camp Headwaters summer camp with my daughter in tow. On Friday of our first week of summer camp, she ran up to the front door of the Spring Campus and exclaimed, “We are home!!!!” Yes, my love, we are home.

I was raised in Virginia and attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. In Richmond, I received my BFA in Art Education and received my teaching license for Visual Arts in grades PreK-12. I previously worked at the Jewish Community Center in Virginia as an Early Childhood Teacher, Art Specialist, Summer Camp Art Counselor, and was a participant of the Mitzvah (good deed) Committee. I moved to Austin in 2011 and had the opportunity to spend two years as an Assistant Director and Teacher at Open Door Preschool, providing support for children with special needs and assisting families from varying economic backgrounds. I also volunteered as a “Big Buddy” grief counselor at Comfort Zone Camp, a free bereavement camp for children. As part of my advocacy for children and the community, I have hosted several fundraisers for Japan Red Cross, Austin Pets Alive!, and Comfort Zone Camp, raising more than $10,000.

I have always loved being creative, working with my hands to portray an artistic idea. I love working with paper and paint. I feel that one of my strengths in the classroom is my ability to enable children to appreciate and create art. I am so excited to continue this passion at Headwaters School! I feel so inspired by the amazing community of teachers at Headwaters School and I am happy to continue strengthening relationships with the wonderful community of children and their families.

I am half Japanese and half Polish. I love reading, watching long TV series, making handmade stationery, going to new restaurants with my fiancé, Jack, cooking while listening to podcasts, and working out in my outdoor boot camp called Camp Gladiator. Jack and I are new first-time homeowners and will be getting married this November at Pecan Springs Ranch. We have a sweet rescue dog, June, from San Antonio Pets Alive! This will be my fifth amazing year at Headwaters School.

I have been blessed to be a part of this community since 2005 when my son began his first year in Primary 3. As my son settled into his classroom with Rachel and Marianne, I began to spend time on campus, getting to know both the children and staff.  I had paused my career in the theater arts when my son was born because the time demands were more than I was willing to commit to as a new mother. Visits to the Primary 3 classroom revealed a newly found ability for me in working with the children and an interest to spend time in the children’s environments in a professional capacity. I added myself to the school’s substitute list and soon found my transition into the classroom to be nearly effortless and very rewarding. I had found a new direction for myself which honored both my needs as a mother and my need to feel useful in a community larger than my own family.

After a year of substituting I accepted a classroom guide and after-school guide position, much like the position I hold this school year in Primary 1. In the past 7 years I have worked with both the Primary and YCC programs and have been fortunate to receive training and guidance from many of the talented teachers on those teams. The past two years have been an exciting time of growth as Primavera and Headwaters have integrated to create a new vision of education in Austin. I have watched with admiration as the programs have grown to serve more children and their families, while never compromising the core values which make our school such a fertile ground for positive change. I am honored to be a part of that change working along side Elizabeth in the Primary Roadrunners classroom!

I lived, from the age of three, on a bluff overlooking the Blanco River. My playground, my science lab, my obstacle course, my home instilled in me a love of nature, a sense of curiosity, of wonder and of play. I received my education in Wimberley, at Hays High School, and at Southwest Texas State University (B.A., Geography and History), now Texas State University. I first came to know about the methods of Dr. Maria Montessori while attending college. I had a part-time job assisting with a toddler class at Dripping Springs Montessori School and liked this way of teaching immediately. I continued with the job until graduation, marriage, and a move to Clear Lake where I worked at Armand Bayou Montessori School. There, I received my American Montessori Society (AMS) primary certification, in 1993. My husband, Cody, and I moved back to San Marcos where I worked at San Marcos Montessori. During that time, I completed my Association Montessori International (AMI) primary certification in 2000. I next worked in two other Austin Montessori schools and then took time away from teaching. One day I received a call from my friend Jennifer Phillips, a fellow student with whom I had trained. She was letting me know a position was open at Primavera (now Headwaters). Would I like to visit the school and be interviewed? I liked the school and accepted a position as a Primary Guide. That was in 2005, and I have never regretted a moment of my association with our school.

My experience at our school has been fulfilling and rewarding. I am fortunate to be part of a group of well-educated, dedicated, and loving people. The techniques of the Montessori Method resonate with me. I stay true to what Dr. Maria Montessori created; still I am encouraged to add my own creative touches to my approach at Headwaters. I give the children an experience that excites and engages them while they gain a sound foundation for their future studies. I embrace the whole child (mind, body, and spirit) and enjoy creating lessons with that in mind. I feel comfortable and confident at Headwaters, a place where our community spirit and dedication give us all a sense of purpose and a will to form well the lives of our students.

After receiving my Bachelor’s Degree in Human Sciences at Stephen F. Austin, I moved to Austin in 2007 and fell in love!  My first few years in Austin I was a nanny for a toddler and a substitute at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I later worked for four years as a lead teacher at Habibi’s Hutch Preschool. I found my passion for Early Childhood Education and learned a lot about promoting independent skills for children. I also loved the philosophy of valuing and recognizing the child’s spirit, the outdoor education program, and the close community of the school. When I decided to continue my path of Early Childhood Education, I knew I wanted to find a school with similar integrity, ethics, and ideologies. I am YCC-certified in Montessori.

This is my fifth year at Headwaters School and I absolutely love my team.  I love being a part of the Headwaters Community and getting to know the children, my colleagues, and the loving families.

I enjoy being outdoors and taking in the sunshine while biking, hiking, camping, kayaking, and swimming.  I love traveling and seeing the world.  I’ve taken several road trips in the states and visited Germany, England, Italy, Prague, Mexico, and Thailand so far.  I live in Dripping Springs with my husband and our dogs, Jasper and Indy, and absolutely love it!

I was born and raised in Austin, a Texas girl through and through! I have lived here most of my life, except when I moved to Boulder, Colorado to study at Naropa University, where I graduated with a BA in Religious Studies and a minor in Early Childhood Education. I also lived briefly in Hawaii, where I became certified in herbal medicine. While studying ECE at Naropa, I was introduced to the philosophies of Maria Montessori, and it was here that I first learned the beauty and benefits of the Montessori approach to Education.

I have always had a calling to work with children, and have worked in a variety of schools and homes as a teacher and nanny. After moving back to Austin, it wasn’t until I came to Headwaters (Primavera at the time), that I finally felt truly at home in my working environment. Over the past nine years at this school,  my calling to be a teacher has been more defined, which inspired me to pursue my Montessori training at the Center for Guided Montessori Studies. I completed my certification in the spring of 2015. The Center is accredited through the International Montessori Council (IMC) and the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE).

Maria Montessori said, “Within the child lies the fate of the future.” I feel honored to work alongside an incredible staff of women and men who are dedicated through their work with children to creating a peaceful community and a peaceful world.

Hi i’m Rebecca. This will be my second year at Headwaters in the Starlings classroom as a
Support and Creativity Club guide in primary. I was born and raised in South Austin and I come
from a family of 6. I have 3 sisters, which I am the second to the oldest child in the family. My
fiance's name is Glenn and we have a cat that we very much adore. During my free time, I enjoy
many hobbies in arts and craft, being outdoors, and trying new cooking recipes with Glenn. Prior
to working at Headwaters, I worked as a nanny and it was then that I knew i wanted to teach. I
began at a small daycare and LOVED it. I then started the school year 2016-2017 at Parkside
Montessori School and became inspired by the Montessori theory. Last year, I enjoyed working
at Headwaters and became even more inspired by Montessori practice and decided to start a
Montessori training. I am currently enrolled in the Primary Teacher Training Program with
NAMC to receive a Montessori Teaching Certification. I look forward to this school year 2018-
2019 and hope to gain more inspiration throughout the year.

I was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, right in the heart of Cajun Country.  A graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I received Bachelor’s degrees in English and German in May of 2012. In 2013, I became a lead teacher in a K-1 classroom at Good Shepherd Montessori in Port Barre, Louisiana.  In 2014, after getting a TEFL certification, I moved to Munich, Germany for a year with my husband, James,  where I taught ages 6 through 9 at The International Montessori School of Munich and pursued my AMI Montessori certification. In the Fall of 2015, my husband and I moved to Austin, Tx where I began my journey here at Headwaters. I am thrilled to be a part of our school and community.

Things I am proud of: having a Black Belt in Shotokan Karate, speaking a bit of German, working as a Montessori guide :)
Things I love to do in my spare time: travel, watercolor painting, baking and spending time in nature
Pets: I have a turtle named Pepito and a tuxedo cat named Mouse.

he first child development class I attended as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin opened my mind and heart to the fascinating inner world of the developing child. Not long afterward, I began working at a Montessori School in north Austin where I could apply my coursework while completing my degree in Child Development and Family Relationships. Deeply curious to know more about the psychological development of humans across the lifespan, I obtained a Master’s degree in Professional Counseling from Texas State University-San Marcos. I focused my career on working with vulnerable populations (children, adolescents, and adults) in a psychotherapeutic capacity as a Licensed Professional Counselor.

I’ve been a parent at Headwaters (first at Primavera Montessori School) since 2009. Having studied and observed the Montessori Method, it was a natural choice for my children, but what surprised me was how much the school community helped me develop as a parent and as a human being. When I felt a strong calling to return to my first passion of working in the classroom with young children, I knew that I wanted to join this compassionate and supportive school as a professional. I began substitute teaching at Headwaters School during the 2016-17 school year and fell in love all over again with the challenges and rewards of working in the classroom. To prepare for the unique role of Montessori Assistant Guide, I enrolled in a training course for assistant guides in the summer of 2017.

I am endlessly inspired by the wisdom of Dr. Montessori and her intellectual insight into some of our world’s most persistent questions. She articulated the tremendous value of the developing child to society. She explained that peace cannot be achieved until the child’s role is given equal importance to that of the adult. One hundred years later, I find Dr. Montessori’s prophetic philosophy of peace education as relevant as ever.

In my free time, I spend many hours parenting and loving my two children. I enjoy cooking and eating healthy food, reading for pleasure, indulging in Netflix when I should be sleeping, traveling, being outside, and frequenting the Hike and Bike Trail around Lady Bird Lake.