Meet Our Staff
Administration:
Kristin
Edwards M.Ed.
Kristin Edwards,
Co-Founder and Program Director has devoted her life to children. From a
young age she "taught" the kids in her neighborhood, helping with
homework and child care. She went to the University of New Hampshire and
received her BA in Psychology with a focus on Child Psychology and Minored in
Education. It was during a year long internship in a third grade
classroom that Kristin realized traditional teaching was not her passion.
She discovered that she enjoyed working with younger children at a traditional
preschool, but something still was not right. She and her husband escaped
the winters of New Hampshire and moved to Santa Barbara, CA. There she
finally found her calling. Working at a Montessori school for the the
first time, Kristin found an amazing group of children from ages 3 to 14.
Within a year she was being trained at the Montessori Institute of San
Diego. In 2001 she received her AMI Diploma in Primary Montessori
Education and her Masters in Education from Loyola College in Maryland.
Kristin was discouraged with her observations of other Montessori schools in
the area and decided she would start her own school with the goal of being the
best Montessori provider in San Diego. After years of teaching and
searching for an appropriate site, Kristin finally discovered this amazing
corner in a growing community. She designed the school and program over
the 2 years it took to finalize the building project. Kristin finally got
to watch her dream being built from the ground up in 2007.
Kelly McFarland
M.Ed.
Kelly McFarland,
Administrator, originally from Santa Cruz, California, attended Santa Cruz
Montessori from the ages of 2.5 through Kindergarten. She graduated from
San Francisco State University with her B.A. in Psychology. It was there that
she met her husband, Damian. Kelly worked in a traditional preschool and
realized that there must be a better way for children to learn. She came across
an ad for a Montessori assistant teacher at the Chinese American International
School in San Francisco and remembered what fond memories she had of her own
Montessori experience. She worked there with a head teacher who was AMI trained
in the Netherlands and who had taught Montessori for over 30 years. She learned
a lot from her head teacher and saw how much the children loved learning. In
2000, Kelly and Damian moved San Diego. In 2001, Kelly earned her AMI Primary
diploma from the Montessori Institute of San Diego and her M.A. in Education
from Loyola College in Maryland. Kelly taught as a head teacher for Primary
children for five years in Mission Hills. She loved teaching but is glad to
have found a career that utilizes more of her skills, while still working to
better the education of children.
Primary
Teachers:
Melanie
Martinez M.Ed.
Melanie Martinez
grew up in Southern California, and attended college at the beautiful beachside
campus of UC Santa Barbara. Shortly after receiving her B.A. in English
and Women’s Studies, Melanie moved to Portland, Oregon, where a close friend
(and former Montessori student) was taking the Primary Montessori Teacher
Training course at the Montessori Institute Northwest (MINW). Having had
fulfilling experiences as a volunteer worker at a convalescent home and in the children’s
education department of a museum, Melanie knew that she wanted a long-term
career that focused on caring and guiding others. She fell in love with
the Montessori teaching philosophy and the idea of nurturing the “whole
child.” In 2004 Melanie received her AMI Primary Diploma, and also
completed her Master’s Degree in Education from Loyola College in
Maryland. Upon graduation, Melanie moved back to California to begin her
career as a head teacher. She currently lives in San Diego with her
marathon-running husband and their cat, Petey. Melanie loves to draw,
read, and sing karaoke.
Pratima
Coughlan
Pratima
Coughlan, Head Primary Teacher, has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and
Sociology from the University of Mumbai, India. She trained as a Montessori
Primary Teacher from Mumbai and received her AMI Diploma in 1989. Pratima
has dedicated her teaching career to children between the ages of 3 to 8 and
has had Montessori experience for almost 20 years. She lives in San Diego with
her husband and son. In her spare time, Pratima loves to read and go to
the movies. Her other interests include traveling, gardening, music and
go-carting.
Claire
Fritz
Claire
Fritz grew up in Whittier, California. She went to Montessori School until
6th grade. During High School summers she worked at her old
school and the staff there encouraged her to train to be a Montessori
Teacher. After college, Claire completed her AMI training in Los Angeles
in 1986. She moved to San Diego and started teaching there. Claire took
time off from teaching to pursue her other passion, Archaeology and
Paleontology. Some areas Claire has worked are Seal Beach, Murrieta,
Temecula, the Mojave Dessert and Julian. During this time she discovered
many fascinating items and artifacts including a fossil of a 30,000-year-old
bison. After 10 years in this field, Claire realized she missed teaching
and returned to the Montessori Environment. Claire lives in La Mesa and
likes hiking and donating time and food to homeless shelters. She enjoys
spending time with her family and cat Ozzy.
Annie Garcia
Annie grew up in
the Montessori Environment in Guadalajara, Mexico. She attended Montessori
School through second grade. As she grew older she realized what a benefit
the Montessori Method had given her in life. As a teenager she was
independent and very confident in comparison to her peers. She found she
wasn’t afraid to engage in life and was grounded in whatever she did. She
attended the University of Texas, studying Psychology and Political
Science. Upon earning her B.A., Annie was reintroduced to the Montessori
environment through her daughter, Valentina. Valentina started Montessori
School in Texas and Annie fell back in love with the method. She started
working with Montessori children in 2001 and it didn’t take long for her to
realize she needed to continue down the Montessori path to become a
Teacher. Annie and her daughter moved to San Diego where Annie finished
her AMS training in 2006. Annie is very busy being a Teacher and Mom but she
loves to take time to go to the movies and enjoys salsa dancing. They have
2 dogs (Marymar and Pulga) and a hamster named Candice.
Toddler
Teachers:
Elizabeth
Pedroza
Elizabeth
wanted to be a teacher since she was in preschool. While growing up in Tijuana,
Mexico, where she is from, she was always attracted to helping other people,
especially children. During her free time she babysat, volunteered at local
churches and helped at schools with children 0 to 6 years old. Later, she
studied Communications and Preschool Education and began working at traditional
preschools. When she got married she moved to La Jolla, CA, and attended The
Montessori Institute of San Diego where she obtained her AMI Primary Diploma.
Elizabeth now lives in Poway with her husband and three children. She enjoys
traveling, listening to music, singing, making crafts, going to the movies, and
eating out with her family.
Lauren
Gilomen
Lauren
Gilomen was raised in Laguna Beach, California. She attended Villanova
University outside of PA. Upon earning her B.A. in Communications in 2005, she
started her career in Public Relations. Although Lauren enjoyed the job
and felt at home in her new surroundings, she still felt that something in her
life was missing. She thought of her love for young children, her experiences
as a nanny, the constant suggestions by others for her to become a teacher.
Soon after, Lauren decided to follow “her calling” and become a preschool
teacher. She looked into multiple methods of early education before coming across
Montessori. Following further research, she enrolled in the AMI Primary
Training course at MISD. Lauren received her diploma in June of 2008 and
enrolled in the AMI Assistants to Infancy Training course just two weeks later.
Lauren currently resides in Pacific Beach with her one year old puppy, Chloe.
On the weekends she likes to window shop, decorate and redecorate her
apartment, work on her scrapbooks, cook new recipes, and watch rented DVDs. In
the summer, she loves to spend time walking around town or at the beach.
Mary
Ling, MEd.
Mary
Ling was born to Taiwanese parents, but was raised in Japan until she was a
teenager, when her parents decided to immigrate to Canada. She attended
high school in Vancouver, British Columbia, and finished her Bachelor of
Science degree, majoring in Biology and Japanese, at the University of British
Columbia. She moved to San Francisco in summer, 2004. She has always
had a passion for teaching, and has taught ESL and Japanese language, as well
as English and Mathematics to grades 3 and 8. She then worked at a
non-profit organization, serving the cancer society. Even though she
enjoyed helping cancer patients and survivors, she could not give up on her
longtime passion of teaching. One day when she was browsing through
teaching opportunities, she came across a Montessori school which teaches 3
languages: English, Japanese and Mandarin. Coincidentally, she speaks all
three of these languages fluently, so she inquired the school about
the possibility of observing, and exploring the world of
Montessori. She quickly fell in love with Montessori philosophies, as well
as working with children. She moved to San Diego for the AMI Montessori
Primary training in the following year. Right when she was completing her
Primary training and Master of Education degree, she found out about the
Assistants to Infancy (0 to 3 years) training in San Diego, and went straight
into it, while working full-time as a Primary head teacher. After
completing the Assistants to Infancy training, she decided to become a toddler
teacher and joined the Lifetime Montessori School. On the weekend, Mary
enjoys watching baseball games, cooking, baking, knitting and reading. She
is a volunteer knitter for a non-profit organization called Stitches from the
Heart, making hats and blankets for premature babies to donate to the
hospitals. She also enjoys traveling to different countries and learning
about different cultures and languages.