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Our Staff
The Montessori-Palau International Research and Training Center (MIRTC) is staffed by highly qualified professionals who are active members of the CCE Montessori-Palau School’s faculty and participate regularly in the school’s training courses and activities, as well as in workshops, seminars and international conferences.
Three of the school’s faculty members are currently undertaking the rigorous AMI Trainer of Trainers Program and they will be responsible for leading, coordinating and supporting all the activities related to the MIRTC, including all the AMI official teacher training courses. Monica Kleiner is actually undertaking the course to become an AMI Assistant to Infancy (0-3) trainer, while Eduard Vilanova and Dani Cañigueral are intensively engaged in the process of becoming AMI Elementary Teacher (6-12) trainers.
Our AMI training courses are supported by the expertise of seasoned and experienced AMI trainers from around the world, and we are working closely together with other educational and training centers, as well as universities, in the organization of a wide variety of training activities.
The professional staff, resources and the administrative network of the CCE Montessori-Palau School bring extensive support to the MIRTC in order to ensure it provides rigorous, in-depth and hands-on training to the very highest standards.
The MIRTC’s Executive Directors are Ana Juliá, President of Spain's Montessori Association (AME) and Coordinator of Research and Innovation at the CCE Montessori-Palau, and Montse Juliá, Director of the CCE Montessori-Palau.
The AMI International Elementary Teacher Training (6-12), the course that the MIRTC offers over a three summer period (2016-2018), comprises the following staff:
Kay M. Baker has been an AMI Director of Training for 28 years and has directed both academic year and summer training courses all over the world. She is currently directing an elementary modular course in Prague, Czech Republic. Her academic qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics education, as well as the AMI Diplomas for children ages 3-6 and 6-12. Dr. Baker is also an AMI consultant for primary and elementary classes. She has given many talks and workshops nationally and internationally on topics ranging from the Four Planes of development to suitable classroom practices. Dr. Baker is particularly interested in children’s thinking, having investigated children’s solution strategies for multiplication word problems for her doctoral dissertation. She has spent her career considering the necessity for adults to continue to learn in order to aid the life of the developing child.
Maria Roth has a vast experience with the Montessori pedagogy and with the integration of normal and multiply diversely handicapped children. Her experience dates back to 1970-71, when the first AMI course in Munich, Germany, was established by Mario Montessori and his wife Ada, Professor Theodor Hellbrügge, the founder of Aktion Sonnenschein, and Mrs. Margarete Aurin, a student of Dr. Maria Montessori. It was then when she obtained her AMI Diploma, which was signed by Mario Montessori himself, who at the time was also one of her examiners.
Since 1971, she has been working with Aktion Sonnenschein, first as a teacher and later as a board member. She started her Montessori trainer training in Milwaukee, USA in 1975 and worked closely with Mario Montessori. She helped to establish the first AMI Course for Special Education in Munich, which started in 1976. She gained her Trainer Diploma during this time and it was signed by Renilde Montessori, the granddaughter of Maria Montessori.
In 1983, she founded and directed a private bilingual Montessori Kindergarten and her responsibility there continued until 2015, when she retired. One year later, in 1984, she was a founding member of the German Academy for Developmental Rehabilitation, where she worked until 1998.
In 1999 she established a new organization, Montessori Internationales Ausbildungszentrum e. V., which now runs the AMI Primary Course and the Kindergarten.
Since 1990, she has been supporting the Montessori system in Russia. In 2011, she conducted the first AMI Primary training course in Prague and became an establisher of AMI tradition in the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe.
She has been an AMI examiner in Atlanta (USA), Bucharest (Romania), Paris (France) and Zurich (Switzerland).
Gabriela López is currently finishing the AMI Elementary Trainer of Trainers Program. She has over 15 years of Montessori experience guiding children aged 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, and 12-15, in Mexico and the United States. She holds the AMI Primary Diploma and the AMI Elementary Diploma, as well as the NAMTA certification on the Orientation to Adolescent Studies. In addition, her academic qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Psychology, a Master’s degree in Business Administration, and a Master’s degree in Education from Loyola University.
Dani Cañigueral holds a Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education from the University of Girona. He has worked in several public schools, and since 1989 he has been working as a Primary teacher at the CCE Montessori-Palau.
He is also in charge of developing the school’s Primary curriculum. Along with other colleagues, he participated as a lecturer in the 27th International Montessori Congress, that took place in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, where he made a presentation about how the CCE Montessori-Palau evolved from a traditional school to a Montessori school whilst giving extreme importance to environmentalism, that is, the fully understanding of the work of the Nature. Since then, he has been undertaking the AMI Elementary Trainer of Trainers Program. He has over 10 years of experience as an AMI Guide and has led and participated in a diversity of talks, peer learning activities, workshops and seminars about the Montessori Method. He holds the AMI Early Childhood Diploma in (3-6) and the AMI Elementary Diploma (6-12). He has also participated in the first AMI Elementary Education course in Prague, Czech Republic.
Eduard Vilanova is currently undertaking the AMI Elementary Trainer of Trainers Program. He is specially interested in Cosmic Education, the keystone of the Montessori Elementary classroom and the path through which children develop a global vision of humanity, the universe and their own lives within it. He actively participated in the organization of the first AMI Montessori Elementary Training course that took place at the CCE Montessori-Palau in 2002-2005, to which he also collaborated with translation tasks. He is an Elementary teacher at the CCE Montessori-Palau. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Psychology and an Elementary Teacher Diploma from the University of Girona. He obtained the AMI Diploma in Elementary Education (6-12) from the Centro Internazionale Studi Montessoriani of Bergamo, Italy, the first AMI center to prepare Montessori teachers for elementary school and therefore the AMI center with the longest tradition of holding advanced Montessori courses. He obtained the AMI Children House Diploma from the Universitat de Vic, Spain. He has been giving lectures and organizing workshops about the Montessori Method for parents and teachers since 1999.