Arete Memphis Public Montessori Residency

Summer 1: In-Person
4 weeks in June/July 2025

Residency-Academic Year 1: Hybrid In-person/Online
Working full-time in a classroom as a Lead Guide or Assistant Guide*
August 2025-May 2025
20 Thursday afternoon and 3 Saturday seminars online, synchronous

Summer 2: In-Person
3 weeks (including exams) in June/July 2026

*sponsorship from a Montessori school is required

Diploma:
3-6 Primary/Early Childhood
6-9 Elementary I
9-12 Elementary II
6-12 Elemenary I-II (extended program)

$10,000 - $11,000, from a Partner School Sponsorship

Email Brooke Fly @ bfly@ampmr.org

Leadership Webinar Series

Session 1: From Montessori Language Albums to a Comprehensive, School-Wide Instructional Plan

When: December 16, 8am-11am
Where: Zoom
Who: Brooke Fly, Arete Director and Instructor
Josh Shelley, Libertas Principal, Arete Instructor
Sara Nelson, Libertas Elementary Consulting Teacher
What: Develop or expand your complete, schoolwide plan for reading and writing, with a focus on the integration of the science of reading with Montessori work and a phonics sequence. This session will include reading and writing assessments, Montessori lesson and material alignment, and a lot more!

Fee: $150 per school
Please RSVP by 12/1/24.

Session 2: Leadership Accountability in Classroom Support

When: January TBD, 8am-11am
Where: Zoom
Who: Brooke Fly, Arete Director and Instructor
Katelyn Woodard, Assistant Principal of Lower School Academics
Dawn Bradley, Primary Program Director
What: Expand your toolkit for setting expectations for high-quality instruction and student/teacher support, including assessments and evaluations, lesson-planning templates and best practices, observation tools, coaching interactions, time-management throughout the day and week and professional development practices.

Fee: $150 per school
Please RSVP by 1/1/25

Session 3: Responding to Behavior Needs in the Public Montessori Classroom

When: February TBD, 8am-11am
Where: Zoom
Who: Brooke Fly, Arete Director and Instructor
Josh Shelley, Libertas Principal, Arete Instructor
Member of the Libertas Attachment Village Team, TBD
What: Dive into best practices for supporting teachers and students at all Tier Levels, including support children at Tier 1 through work in the classroom and positive reframing; Tier 2 supports through the Child Study Protocol; Tier 3 support with Attachment Village interventions

Fee: $150 per school
Please RSVP by 1/15/25.

Arete cultivates the minds, hands, and hearts of public Montessori educators for the human flourishing of the children and communities they serve.

Arete envisions developing diverse cohorts of effective public Montessori educators, thereby expanding children's access to an excellent child-centered education.

Arete Montessori Teacher Residency (Arete) is a unique initiative with the goal of forming a larger and more diverse cohort of public Montessori educators in public Montessori schools across the mid-South. Arete aims to address an acute need to identify, prepare, and support public Montessori teachers who have the skills needed to provide high-fidelity Montessori pedagogy in the public sector.

Specific goals of the program are to provide a fully integrative Montessori program that can meet both the demands of the public sector and the needs of the communities they serve by offering: (1) high quality Montessori training, (2) an integrated surround of evidence-based practices in teaching and learning focused on meeting the specific challenges of the public sector and high-need communities, and (3) support for school-based, child-centered communities of practice committed to continuous growth through reflective practice.

Arete is designed to professionally develop and support the educator formation of both pre-service and experienced public school teachers through immersion in a child-centered community of practice, where evidence-based content in teaching and learning is aligned to national, state, and Montessori educator standards. Instructors facilitate the development of residents' teacher knowledge, skills, dispositions, and reflective practice in the context of a modeled child-centered community of practice. This is direct preparation for job-embedded clinical practice, where residents have the tools and support to develop their efficacy through consistent and regular coaching cycles throughout the academic school year.

Arete was born out of an effort to combine high-fidelity training in Montessori curriculum and pedagogy with rigorous professional development in the "surround" of practices needed to be effective in public schools serving high-need communities. The nascent Libertas Montessori Teacher Residency began at Libertas School of Memphis (Libertas), a public charter elementary school that transformed a distressed neighborhood school and redefined what a Montessori school can be for our country. Libertas has served the Frayser community of Memphis, Tennessee since 2015 and currently serves children (PreK-5) as the first public charter school in the state to offer a public Montessori education. The students in its high-poverty community have achieved significant growth in academics and character through classrooms that compare to those of leading private programs. Libertas is set apart by its rich and culturally responsive curriculum, deep family and community engagement, successful inclusion of diverse learners, and especially its teacher preparation program.

The Libertas Montessori Teacher Residency, founded initially in partnership with the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector, has since independently trained and launched the careers of many teachers who share the backgrounds of the students they serve. A primary reason for the Residency's success has been its job-embedded, in-house teacher residency program that meets high academic standards while also meeting the needs of its community through a culturally responsive "attachment village" - a philosophy in which families, educators, and community members surround children with love and expectations of their potential greatness. Cultivating academics, sensorial / physical development, and character virtues, this is a model of education for "human flourishing." The in-house residency has built a stable core of Montessori trained and state-certified teachers and is now expanding its residency program to other public Montessori schools in the mid-South region.

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