New Albany Montessori

New Albany Montessori opened its doors in June of 2000. Diane Spiezio and Barb Bach, the school’s founders were from a Montessori school that had just closed their doors after serving the area for nearly 30 years. With their combined experience of 39 years of teaching, they were encouraged by the parents to begin a new school so that the tradition of Montessori could continue on the northeast side of the city. Opened under the name Today’s Child Montessori, our first location was spaced we leased inside an area church. We purchased our current location in the fall of 2005 and after months of renovation moved in September 2006 changing our name to New Albany Montessori. Barb and Diane currently serve the school as co-administrators and lead teachers as well.

The Environment

The main objective of New Albany Montessori School is to provide a carefully planned, stimulating environment which will help children develop within themselves the foundational habits, attitudes, skills and ideas which are essential for a lifetime of creative thinking and learning. The environment at New Albany Montessori is one-of-a-kind. Using the materials originally designed by Dr. Montessori, they are multi-sensory, sequential and self-correcting and aid in the learning of abstract concepts. Our school is unique in how staff and teachers approach the learning process; creating joyous excitement each day in classrooms rich with these materials. It is the combined synergy of students, teacher, staff and parents within the New Albany Montessori School community that makes our school a leader in Montessori education.

The Teacher

The Montessori teacher is a child advocate in the deepest sense. She cultivates respect for the child’s total being, and thereby allows cooperation and communication to have an equal importance to academic achievement. The teacher in a Montessori classroom is a facilitator of learning and is more often referred to as a “Directress”. Through careful observation, she determines the needs of the class as a whole, while considering individual needs as well. From these assessments she will prepare an environment that will call to and cultivate the child’s love of learning and exploration. The Montessori teacher will have gone through an extensive training program and a year of student teaching in addition to previous college education. This training will cover not only the philosophy and materials, but child development as well. The lead teachers of New Albany Montessori, in addition to their college study have all undergone there training from either an AMS or AMI accredited training program. The assistants are not required to hold a Montessori certification, but have all taken the assistant’s training. In addition, all staff has had a complete background check and meet the additional requirements of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services under who we are licensed.