Speakers and Workshops

Marlene Barron:

Marlene Barron PhD has spent more than forty years in education and has been the Head of West Side Montessori School in New York city since 1979.

Dr. Barron is also currently a professor at New York University; project director of the NYU Montessori Teacher Education Sequence; and co-director of the West Side Montessori School’s Teacher Education Program. She is chair of the Research Committee for the American Montessori Society (AMS) where she has previously served as president and treasurer, and is a Commissioner for the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE) in America as well as many other voluntary posts.

Dr Barron consults with Montessori Schools across the USA and has recently worked with international educational associations in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Kenya, Brazil, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

She has written numerous articles and several books including the Ready, Set, Learn series for parents, I Learn to Read and Write the way I Learn to Talk, and Sensorial Ideas and Recording and Reporting for Montessori teachers.

Peggy McClatchie:

Peggy McClatchie completed her training in Dublin over 35 years ago with Margaret Homfray and Phoebe Child. She went on to help set up St Nicholas Montessori College Ireland and has been instrumental in its success since its inception over 25 years ago. Modelled on the set up at Montessori St Nicholas London, St Nicholas Ireland is both a school and training college. The school originally opened with one classroom and two five year old pupils. Peggy– first as teacher and then as Principal – helped oversee its growth, so that today it has expanded to become both a pre- and primary school with over a 130 children.

The training college offers both diploma and degree courses in Montessori, training teachers to teach children up to the age of 12.

Peggy is still actively involved in lecturing and has travelled the world offering Montessori workshops and making it as accessible as possible.

Musikgarten:

Think you can’t teach music and movement to your children? Long for a change from the traditional songs and rhymes? Then a Musikgarten creative workshop is just for you. Their philosophy is based on Montessori principles and is internationally renowned for its excellence and holistic approach to music education. From birth, children love music. It makes them smile, laugh, sing and move. Take part in this workshop and you need never worry about meeting your children’s need for a musical education again.

June’s Yoga:

Do you wonder how to bring calmness and serenity to the classroom? Have you considered how to extend the child’s focus and concentration? Did you know that you already have some skills to teach body awareness and empower the children to enjoy stillness and silence through yoga? Take this workshop and June’s Yoga will teach you how to introduce children’s yoga into the classroom. Learn through the playfulness of yoga postures, games, rhymes, colours, songs and stories that between the fun and activity there is quietness in exploring the movements of small bodies.

Please bring a towel and wear comfortable clothes for this workshop as audience participation is required!

MakeBelieve Arts:

Using storytelling and story acting, children develop not only their creative imagination, but also their vocabulary, listening skills and belief in the importance of their own thoughts and fantasies. Take this workshop and learn how to really listen to your children, so that they can become their own storytellers, actors and audience. Watch them as they open up paths of feeling that you may never have seen in them before. MakeBelieve Arts approach to theatre and drama for 3-5 year olds fits with the Montessori method as it is entirely child-lead and centred.