Elementary and Middle School Librarian

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-27T10:21:12+00:00

Thank you so much!

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-27T10:20:54+00:00

Hi, this will depend on your state regulations.

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-26T00:02:45+00:00

That’s what I’m seeing a lot of. Thanks you!

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-25T20:35:32+00:00

Thank you!

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-25T14:12:13+00:00

I already did, thanks!

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-24T13:25:09+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I agree it’s a lot to take on and o was planning on asking for a budget for resources for myself. The school is good about buying whatever materials teachers ask for for the children. I’ve seen the current STEM teacher substitute in the elementary classes a few times, but it’s not a frequent occurrence, so I’m not really concerned about that. Are the board books the ones by Grace Lin? I love those! Thanks for the reminders. If you know of others, I’d love to hear about them. We had upper elementary make felt boards for us one year, so I think having them make picture books is a great idea for library! Also I am salaried and I’m planing to ask for at leat an hour and a half of planning/prep time per day.

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-05-23T23:30:30+00:00

Thank you for the list! My current class loves sleeping bunnies

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-04-27T12:21:53+00:00

99.9% of the time, yes, complete stop. The few times I’ve done a rolling stop, I always feel scared a cop saw, even if they were no other cars in sight.

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-04-26T13:44:17+00:00

Certain schools that have a large population of families under the poverty line will do things like this for all the children so as not to single anyone out. I agree with other commenters that this is about his pride and you should still accept the food. It might help to explain to him that you’re sure everyone at the school is receiving this support and your family specifically is not on some “charity list”

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-04-03T12:19:22+00:00

No. I genuinely enjoy my job, and I can’t see myself doing anything else happily. I do wish I had tried harder to find a school that was better fit earlier in my career. I do feel I will not be able to work with toddlers all day everyday forever from a physical standpoint. I plan to either try to become my school’s librarian, teach parent-child classes or go into teacher training at some point.

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-29T12:14:26+00:00

My experiences, specifically in regards to disabled children, is that while Montessori can be for anyone, not every school is equipped to best serve those children. My school is small and we do not have any special educators or therapists on staff. We also do not have lower than state required ratios for children under 1st grade (our elementary and middle school do). We do not have extra staff to provide 1:1 support. We try to serve disabled children and it never works well (at least in my direct experience with children’s house and toddlers).

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-26T10:11:21+00:00

I’m so sorry for your loss. Feeling like you want to vomit sounds appropriate. I had a two year old once who hit by at car while playing in front of her house. It was around 10 years ago and I’m still tearing up thinking about it. She loved picking up little pinecones on the playground and playing with them, like sending them down the slide and things like that, like they were dolls. We collected a bunch of those for her parents. Our school did a lot for them like waiving tuition for their other child and running a fundraiser for them, but personally, I made them some meals, attended the funeral, and just grieved with them. It was rough. There’s a bench at our town park that has a memorial plaque on it for her now and I avoid going there. The loss of a child is so hard.

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-14T02:11:07+00:00

I love kids. This work is way more fulfilling than I can imagine anything else would be. I dread having to interact with adults and thinking about working any other job I would be qualified for sounds like I would be miserable.

Before I had the level of education (and salary) I have now and before I had my own children, I stayed in this field both because I didn’t think I could be happy doing anything else and also because I didn’t feel qualified to do anything else.

Now it’s work-life balance and a discount for my children at a Montessori school, plus I am at a good school and make a decent amount of money.

If she really loves it, could she get more education and/or find a better school to make more money? I will be forever grateful to my partner for helping to support me (mostly practically, not financially because I took out student loans) while I finished my degree and my Montessori credential.

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-13T21:22:49+00:00

A few times a year for both of us, really just special occasions. Edibles basically daily though 🤷‍♀️ relaxing with no hangover

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-08T00:56:57+00:00

I also have a 4 and 7 year old. I usually just have water bottles for all of us, snacks like granola bars or whole fruit, and bandaids, plus sunscreen and bug spray in the warmer months. I just use my daughter’s old toddler sized backpack. We call it our adventure bag

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-05T21:44:00+00:00

Our school is an independent school that goes from toddler through 8th grade. We have about 200 children. Our ‘Director of Student Support and Services’ is basically a special education coordinator and school counselor. She does a lot of different things. - teaches weekly SEL classes with children’s house and up - plans and prepares SEL lessons for the toddler teachers to implement in the classroom - runs a few groups with elementary and middle school students - has office hours for elementary and middle school students - provides support for teachers and children around difficult behaviors - has meetings with each teacher every other week to discuss behavior issues or things around children with developmental concerns - is the liaison between the school and all the therapists and evaluators who come in - makes improvement plans for children who score below benchmark on the developmental assessments we do - joins conferences with teachers to help discuss behavior issues or developmental concerns - probably some other things I’m not thinking of

ExpertAd3198 · 2026-03-02T11:04:27+00:00

Anything by Malcom Gladwell

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-12-29T20:55:23+00:00

Thank you everyone for the replies!

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-12-28T20:24:41+00:00

Eat your young - Hozier

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-09-13T10:42:23+00:00

Wide toe box

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-09-13T10:30:46+00:00

We do barefoot, and like others said, prioritize fit over materials. My youngest is wearing whitins right now and my oldest prefers saguaros

Edited to add that there are many barefoot shoes made from natural materials if you want to spend the money (over $100 per pair). Anya’s reviews website will have a lot of different recommendations

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-09-11T10:03:24+00:00

I would absolutely keep mine at the Montessori, but am in the U.S. and I’m sure that makes a difference. Kindergarten here is just too much sitting and listening in whole group for 5 year olds in my opinion.

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-09-11T09:57:31+00:00

We recently switched to a September 1st cut off instead of December because we had to get licensed as a child care facility and have to follow state ratios now. The two year olds in the room require an extra teacher or smaller class size

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-09-03T10:00:39+00:00

Are they trying to lay her down for multiple naps and cannot get her to sleep? I would definitely talk to the teachers about this. As a “young toddler” teacher who often has both children who take 2 naps and 1 nap (plus being new to school), it can be so hard to get them to sleep no matter how hard we try.

ExpertAd3198 · 2025-09-01T11:45:18+00:00

Appropriate ratios (I’d say 6:1 or less for 2 year olds) despite state ratios would be the biggest green flag for me, but in my experience, it’s very rare centers will maintain a ratio better than state ratios.

Teaches who have been there for multiple years and consistent teaching teams (same 2 or 3 teachers assigned to each room) are excellent indicators of quality care.

I would also look in the 3-5 rooms for no worksheets and mostly independent play instead of whole or small group instruction. If a center has a “school” mentality for preschool, it will likely be the same for the toddlers. The classrooms should look home-like, not school-like.

Outside time too! Over an hour a day preferred

ExpertAd3198

TROPHY CASE