Greetings, friends of MLK!
As we embark on a new calendar year, I am so eager and proud to shine a spotlight on the exciting things that are happening at our wonderful school. While we have been providing first-class care and education to children in the Fort Wayne community for more than five decades, I truly believe that our programming is stronger now than it has ever been before. This is because our teachers are better trained than ever before and we are investing in our programming more than ever before.
Highly Trained Educators - Our students thrive when they are taught by professionals who truly understand child development, early learning, and the Montessori Method. That is why, for the last several years, we have been working diligently to recruit highly qualified educators. This year, all five of our classrooms are led by educators who are Montessori trained and have either earned or are in the process of earning their Montessori credentials. What’s more—every educator at our school either has a degree (ranging from associate degrees to a master’s degree!) in early education or is working toward a degree in early education. Having educators with exemplary qualifications has truly really taken our program to the next level.
Supporting Differentiated Learning – Our educators’ learning and training never stops. For example, over the last several years, we have been serving an increasing number of children with intellectual and emotional disabilities. Therefore, thanks to a recent grant from the AWS Foundation, our educators will be participating in an online course that will help them to feel more confident and capable in planning for a wide range of learners, including those with disabilities. We have also created a new staff position to help our educators to better serve students of all ability levels. Former MLK educator Zoe Lengacher, who now serves as our school’s Resource Teacher, collaborates with our educators to ensure that they have the materials and information they need to differentiate instruction and ensure success for all students.
High-Quality Materials - Finally, we continue to invest in high-quality Montessori materials. Montessori learning materials are designed to meet the developmental needs of each child. Beautifully crafted and begging to be touched, each material teaches a single skill or concept at a time, and, built into many of the materials is a mechanism for providing the students with some way of assessing their progress and correcting their mistakes, independent of the teacher. The concrete materials introduce concepts that become increasingly complex. As students progress, the teacher replaces some materials with others, ensuring that the level of challenge continues to meet their needs.
New Giving Platform With the wrap up of both Montessori Education Week and Black History Month, we can think of no better time to launch the MLK Montessori School "Equity in Education" campaign. This will be our first fundraiser using a new online platform that makes giving easier for donors. Thanks to generous donations from supporters like you, MLK Montessori School has offered a high-quality Montessori program and provided greater equity in early childhood education for Fort Wayne's low income families since 1968. Will you help us continue this important work by making a donation today?
It’s so exciting to see the fruits of our labors come to bear, as our students are absolutely thriving. We are so pleased with the successes we are seeing this year and look forward to continuing to grow. I hope you will join us on our journey.
Sincerely,
Greta McKinney
Executive Director
MLK Montessori School
