Thailand Montessori Project—Directors and Teaching Staff

M. Shannon Helfrich, Course Director

Mary Shannon Helfrich is a primary level Trainer, Lecturer, Consultant and Examiner for the Association Montessori Internationale. She has been involved in Montessori Education since 1971. Shannon holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees and the AMI Primary Diploma. She worked in Primary classes in Milwaukee, WI, Chicago, IL, Bismarck, ND and Portland, OR. She served as the Director of Training of the Montessori Institute Northwest from 1988- 2003 and is the founding trainer for the new Montessori Training Center of New England in Hartford, CT. She is an Adjunct Professor for Loyola College in Maryland. Shannon has also served as the Primary Director of Training for the Australian Montessori Teacher Education Foundation in Sydney, Australia. She visited Thailand and supported Montessori Project under the Office of Basic Education in Nakorn Pathom schools since its early started.

Rita Schaefer Zener, Course Director

Rita Schaefer Zener, Ph.D. is a primary level Trainer, Lecturer, Consultant and Examiner for the Association Montessori Internationale. Her doctorate is in Human Development from the University of Maryland. She has been involved in Montessori Education since 1963. For over 30 years she has directed Montessori Teacher Training. These courses were in Mexico, Portland Oregon, Washington DC, Rochester NY, and in Romania. Dr. Zener worked as Coordinator for the Washington DC Public School District for nine years to train and supervise Montessori teachers in the DC public schools. She is currently Adjunct Professor at the Washington Montessori Institute at Loyola College in Maryland. She is also the appointed Director of Training for the Philippines.

Gunilla Kolmodin, Course Assistant

Gunilla Kolmodin is an experienced kindergarten teacher with working experiences in both Sweden and Thailand. She graduated from Teacher’s College in Gotheburg in 1969 and worked in different kindergarten schools with children in the age group of 3 – 6 years in Gothenburg and Lilla Edet, Sweden. For ten years Gunilla was a teacher and consultant in a training school for disabled children in Falun, Sweden. In 1991 she attended the AMI training program at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, after which she was involved in establishing a Montessori school in Falun, Sweden. In 1995 Gunilla moved to Thailand with her husband and has since then been assisting in kindergarten classes of local country-side schools in Prachinburi. Today Gunilla is also assisting local teachers in Chachoengsao with teaching English in grade 6.

Cathryn Kasper, Course Assistant

Cathryn Kasper is a Primary Consultant for Association Montessori International/USA. and has been involved in Montessori Education since 1971. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an AMI Primary Diploma. Cathryn worked for 32 years as a primary teacher in Sacramento, CA, Concord, CA; Marin, CA; and Corvallis, OR. She served on the Board of Directors for the Montessori Institute Northwest for ten years. She has been a presenter for the AMI National Conference and has given seminars for the Oregon Montessori Association and NAEYC.

Susan Stephenson, Course Assistant

Susan has AMI diplomas at all three levels, 0-3, 3-6, 6-12, and has been involved with Montessori since 1970 when she took her first Montessori teacher-training course at MMI, the Maria Montessori Institute, in London England. She lectured on the Muriel Dwyer Reading Scheme at the Montessori Teacher Training Center of Northern California in 1971 and has since then taught, written, lectured on Montessori in many situations.

Her bio: http://www.michaelolaf.net/susan.html

And Susan's art website can e seen here: http://susanart.net

Kannekar Butt, Translator, Thailand Project Coordinator

Kannekar received her Montessori 3 – 6 diploma in Australia. She is the main course translator and very active in promoting AMI Montessori in Thailand.

Click here to see in interesting art"plan" made by Cathryn and Susan during the first session of the course: plan

Return to Project

Return to Children's Projects

Return to www.michaelolaf.net