Education Puerto Rico Project #61811

Montessori Educating for Peace in Puerto Rico

by Instituto Nueva Escuela

Montessori Educating for Peace in Puerto Rico

Project Report | Dec 31, 2024
2024: A year of profound transformation!

By Venus Andino | Development

Footprints of Transformation: A Legacy Strengthening Puerto Rican Communities

Dear Supporters,

Thanks to your unwavering generosity, the public Montessori movement in Puerto Rico continues to transform lives, foster peace, and strengthen communities. We are honored to share with you some of the profound stories that your support has allowed, highlighting the inspiring transformations in the school communities of República del Perú in San Juan and Inés María Mendoza in Caimito. Your support has made these successes possible.

República del Perú Montessori School (San Juan)

In 2011, República del Perú officially became a public Montessori school, initiating a remarkable journey of change. Families, educators, and students have collectively transformed this space into a beacon of hope and opportunity:

Yamileth, a mother of four children attending public Montessori schools, recalls, “Before, the school wasn’t what it is now—a place where children love to go.”
Alejandro Rivera, a mathematics guide for seventh and eighth grades, reflects on his six years at the school: “The project gave me the opportunity to become a teacher. I couldn’t imagine rows of desks without connection until I saw how my own children learned in Montessori. When I arrived at this beautiful community, full of challenges, I received the best gift: students who thank you for the impact you’ve made while teaching you lessons in return.”
Argelis, a former student of this community, was not only academically prepared but inspired to contribute to her country. Now a student at the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, she dreams of designing infrastructure solutions to improve conditions for public schools.

Inés María Mendoza Montessori School (Caimito)

Located in the rural community of Caimito, this is the only public school in the area, serving over 800 students aged 18 months to 18 years. For 10 years, it has been a cornerstone of hope, providing quality education and instilling values of collaboration and peace:

Luna Morales, a senior, shares her aspirations: “I would like to be a psychologist. Thanks to what I’ve learned here, I realized that I want to help others feel comfortable wherever they are.”
Katherine Cintrón, a certified Montessori guide, reflects on her decade of teaching: “Montessori has taught me to become the teacher I want for my daughter. Seeing happy, thriving children walking through the school halls is the greatest reward.”
Ileane Cruz, a mother and Casa Familiar Coordinator, shares: “I fell in love with what Montessori is. Before working at the school, I was a volunteer mother. Then I took Casa Familiar workshops and finally had the opportunity to work on the project. I’ve been shocked by the transformation.”

Your Impact

Your support has enabled:

The expansion of Montessori education to 60 public schools across Puerto Rico, reaching over 14,000 students.
The training of guides, assistants, and administrators, ensuring that educators are equipped with the tools to foster academic excellence, collaboration, and empathy.
The creation of nurturing environments where children love to learn, and communities come together in the spirit of peace and transformation.

Thanks to you, families like Yamileth’s, educators like Alejandro, Katherine, Maria Cid, and students like Argelis, Luna, and many others continue to thrive. Together, we are building a more peaceful and prosperous Puerto Rico, one community and story at a time.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Instituto Nueva Escuela

Links:

Permalink

Sep 16, 2024
Academic Program Highlights

By Venus Andino | Development

Let’s Be Intentional

That is the invitation we have embraced. Every academic year, we use a word that guides us and moves us in our task as an Academic Program. From the beginning of the year, the word intentionality resonated in our hearts, and we are carrying it as our banner.

Undoubtedly, this 2024-25 academic year began with intention, with a sense of purpose, and collective unity. Also, with an excessive love for the task, for the Montessori public school, and for serving our country.

INE's celebrations are always for all oy you who make this possible.

Annabel Martínez Rivera

Academic Program Director

Academy Informs

The Academic Program (PA) aims to train guides, assistants, and directors in Montessori philosophy and methodology to serve the children and youth of Puerto Rico. INE offers courses for Montessori Guide Certification at all education levels: Infants/Toddlers, Children’s House, Elementary I, Elementary II, Secondary I, and School Administration. It also offers the Assistant Course and the Introduction to Montessori Philosophy Course for support staff in Montessori public schools.

INE is the only academic organization in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean affiliated with the American Montessori Society (AMS) and accredited by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE) to offer these courses and certifications.

2023-24 Internships: The 6 Montessori training courses accompanied the internship of 68 teachers in Montessori educational centers and public Montessori schools. These teachers received at least 3 virtual visits during the year. Throughout the year, they also received support visits.

2023-24 Certifications: As a conclusion to their internship phase, 66 teachers received their AMS certifications.

Assistant Course: During the 2023-24 academic year, 3 Montessori assistant courses were offered. These courses were held both in-person and virtually, distributed as follows: 1 in-person section and 2 virtual sections. These courses included 67 Montessori curriculum implementation assistants who received their certification.

Secondary level reaccreditation:

We received the in-person visit from MACTE as part of the secondary level reaccreditation process. We thank SU Pasto School in Aibonito for hosting us at their school, the adult learners, interns, and graduates of INE for participating in the interviews involved in this process. Also, thanks to the Secondary faculty and Fabideas for receiving us.

In April 2024, we received the great news from MACTE about the approval of the accreditation of the Secondary I course until 2030.

Continuing Education:

During 2023-2024 academic year, 14 continuing education workshops were held, serving 277 guides and assistants.

Topic Breakdown:

Discussion Forum on Philosophy in Children’ s House
Workshop on Building Materials for Elementary
The Conquest of Language in Children’ s House*
Conserving the Environment through Montessori Education (2 sessions)*
Workshop on Building Grammar Boxes for Elementary
Workshop on Sentence Analysis for Elementary (2 sessions)
Mathematics in Children’ s House*
Workshop on Potty Training for Infants, Toddlers, and their Assistants*
Mathematics Workshop for Elementary
Workshop on Observation for Infants/Toddlers, Children’ s House, and their Assistants*
Discipline in Infants and Toddlers with their Assistants*
Cosmic Education and Montessori Education*

*Virtual courses.

Highlights

900 Support Hours provided

149 Support visits

155 Internship visits

With your continued support, we are preparing for a very promising 2024-25 academic year. We are excited about the plans for this upcoming academic year. We are confident it will be a year of fulfilled tasks and dreams. These are also your celebrations!

Links:

Share your experience by leaving a review on our Google profile!

Permalink

Jun 27, 2024
A new stage awaits high school students

By Andrea Santiago | Project Leader

The school semester has concluded and with it comes countless celebrations, one of them being the transitions that students at different levels have, Secondary being one of the most significant.

Although many think that Montessori education is for young children, today we remind you that this is not the case. Montessori education serves students from 2 months to 18 years of age, preparing the young person all the way to college.

The Montessori public school project in Puerto Rico today serves 10 Secondary public schools, for a total of 1,640 students.

“Middle and high school education in our country are the reason for the dropout rates that have been talked about so much in recent days and that attention is needed,” shared Isabel Arce, coordinator of the Secondary level at INE, stating the importance of serving this population through INE.

This year, in general terms, 93% of Montessori public school students continue post-secondary studies, 61% baccalaureate and 32% technical/associate degrees.

Two examples of these statistics are the young of schools Juan Ponce de León and República del Perú, both admitted to the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus for this next school year.

Amaro graduates from the Montessori school República del Perú located in Santurce. The 18-year-old young woman arrived at the República del Perú school in seventh grade, where she expressed how well received she felt from the beginning.

She is described as a serious, responsible, focused, kind and helpful young woman; characteristics that she acknowledges that her Montessori school helped strengthen and develop.

Amaro was admitted to the School of Architecture of the UPR of Río Piedras, with the aspiration of becoming an architect and helping with the infrastructure problems suffered by public schools, according to what she experienced.

In his process of finding that vocation she expressed the great help she received from her counselor and teachers.

With great confidence, she admitted how prepared she feels for her new stage of life, sharing that the teachers at her school prepared her for the demands of college and to be a leader.

“Although I am afraid because it is a totally different experience from high school, thanks to all the projects they gave me, the presentations, the reports, the books to analyze them are things that slowly accumulate and give you attributes that I didn't know what I had,” said the young woman.

Another young man who feels prepared to enter university is Cedano, who studied at the Juan Ponce de León school since he was an infant, at 7 months old, making his transition to university today.

Cedano begins in August at the Faculty of Business Administration to study Economics, a topic that has caught his attention since his “Big Trip” experience in Elementary ll, 4th to 6th. He shares that he has always been intrigued by how money can dominate the world and it is very important to have the ability to manage and know it.

In addition, he is already part of the UPR Río Piedras Gallitos baseball team, being an athlete since his first year and with aspirations to play in the United States.

For this new stage that is approaching, Jeremy mentioned that he carries with him from his Juan Ponce de León school that empathy that was planted in him by his surroundings and leadership.

“All my growth has happened there. And I believe that that empathy for the world and that need to lead at some point to give knowledge to a person, thing or put your skills to work so that the world is better is what I take with me,” shared the young man.

He confidently stated how excited, confident and prepared he feels towards university life, especially when the school has helped him identify his strengths, weaknesses and get to know himself.

From the Instituto Nueva Escuela we thank each of you for believing in this project and allowing its existence with each donation you make.

Links:

Permalink

1 2 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.