Deborah Way-Salinas

I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world for having the opportunity to co-create this incredible elementary program at Primavera, and at the same time raise my daughter in this community's loving arms for all of her elementary school years. Starting as a Montessori assistant to Gail Allen in 1988, I have been working in the Austin Montessori community for more than 22 years. I completed my AMS teacher training courses for 3-to-6-year-old children at Oklahoma City University, and taught for eight years at The Montessori Center. After that I worked at St. James Episcopal School as founding director and teacher. In 1998 I took the AMS teacher-training courses for 6-to-9-year-old children at the Houston Montessori Center, and taught Early Elementary at Parkside Community School for two years until I became a mother. For the next three years I created a Montessori program in my home for my daughter and her peers. In the spring of 2005, I reunited with beloved colleagues here at Primavera to teach Primary, and a year and a half later launched the Elementary program.

I studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Texas. Some of my hobbies include hiking, biking, cooking, and listening to and making music with my daughter Eliana and my husband Danny. Every day I am inspired by the children, my colleagues, and the amazing community of parents at our school.

“One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child."..…Maria Montessori