Shanon Flowers

DIRECTOR, REDEEMER MONTESSORI SCHOOL

I would like to formally introduce myself as the Director of Redeemer Montessori School. I am honored to serve the children and parents of RMS.

I relocated to Texas at the beginning of August 2012 from Kansas in order to accept the position with RMS. I am originally from Houston, Texas, but my family moved away when I was a small child to Tulsa, Oklahoma following an oil boom. It was there I spent my elementary, middle school, and high school years. I moved to Kansas in order to attend the University of Kansas and continued to reside there for 16 years after graduating with a science degree.

It was during my time in college that I landed a part time position with a local Montessori School helping the children during lunch and rest times a few days a week. One day as I was laying down the resting mats, I accidentally knocked over the trinomial cube spilling pieces all over the floor. So for the next 45 minutes and the entire rest time, I attempted to put this strange puzzle back together.

It didn’t matter what I tried or how I positioned the “blocks” in the box, the lid did not fit correctly. I sort of gave up and placed the disheveled box back on the shelf, tilted lid and all. After inviting the children to get up from rest time in order to start the afternoon Montessori work time, a child of age 4 walks up to me and says, “Miss Flowers, do you want me to put that back together for you?” Somewhat flippantly, I responded, “Yes. Sure.”

All the while I was thinking there is no way this small child can put this together. I mean I couldn’t get it back together after 45 minutes. Boy was I wrong. That child put that together in the length of time it takes to snap your fingers three times. I was completely shocked. It was at that very moment that my passion for the Montessori philosophy was ignited. I had to learn about this amazing educational theory.

I later became a certified early childhood Montessori teacher and then went on to educate and certify teachers in the Montessori philosophy at the Kansas City Center for Montessori Education, an AMS teacher education program. I educated teachers in the Montessori philosophy for over 10 years.

I eventually became a Director of a Montessori school in Kansas and was devoted to the Administration of that program for 6 -7 years before moving to Texas. I am thrilled to be at RMS and look forward to each new school year.