Kelli Freeman

I started my career doing property taxes for about five years while I was in college, but decided not to continue in that field and went into education instead. I've always enjoyed literature, Shakespeare in particular, and got a minor in literature at the college I attended. I decided that being a high school English teacher would allow me to discuss literature in a positive and constructive way. After some incidents at the high school where police had to get involved, and while my ex-husband and I were trying to have a child, I decided to move to a less intense environment in a Montessori school. I did a student semester doing Montessori work and segued from high school into Montessori quicker than I thought I would, going from teaching 12th grade high school students to first through third grade students. For the last three years, I've been working as a Montessori Instructional Coach at a Spanish immersion school. On a typical day, I do several observations of teachers in the classroom and then have small feedback sessions with them. Depending on where the teacher is at, I might be in their classroom during lesson time co-teaching, or I might teach a lesson while the teacher observes and takes notes. I work with teachers in 4-6 week blocks of time so that it's meaningful and purposeful, and we're working towards a goal together. I also have to manage our biliteracy curriculum plan, plugging all the Montessori components into it, which can get a little hairy. Some days I have a really scheduled day, and some days I just go wherever they need me to go.