Staff
Each classroom at Children’s Garden is lead by a team of teachers, most of whom hold AMS or AMI Montessori teaching credentials. Children’s Garden sometimes serves as a student teaching site for students from the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies, in Boulder, Colorado.
Head of School – has Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) training from Mexico City in 1972 – 74 at the infant-toddler and primary levels, and American Montessori Society (AMS) training at the primary level. She and her late husband co-founded Mt. Sopris Montessori School in Carbondale, CO in 1982, and she has worked in Mexico, Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Her Master’s thesis entitled “Montessori and Reggio Together: Exploring Possibilities”, won the award for best Montessori related thesis in 2009 from AMS. She came to Children’s Garden in 2005.
Director of Admissions - has worked at Children’s Garden for over 20 years, serving as a Montessori teacher, as the art teacher, and now as Director of Admission. She has an AMS Early Childhood credential.
Office Administrator – came to Children’s Garden first as a parent, with a lengthy background in dental office management. After volunteering as a parent for years, she began working at the school in 2004. Her responsibilities include her favorite and very important, “toddler greeter.”
Zach’s Place (Art Studio) – Angelina Lloyd, Amy Laugesen
Angelina Lloyd is our studio teacher. She holds an AMS Early Childhood credential and NAMTA Early Childhoo Credential and is an active artist. She has been in the studio for three years, and with Children’s Garden from 2006.
Amy Laugesen works with the children in the studio one day a week with clay. She has been with the school for three years, and is an active ceramics and installation artist in the Denver area.
The Toddler Class Teachers - Rose Henson, Coco Turnipseed, Belle Berry
Rose Henson holds an AMS Infant/Toddler credential, and began working at Children’s Garden in 2009. Rose has been working with children since her first volunteer job at a day care center when she was twelve. When she’s not at school, she enjoys riding her bike, photography, and children.
Coco Turnipseed is a Children’s Garden alum, and has a Master’s in educational psychology from UCD and an elementary education teaching certificate from the Stanley British Primary Teacher Training Program. She has worked in several different classrooms at Children’s Garden at both the primary and toddler level. This year she is in the toddler class in the mornings, and is one of our floaters some afternoons.
Belle Berry joined the Children’s Garden staff in 2007. She has an AMS Early Childhood credential, and works in Ward Hobbs classroom in the mornings, and in the toddler classroom in the afternoon.
Ward Hobbs Primary Class: Beverly Jackson, Bekke Howell, Belle Berry
Beverly Jackson first came to Children’s Garden as a mother in 1980, and then began working at the school in 1984. She has an AMS Early Childhood credential, and is the mother of two grown sons who went to Children’s Garden. Now both her granddaughter Bella, and her grandson Jaylen attend the school.
Bekke Howell has AMI training at the infant-toddler level, and Montessori Center International (MCI) training at the primary level. She is the mother of two graduates of Children’s Garden, and joined the staff in 2006. She teaches in Ward Hobbs in the morning, and with the extended primary in the afternoon.
440 Classroom - Vida West, Melody Patton, Kristen Blomgren
Vida West has worked at Children’s Garden since 2005, and is in the 440 AM primary classroom in the mornings, and in Extended Primary in the afternoon. She is AMS Early Childhood Credential, and also holds a Colorado elementary education license.
Melody Patton first came to Children’s Garden as a mother in 1996. After both of her daughters graduated from Children’s Garden she decided to become a teacher. She started teaching at the school in 2004 and spent her first seven years in the toddler classroom. She has an AMS credential at the Infant/Toddler level, and is currently working on completing her training to receive the AMS Early Childhood credential. This year she is teaching in the 440 classroom all day.
Kristen Blomgren first came to Children’s Garden in 2002 as a teacher and is now the mother of 2 children currently attending the school. She has an AMS credential at the Infant/Toddler level and an AMS Early Childhood credential. She also has her Bachelors Degree in Human Development and teaches in the 440 PM primary class in the afternoon.
Extended Primary - Vida West and Bekke Howell