Lakewood Montessori Staff

Ms. Joyce

Ms. Joyce has been with us for over 10 years! She is the smiling face that greets parents, she handles phone calls, helps our school meet state guidelines, and provides teacher support. She has been an invaluable member of our team managing most of the office work at the school.

Ms. Joyce has also been involved in community work as well. She has been a member of Independence Junior Service League for 48 years, Operation Breakthrough for underprivileged children, and Mercy Ministries Heart & Soles Race. This coupled with her previous work with Triple JD Management and Western Electric has made her an expert office manager at our school, doing her work with efficiency and a warmth of spirit that is noticed by all. 

Ms. Joyce has four children, eight grandchildren and her 5th great grandchild was born in April 2020. 

She attended University of Central Missouri (UCM) and Metropolitan Community College. 

Ms. Alisha

Ms. Alisha is currently our lead infant teacher. She has taught at several Montessori schools and is well versed in the education and care of infants and toddlers. She has been working in the field of Early Childhood education for the last four years, three of which have been exclusively in Montessori. 

In her classroom she helps infants develop gross motor skills, understand object permanence, and begin learning fine motor skills, short-term memory retention as well as using basic gestures to communicate. She uses a mirror with stand-up bar to aid children in learning to stand up and walk by utilizing gross motor muscles. 

In her free time, Ms. Alisha loves to travel, cook dishes from various cuisines and dabble in photography. 

Ms. Angel

Ms. Angel was born and raised in Missouri. She loves spending time with her lovely toddler son. She loves to go to adventures with her son and fiancé. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and playing volleyball. Ms. Angel has spent years caring for and providing services for senior citizens. 

Caring for others is a passion of hers and she enjoys it very much. In this age group Ms. Angel introduces children to flash cards and repeating the name of nouns on each card, helping children correlate sounds with images. Ms. Angel introduces basic logic problems like the vertical stacker where children stack wood circles on top of each other, recognizing differences in size. Wooden puzzles help children learn nouns but also utilizes cognition to fit pieces in the right places. 

Pop up toys play an integral part in this class as children learn basic cause and effect. Pull/push toys continues to work on their gross motor skills. Using her own experiences as a mother, she is able to relate to children in a way that is warm and understanding as she helps them meet their educational milestones. 

Ms. Arliss

Ms. Arliss is the lead teacher of our Toddler classroom. Ms. Arliss is another veteran of our Lakewood Montessori family and has been a part of our school for the last ten years. She has taught Montessori to our children from infants to toddlers. If she hadn’t become a teacher she would have liked to become a marine biologist. 

Ms. Arliss is a huge football and Chief’s fan. She is happily married and lives in Independence. In her class, children continue building their gross and fine motor skills. Children in her class begin to learn empathy, assert independence, imitate peers or adults, and begin to understand basic propositions, insert shapes into matching slots, repeat heard words, name common objects seen in their surroundings and make basic verbal and gestural requests. 

Children in her class are encouraged to become independent by helping discarding plates and cleaning up after play. Ms. Arliss introduces more complex fit and piece problems by utilizing basic knobbed cylinders and slightly more complex board puzzles. Ms. Arliss enjoys music, movies, and spending time with her two wonderful grandsons. 

Ms. Zoe 

Ms. Zoe has over three years of teaching experience with children in the 2 to 4 age group. She is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in teaching and will be acquiring her Associate in Teaching this Fall. Ms. Zoe loves to promote independence with children, empower them and help them believe in themselves. In her free time, she plays piano and loves camping with her family. In this class Ms. Zoe focuses on toilet training children. 

Children are encouraged to communicate the sensation of needing to “go” or are encouraged to go directly to the toilet, clean themselves and dress themselves. The main objective in her class is to prepare children for primary class. Children work with more complex problem solving and manipulatives such as block play, lock box, introduction to spindle set, red bars, and pink tower. 

All these materials aim to teach children problem solving skills and establish an understanding of quantity, dimension, and size. Basic metal inset shapes are also introduced in this class as a mechanism for prewriting skills. 

Ms. Veronica 

Ms. Veronica currently leads the Primary 2 class, aged 3 to 5. She is currently pursuing her undergraduate in Psychology and is also in a Montessori training program. She is mother of a beautiful daughter. In her free time, she enjoys photography and spending time with her friends. In her class mixed age group functions to facilitate learning by allowing younger children observe and interact with older ones. 

As with all Montessori materials, the work in this classroom is very hands on. Ms. Veronica facilitates learning by introducing interactive and tangible material to teach children abstract concepts such as quantification or learning maps. Ms. Veronica believes that as children learn at their own pace, teachers must meet the child where they are at and respect each child’s uniqueness. 

Children remain in this age group until they graduate our program and go off to kindergarten. The primary goal of her class is to prepare children for kindergarten. 

Ms. Cindy

Ms. Cindy partners with Ms. Veronica in Primary 2 and aims to facilitate the learning process of children. She is scheduled to lead her own Primary classroom in the Fall. Ms. Cindy attended University of Central Missouri where she double majored and earned a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. 

Ms. Cindy is licensed to teach in the state of Missouri and is certified to teach from infant through 12 years of age. She previously taught at a public school and was herself a student of Montessori education as a child. In her free time, she loves music and reading. 

Ms. Irene 

Ms. Irene has been with Lakewood Montessori for the last 8 years. She is an exemplary teacher who loves teaching and leads her own Primary 4 class. Ms. Irene has a lovely 5-year-old daughter. Ms. Irene moved to US from Mexico at the age of 4 when she was adopted along with her sister. Ms. Irene has a diploma in Montessori teaching as well as an Associate of Arts in Child Growth and Development from MCC. 

She loves doing arts and crafts, being outside, cooking, watching movies, swimming, and going to the park.