Montessori Makers Group

Advisory · Workshops & Speaking

The work that often starts here.

Keynotes, workshops, and facilitation for Montessori schools and organizations. Grounded in philosophy. Built to move rooms—and the leaders in them.

Most engagements begin as a workshop or keynote and grow into deeper advisory work over time.

Topics

Five themes. Each built around a real problem.

Sessions are tailored to the audience and context. These themes represent the territory—not a menu you pick from, but a map of where the work lives.

01

Leadership Under Pressure

What Montessori actually asks of leaders when external forces—policy shifts, community fractures, political pressure—are actively working to destabilize the environment. Principled response over administrative reaction.

02

Adult Culture as the Work

The relationship between adult culture and child outcomes is not metaphorical. When leadership understands adult trust, communication, and conflict as organizational infrastructure, everything downstream changes.

03

ABAR as Montessori Practice

Anti-bias and antiracist work is not an add-on to Montessori—it is philosophically required by it. Tracing the direct connections between Montessori's vision for human development and the active work of dismantling bias in schools.

04

Systems for Liberation

Individual practice can only go so far. Building Montessori organizations that are structurally different—not just aspirationally different—requires moving from values on the wall to systems that function differently.

05

The Aligned School

What organizational alignment actually looks like in Montessori—from governance to classroom—and why the gap between vision and daily reality is a structural problem, not a people problem.

School leaders engaged in professional development — the collaborative spirit of Montessori workshops

“These are rooms full of people doing the work. Sessions are designed for people who are already leading.”

What to Expect

What these sessions are actually like.

Grounded in research

Every session draws from organizational theory, Montessori philosophy, and leadership research. The intellectual foundation is visible, not decorative.

Built for practitioners

These are rooms full of people doing the work. Sessions are designed for people who are already leading—not preparing to lead.

Interactive by design

Participants leave with frameworks they can apply, not concepts they have to translate. Discussion, reflection, and application are built into the structure.

Honest about complexity

The work is hard. Sessions name that directly. No oversimplification, no false promise of easy answers—just clearer thinking and sharper tools.

Hannah speaks regularly at AMI, AMS, and independent Montessori conferences, and works directly with school communities and leadership teams nationwide. All formats are available in-person and virtually.

Formats

Four formats. Matched to what the moment needs.

Keynote

A 45–90 minute address built around a single central argument. Designed for conference openings, community events, or leadership convenings where the room needs a shared frame.

Workshop

Half-day to full-day interactive sessions. Participants work through material, not just receive it. Available for school staff, leadership teams, or conference breakouts.

Intensive

Multi-session, deep-dive programming for a single community or cohort. Designed when a keynote isn't enough and the goal is sustained shift, not a single event.

Panel & Facilitation

Moderated panels, facilitated roundtables, and structured dialogue for conferences or leadership convenings that need a skilled external voice to hold the room.

Fully customizable

Each workshop is adapted to your school’s context, team, and specific goals. No two deliveries are identical.

Half-day to multi-day

Format scales to your needs. Topics can be combined into a full professional development day or series.

In-person & virtual

All workshops are available in both formats. Virtual sessions are designed for active engagement, not passive attendance.

Workshop Menu

All 15 topics.

01

Equitable Interviewing & Hiring Practices

How to design an interview process that reduces bias, surfaces real capacity, and reflects your organizational values from the first interaction.

Audience

School leaders, hiring managers, HR leads

02

Coaching Conversations That Support Growth

A framework for having the conversations that develop adults — not just evaluate them. Grounded in Montessori principles and designed for real schools.

Audience

Heads of school, department leads, instructional coaches

03

People Policies That Reflect Your Values

Audit and redesign your HR policies so they say what you actually believe — about people, fairness, and what it means to work in your organization.

Audience

School leaders, operations leads, board members

04

Community Architecture: Rituals, Belonging & Collective Care

How organizations build the conditions for belonging — the rhythms, rituals, and structures that make adults feel genuinely part of something.

Audience

Full staff, leadership teams, DEI coordinators

05

Designing Onboarding for Belonging

Move beyond orientation checklists to onboarding that actually integrates new staff — into the culture, the philosophy, and the community.

Audience

School leaders, operations teams, department heads

06

Boundaries, Workflows & Sustainable Leadership

The systems, structures, and practices that make it possible to lead long-term without burning out — for heads and their teams.

Audience

School leaders, leadership teams, administrators

07

Equity in Adult Culture: Practices That Shift the Day-to-Day

Equity is not a policy — it is a set of daily practices. This workshop identifies where inequity shows up in adult culture and builds practical responses.

Audience

Full staff, leadership teams, ABAR leads

08

Storytelling & Identity: Communicating Who You Are

Help your school develop a clear, consistent organizational identity and the language to communicate it — internally and to prospective families and staff.

Audience

School leaders, communications staff, enrollment teams

09

Communication Rhythms That Build Trust

Trust is built or eroded through repeated patterns of communication. This workshop builds the routines, cadences, and practices that grow trust over time.

Audience

Leadership teams, full staff, boards

10

Evaluating With Dignity: Foundations of the Montessori Makers Appraisal Cycle

An introduction to the Montessori Makers Appraisal Cycle — a performance evaluation framework built on dignity, development, and Montessori organizational values.

Audience

Heads of school, instructional leaders, HR leads

11

Conflict Resolution & Difficult Conversations for Montessori Teams

How to navigate the conversations that most leaders avoid — with a framework grounded in Montessori values and designed for the specific culture of Montessori schools.

Audience

Full staff, leadership teams, board members

12

Strategic Visioning: Turning Montessori Values Into Action

Move from values statements to actionable organizational direction — with a process that grounds strategic planning in Montessori philosophy rather than generic business frameworks.

Audience

Leadership teams, boards, strategic planning groups

13

Equity in Daily Practice

An applied workshop on how equity principles show up (or don't) in the moment-to-moment work of school life — for both adults and the children in their care.

Audience

Full staff, classroom teachers, support staff

14

The Prepared Adult: Mindset, Modeling & Presence

Montessori asks the adult to be prepared — not just the environment. This workshop explores what that preparation means for adult culture, self-awareness, and leadership presence.

Audience

Full staff, leadership teams, teacher educators

15

Montessori 101: Foundations of the Philosophy

An accessible, grounded introduction to Montessori philosophy — for new staff, board members, or community members who want to understand what Montessori actually is.

Audience

New staff, board members, prospective families, community partners

Custom Workshops

Don’t see exactly what you need?

Hannah designs custom workshops for schools and organizations with specific needs not covered by the menu above. Custom engagements begin with a consultation to understand the context, the audience, and the outcomes that matter.

Share the context, audience, and goals below. We’ll review your request and determine whether a custom workshop is the right fit.

To Request a Workshop

What topic or challenge you're addressing
Who the audience is and how many participants
Your preferred format and length
Desired date(s) and whether in-person or virtual

Custom Workshops

Request a Workshop

Share the context, audience, and desired outcomes. We’ll review your request and determine whether a custom workshop is the right fit.

Requests are reviewed individually. If there is alignment, the next step will be a conversation.

How This Work Connects

Workshops and speaking are often where the work begins.

For schools working through deeper challenges—alignment, leadership structure, communication, or adult culture—this work extends into advisory partnerships. A single session often surfaces what a full engagement can address.

Next Step

Ready to bring this work to your community?

Workshops and keynotes are typically scheduled 4–8 weeks in advance. Major conferences: 3–6 months.

The Makers Network

Join the Makers Network

Get clear, grounded insight into what's actually happening in Montessori schools—leadership, systems, and strategy. No noise. Just what matters.