Maria DeVeyra is the Toddler teacher in the morning and works in Enrichment doing lunch and recess. In the afternoon, she acts as Alice’s support person in the office as administrative assistant. Maria first learned about Montessori as a Computer Associates teacher working with children. She first fell in love with Montessori as a part and attended a parent child class with her oldest daughter. She became an assistant teacher and after a few years pursued AMS Montessori training to become a 3-6 preprimary Montessori teacher. She lead primary classes at Montessori Academy of Chicago and Montessori Connections of Highland Park. She fell in love with the younger age group after working at McCormick Montessori for four years as the toddler directress. Afterwards, Maria had the pleasure of working with and being mentored by a seasoned AMI Assistants to Infancy trainer, who assisted Dr. Silvana Montanaro, (author of “Understanding the Human Being”). After this beautiful experience, she returned to Seton to take the Infant Toddler training. Maria worked under the guidance of a wonderful Seton trainer, Susan Tracy McDaniel. Before Diamante, Maria worked at Alcuin for 6 years as the toddler teacher. During this time, she also took the training for Musikgarten Family and toddler. Maria enjoy singing with toddlers very much! In the classroom she also enjoys food prep and baking with the toddlers. Maria studied RIE (Resources for Infant Educators) and took the Foundations course with Polly Elam who worked closely with Magda Gerber. It is a beautiful philosophy that complements Montessori.

Prior to discovering Montessori, Maria was a Monart Art teacher for 5 years and taught drawing to children using the Monart method. She also has experience working with special needs children in the Autism spectrum and spent a year working at New Horizons where she became involved with Special Olympics.

Maria lives in Chicago with her husband, Arlan and their three beautiful daughters.