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Montessori teachers tend to be in short supply world-wide. In part this is because of the rapid expansion of Montessori charter schools opening in the USA who need 10, 20, or more Montessori teachers all at once. Another reason is because Montessori is expanding rapidly outside of the United States, and more American Montessori teachers are finding themselves drawn to the interesting experiences of teaching in China or elsewhere.
After May or June (in the Northern hemisphere) it is very difficult for any school to find a new Montessori teacher for the fall. The normal cycle is to either advertise year-round, or to begin advertising in the late fall for an position that will begin in June or August of the following year.
Montessori teachers are normally formally committed to their current schools somewhere between March and April. Obviously teachers occasionally move, sometimes they become disillusioned with their current school, intrigued by a new school that’s opening up, or the school where they are teachers experiences a drop in enrollment and lets them go.
Be very careful about hiring anyone who is willing to leave an employer from June onward. Someone who is willing to do this to their school has either been seriously professionally mistreated, or is someone willing to leave his or her employer and students in the lurch for a better offer. Someone who will do this to one employer, may do it again to your school someday.
To find great teachers, it almost always takes time to get the word out, get them interested in the possibility of working at your school, and finally to get them to make a commitment.
If you live in a major community where there are many many Montessori schools, large teacher training centers, and an abundance of teachers who are retired, or working part time, or coming into the profession for the first time, it is much more likely that one will be able to find teachers were already living there.
If your school is not fortunate enough to find someone who is already living in your community, you’ll discover that it’s quite difficult at times to convince someone to move to a new city or state, no less across the country or abroad, to, and work at a school that they do not already know well.
Montessori teachers are in short supply. It’s been this way from the start.
Salary alone is often not enough to attract Montessori educators to work and stay at a particular school.
Montessori teachers are often very idealistic, and are often drawn to seek a position at a particular school because of its reputation, the city and which is located, or the beautiful facilities or something else that they understand about this particular school. For example, our Lab School, the New Gate school in Sarasota Florida, attracts teachers from all over the United States and abroad because of our reputation and because we go through high school. Having the opportunity as a mother or father of a Montessori child for your child/ren to complete Montessori through high school is one example of something that is highly motivating to many Montessori teachers.
Some teachers are very focused on finding a school where everyone comes from the same training background. This is most common among AMI teachers where there is a real concern that teachers from a different background may be so incompatible in their understanding and practice of Montessori as to create a frustrating environment in which to work.
Two other issues that many Montessori teachers look at is a school’s facilities and the sense of what kind of parent support are they going to get. While these two things may not seem to be connected, quite often they go hand-in-hand. Montessori teachers are almost always anxious to find a strong sense of supportive parent community and involvement. And they are definitely drawn to a lovely campus and beautiful and well-equipped classrooms. Keep in mind, not all Montessori teachers want parents to be involved, but the idea of knowing that parents will be an asset and not an obstacle is often one of the deciding factors as teachers make a decision about where to take a job offer.
Obviously, there are situations where your school’s location can be one of your greatest selling points.
If people often move to the community in which your school is located because they have friends or family there, or because it’s a community that is highly appealing, you are much more likely to see a steady stream of unsolicited resumes come in.
Reaching out to teacher training centers is often one of the most basic things that we all do, but keep in mind that it is very rare to see someone in Montessori teacher training who does not already have a job at another Montessori school, and often student teachers are sponsored through the training by that school in return from their commitment to teach after training for a period of three years or longer.
While it is possible that a training center may be aware of people who are looking for a new position, Montessori teacher do not need to use their connections to find a job. After few years, they usually hear about which schools are the most appealing to work at, and they often send off resumes in hope that there will be an opening.
Placing Classified Ads:
Schools definitely recruit teachers by placing ads. In the United States, the most common places to advertise would be in the pages of Tomorrow’s Child magazine (www.Montessori.org) because it has the largest distribution in the Montessori community in the English language and because the Montessori Foundation also places classified ads from Tomorrow’s Child on their website https://www.montessori.org/classified-ads
Schools that are members of the international Montessori Council can place free classified ads online at the Montessori foundation/IMC website at https://www.montessori.org/classified-ads
If your school belongs to the American Montessori Society, you can advertise on their website when you have job openings. About 20-25% of the Montessori schools in the United States belong to AMS, and while the majority of Montessori schools do not belong to any one organization, AMS is the largest Montessori professional organization in the world. So if your school does belong, placing classified ads on their website is one of the benefits.
If your school belongs to the Association Montessori Internationale in the United States, AMI-USA as a job opportunities page on their website at http://amiusa.org/jobs/ this is an excellent source if you’re in search of AMI trained Montessori guides
Another other major online job opportunity website is run by the North American Montessori Teachers Association. NAMTA is a highly respected and very well known Montessori professional organization, similar in many ways to the Montessori Foundation, but affiliated with AMI. Many schools place ads on their website http://www.montessori-namta.org/Advertising
