Summer Camp Teacher Biographies

IMS Summer Camp Coordinator

Loralie is native of Tennessee who graduated from UNC in 2005 with a Bachelors degree in French.  She has returned to us for a second year after having completed an intensive Master’s Program at Middlebury College. She did all her course work in Paris, France where she wrote her thesis on the union of the Montessori Method and language immersion. She spent many hours observing, volunteering and working in several bi-lingual Montessori programs both in the US and France. Loralie also has many years of experience working with summer camps, and this summer, we are thrilled that Loralie will be coordinating and supervising the program at our school.

IMS Spanish Camp Counselor

Alena is thrilled to be joining the International Montessori School as a Spanish teacher for the 2008 summer camp sessions! A native of North Carolina, Alena is a double French and Spanish major at UNC-Chapel Hill entering her senior year in fall 2008. She has had many years of experience with childcare, education, and foreign language. Alena is very excited about working in a language immersion school because she believes strongly that bilingualism is empowering in many ways. A former Montessori student herself, with a mother who is a Montessori teacher, Alena is also familiar with Montessori education. She is ready for a wonderful first summer with the International Montessori School!

IMS Spanish Camp Assistant

Meghan lived in France for five years as a child and began my schooling at a French preschool in Marseille.  She continued to take French lessons at a Montessorri International School in Paris.  Meghan took French and Spanish classes in high school and chose Spanish as my second major alongside Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain in the summer of 2007 and is currently tutoring ESL students at Phillips Middle School.  She also volunteers at UNC Hospitals, where she often uses Spanish to communicate with Hispanic patients and translate for doctors.

IMS French Camp Counselor

Martha was born in Illinois. She was educated in Pennsylvania and Europe. She completed her undergraduate work summa cum laude in French and her Master’s in French literature at Ohio University. Before completing her degrees in Ohio, she lived for 12 years in Switzerland and 1 year in Paris. During this time, Martha had the opportunity to travel and work in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Turkey. While at Ohio, Martha was a volunteer in FLES (Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools). In 2004 and 2005, Martha taught French twice a week to West Elementary preschool children in Athens, Ohio. She created lessons using her own materials incorporating hands-on learning techniques, communicative strategies between the children and total body response.

Martha has researched Montessori methods since living in Europe and enjoys exploring pedagogical philosophies and methods regarding language acquisition. Her academic research interests lie in the realm of French and Francophone literary questions of identity and resistance. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with close friends, cooking, going for walks with her dogs, speaking and reading French, listening to all types of music, pottery, running and practicing yoga.

IMS French Camp Assistant

Jessica is a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill majoring in French and Linguistics. She lived in the French House her first two years of college, and last year, she studied in Montpellier, France where she stayed with a host family and attended a French university.  Jessica also has experience with young children, including course work in child development. Jessica has previously worked as a counselor at our summer camps, and we are delighted that she will be returning!