Inga Mountain

Background

About Inga Mountain

Following my years at Elizabethtown College, I went directly into a rigorous Montessori training program at Carlow College in Pittsburgh in cooperation with the Elizabeth Seton school in Greensburg, PA followed by an internship and 3 years as a lead teacher for Penn Mont Academy of Hollidaysburg, PA. Here, I was charged with opening and running a satellite classroom or 6-10 children with the aid of one, experienced assistant. In 2001, I moved to Montgomery County, PA and began working at Centre Square Montessori Schoolhouse. I was a lead teacher in a 3-6 classroom and provided afterschool care for 2 years. In 2003 I was asked to take on new roles providing music classes to toddlers through 5th grade, Spanish classes for 4 preschool/kindergarten classes, art classes for kindergarten through 5th grade, manage Scholastic book orders for toddlers and preschoolers and run the elementary afterschool program. In these 2 years, I developed a music curriculum that met Federal guidelines, integrated the art curriculum with other classroom studies and was a long-term substitute for fifth grade. Due to professional differences with the owner, I left CSMS. I was hired at Montessori Children's House of Horsham in 2005. I returned to my position as a lead teacher in a classroom of 3-6 year-olds and continued to help with afterschool care for several years. I developed an afternoon enrichment program for my class that included weekly cooking activities and letter based art projects, co-teaching with another class and literature based games. I wrote and won 2 grants that provided materials for my classroom and made improvements to our playground to attract birds and provide gardening opportunities. One of these grants was the 2014 Tylenol National Childcare Teachers Award where I was among the top 10 recipients. During my time a MCH, I volunteered to sing multicultural songs with the preschoolers for a school fundraiser. This tradition continued for 11 years with the toddlers performing 5 or 6 songs and the preschoolers learning up to 20 songs in 16 different languages. Many of the songs were from the cultures represented by our student body and their families. I left MCH in 2019 and was hired by Happy Minds Montessori as a lead preschool teacher. During the pandemic shut-down, I was named director of Happy Minds and reopened the school in June 2020 under COVID restrictions, managing enrollment, billing, communications, obtaining supplies, scheduling and staffing.