Training Educators Montessori Education

since 1974


Meet the Team!

Michelle Light Baker

Michelle is the MWTTP Executive Director, Early Childhood Coordinator, Early Childhood Student Teaching Supervisor, and instructor for the Human & Child Development, Observation, Classroom Leadership, Communication and Language Arts, Curriculum, Materials and Methods, and related practicum seminars.  Ms. Baker holds an M.A. in Education, a B.S. in Human Development, and an AMS Early Childhood Credential.  Michelle has experience teaching at the college level teaching child development, parent education classes and training seminars for foster care providers.  In addition to her teaching experience at the college level and MWTEP, she has been a teacher trainer for other private schools in southern California.  

Janis Candelaria

Janis is the instructor for the Practical Life Curriculum, Materials and Methods component and the related practicum seminar.  Ms. Candelaria holds a B.A. in Communicative Disorders, and has AMS Early Childhood and Infant / Toddler Credentials.  She has been employed by the Montessori Greenhouse Schools since 1974, first as the teacher in a 3 - 6 classroom and later as the creator, teacher and director of the Montessori Greenhouse Infant/Toddler program.  Although retired from the school, she currently serves as a much valued substitute teacher at all levels. 

Tabitha Moraldo

Tabitha is the instructor for the and Sensorial and co-instructor for the Cultural Curriculum, Materials, and Methods component and the related practicum.  Ms. Moraldo has been an AMS Montessori credential, and a child center permit.  She has remained a creative teacher for 3-6 classroom, while also maintaining her position of school director. 

Noelle Sevilla

Noelle is the instructor for Special Needs,  Positive Discipline and Administration modules for MWTEP.

She is the Head of School and Founder of Walnut International Montessori Preschool. She received her BA in Psychology in 2001 and her M.A. in Childhood Education in 2004. By 2005 Noelle was certified by the Montessori Institue of America.

She has been in the classroom since 2003 starting with a First grade classroom at Miriam College Grade School in the Philippines. Noelle started teaching in Orange County, Ca shortly after in 2005 as the Montessori Head Kindergarten Teacher at Serrano Heights Academy. Her career path aligned with Administration side of Education and she spent 10 years at Ivycrest Montessori as Assistant Director and 7 years as the Director at Walnut Montessori. Since then, she has became a Montessori consultant and supervises multiple schools across Southern California. She is also currently opening a new school Montessori of Anaheim.

In 2020 Noelle became an AMS Instructor and received her Trainor Credential. 

Danielle Garner

Danielle has 15 years classroom experience in a multitude of philosophies such as High Scope and Learning Through Play before finding Montessori and receiving her AMS Credential in 2008.

Before becoming an Early Childhood Educator- Danielle trained as a performing artist in multiple mediums such as music, dance and art. She is also a Screen Actors Guild- American Federation of Television and Radio Artist Member. 

Through the years, Danielle also studied various computer software programs and became a certified Adobe Professional.  

She has spent the last 7 years in the Marketing and Branding field focused on the Health and Wellness sector.

Currently, Danielle founded SouLife™ whos mission is to inspire personal and professional discovery, innovation and success with child self creative wellness. She believes in nurturing the whole human from birth-beyond and is dedicated to creating prepared environment events for the adult to reclaim their child self through what she has named the unArt™ process. 

She is excited to bring her vast knowledge of technology to the program as well as heading the Art, Cultural Studies, Music & Movement and Mindfulness MWTEP modules.

Program Aims


This list includes the intents and purposes of the program with regard to the general content of the course work, the approach to training, results with students, involve­ment with the professional commu­nity, and influ­ence upon American educational practices:


• to provide a related group of varied edu­cation­al experiences that are con­gruent, on an adult level, with the ch­ild's experi­ence and growth in a Mon­tessori setting;


• to convey clearly a conception of the Montes­sori method as an open-end­ed system designed to foster auton­omy;


• to facilitate the development of person­al com­munication skills within a frame­work for understanding the dynamics of human relation­ships;


• to communicate an accurate and effec­tively organized picture of con­tempo­rary knowledge about the sequence of human development from birth through the ele­mentary years and its relation to the Montes­sori system;


• to encourage, support, and provide oppor­tunity for methodological and professional compe­tence in the teac­her;


• to serve as a consultation resource for early childhood programs in pub­lic and private schools;


• to support ongoing professional educa­tion for Montessori teachers;


• to support and encourage member­ship in the American Montessori Society by both schools and teach­ers as a means of sup­porting and promoting the sharing of Montessori ideas as an influence on the educa­tion of all children.