Montessori teachers provide students with alternative opportunities to expand their talents and develop natural interests instead of using traditional teaching methods. They are often seen as gentle guides, helping children achieve their goals at their own pace.
A Montessori teacher develops lesson plans that cater to the individual needs of each child. They deliver lessons in a clean, safe, and stimulating classroom environment while ensuring each student feels safe and appreciated. Moreover, they create student progress reports and communicate what they mean to students' parents.
Apart from these main duties, a Montessori teacher performs tasks of a regular teacher, including grading work, maintaining classroom supplies, and assisting other teachers and school staff.
To become a Montessori teacher, one must have a bachelor's degree in education, early childhood education, or a similar field. They must also have a teaching license and a training certificate from an accredited Montessori school. More importantly, a Montessori must have the passion and patience to teach young children in the best ways possible.
The average salary for this role does not differ much from that of a regular teacher. On average, Montessori teachers earn around $31,000 to $56,000 a year.
Montessori Teacher Overview
Montessori Teacher Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a montessori teacher. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.68 an hour? That's $43,022 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 53,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Montessori Teacher Do
There are certain skills that many montessori teachers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed resourcefulness, physical stamina and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a montessori teacher, we found that a lot of resumes listed 22.0% of montessori teachers included classroom management, while 10.7% of resumes included lesson plans, and 8.8% of resumes included student learning. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the montessori teacher job title. But what industry to start with? Most montessori teachers actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.
How To Become a Montessori Teacher
If you're interested in becoming a montessori teacher, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 39.6% of montessori teachers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 23.3% of montessori teachers have master's degrees. Even though most montessori teachers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a montessori teacher. When we researched the most common majors for a montessori teacher, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on montessori teacher resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a montessori teacher. In fact, many montessori teacher jobs require experience in a role such as teacher. Meanwhile, many montessori teachers also have previous career experience in roles such as lead teacher or substitute teacher.
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Montessori Teacher Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a montessori teacher can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as lead teacher, progress to a title such as assistant director and then eventually end up with the title center director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Montessori Teacher
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
San Mateo-Foster City School District School Year-Montessori Teacher (Temp) School Year-Montessori Teacher (Temp) | San Mateo-Foster City School District San Mateo-Foster City School District | 01/15/2021 01/15/2021 | $59,76901/15/2021 $59,769 |
San Mateo-Foster City School District School Year-Montessori Teacher Pool School Year-Montessori Teacher Pool | San Mateo-Foster City School District San Mateo-Foster City School District | 12/19/2020 12/19/2020 | $59,76912/19/2020 $59,769 |
San Mateo-Foster City Elementary Montessori Teacher Montessori Teacher | San Mateo-Foster City Elementary San Mateo-Foster City Elementary | 01/10/2020 01/10/2020 | $59,76901/10/2020 $59,769 |
Glen Park Montessori Preschool Montessori Teacher Montessori Teacher | Glen Park Montessori Preschool Glen Park Montessori Preschool | 12/31/2019 12/31/2019 | $41,74012/31/2019 $41,740 |
Keystone Montessori School Montessori Teacher Montessori Teacher | Keystone Montessori School Keystone Montessori School | 09/30/2019 09/30/2019 | $31,30509/30/2019 $31,305 |
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Top Colleges for Montessori Teachers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
5. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
6. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
7. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
8. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
9. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
10. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
Top Skills For a Montessori Teacher
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 22.0% of montessori teachers listed classroom management on their resume, but soft skills such as resourcefulness and physical stamina are important as well.
- Classroom Management, 22.0%
- Lesson Plans, 10.7%
- Student Learning, 8.8%
- Appropriate Curriculum, 4.9%
- Parent-Teacher Conferences, 4.9%
- Other Skills, 48.7% See All Montessori Teacher Skills
Best States For a Montessori Teacher
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a montessori teacher. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland. Montessori teachers make the most in New York with an average salary of $55,136. Whereas in Massachusetts and Connecticut, they would average $53,290 and $49,899, respectively. While montessori teachers would only make an average of $49,895 in Maryland, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$57,409
Avg. Salary
2. Connecticut
$49,899
Avg. Salary
3. New York
$55,136
Avg. Salary