Rosario Toward Instructional Guide

Rosario Toward was born, raised and educated in Mexico City.  She studied in a bilingual private school from first grade until she graduated with a Bilingual Elementary Teaching Certificate.  After graduation, she worked as a teacher, with children from kindergarten to middle school, in several private schools in Mexico City.  Rosario discovered the Montessori Method and went on to take her first course in Bergamo, Italy, at  the AMI International Center of Montessori Studies.  She was one of 50 international students receiving the Montessori Elementary certificate in 1971.  

For the first three years of her Montessori career, Rosario worked at a Montessori school in South Miami and was one of the only three Montessori teachers, at the elementary level, in the whole State of Florida.  She worked as a classroom teacher, school consultant, presenter and teacher trainer for AMS and the Pan American Montessori Society in Mexico City, Mexico. In the early 80’s, Rosario continued her Montessori education and graduated with a Primary diploma from the American Montessori Society. Later on, she obtained the Assistant to Infancy diploma from the Association Montessori International.  She was very fortunate to take the first Assistant to Infancy course given outside of Rome, Italy, in Houston, Texas, graduating in August 1984. Rosario was asked to open a Montessori school in Houma, LA. Such school gained State approval and  recognition by the Louisiana Montessori Association, the regulatory body of Montessori schools in the State of Louisiana. In 2005, Rosario moved to Oakland, CA, to take the position of Assistant Head of School at The Renaissance International School.  She undertook the supervision of this school with its unique trilingual (English, French and Spanish) Montessori program, servicing children 3 months to 14 years of age. A firm believer of the Montessori method, she has been an avid proponent of “education for life”, taking her elementary and adolescent students to visit countries where the skills and languages they learn in their classrooms are applied and practiced in the “real world”. 

Upon “retiring” to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, in 2017, she took the position of director of the Spanish Early Childhood Program for The Center of Guided Montessori Studies and offered the first certificate Spanish course in 2020. Since then, she has been a co-IG in the EC Montessori course in English, a Practicum Advisor and a Field Consultant for Early Childhood and Infant and Toddler students, as well as a lecturer and presenter for parents and teachers in the US and Mexico.