Our Team
Our Team
At Little Elephant, we are extremely proud of our teaching team. All of our lead teachers have B.A. degrees and are Montessori trained, and collectively we have over 40 years of experience teaching and caring for children. Our passion for teaching children using the Montessori method is what drives us to work as hard as we do. But we also like to have fun and we really enjoy working together.
Rockridge
Paola Contreras, Lead Teacher, Buttercups Class
Paola joined LEMS in 2020.
Pooja Ramsinghani, Teacher
Pooja is the Buttercups class support teacher
Jennifer Kottage Lund, Lead Teacher, Poppies Class
Jennifer joined LEMS in 2017
Flor Zepeda, Teacher
Flor is the Poppies class support teacher
Julia Arriola, Aide
Julia joined LEMS in 2020
Berkeley
Julie Larwood, Lead Teacher
Julie joined Little Elephant Too! when it first opened in January 2016 even though she had been teaching Montessori for many previous years. She studied at San Francisco Montessori Training Center where she received her AMS certification. Julie also attended Contra Costa College, D.V.C and Merritt Colleges. Julie is a California native, who grew up in Orinda and now lives in Oakland near Lake Merritt with her husband. She enjoys volunteering for the Oakland Museum, the Food Bank & Earth Day.
Jamilett Mendoza, Teacher
Jamilett has three experience working in a Montessori classroom. She has her Early Childhood Development certificate and is continuing her education. Jamilett is obtaining her Montessori Assistant Teacher training through the Center for Guided Montessori Studies. She is very proud of receiving her EMS (Emergency Medical Service Certificate) as a Junior in high school. She loves coming to work work every day, to teach a child and have a child teach her.
Angelina Macias-Crouse, Support Teacher
Angelina grew up in the east bay, mainly in El Cerrito and attended school in Berkeley. She has always loved being around kids babysat for a long time. A year ago she decided to pursue early childhood education, and started working as an assistant teacher at Little Elephant. She is currently in school taking early childhood education classes and concurrently working on her Montessori Assistant teacher training through Center for Guided Montessori Studies.
Little Elephant is owned by Natanya Moore, who received her International Montessori teaching credential from the St. Nicholas Centre for the Montessori Method of Education in London in 1992. With 28 years experience teaching at the infant through kindergarten level, Natanya has trained Montessori instructors at the Santa Monica Montessori Teacher Training Institute, established new programs and served as a director in other schools. Natanya works daily to support Little Elephant’s core values of Kindness, Peace, Passion for Learning, Community Building and Creativity. She is also the mother of 15 year old, Duncan.