Danita Strand is an assistant teacher in the Montessori program.  She was raised on a dairy farm in Minnesota and attended Augustana College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and minors in Spanish and Psychology.  She taught fourth grade in Texas and ESL in Salt Lake City, where she discoverd the Montessori Philosophy and taught K-1st and 1st-3rd before her daughter Shandy was born.  Moving back to Minnesota, she was an assistant teacher at a prescshool, and then taught 1st-3rd at a Montessori school.  After her son Evan was born, she received her AMI Primary Certification from the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota.  In the fall of 2007, she becoma an assistant in the TMS Montessori program where her son Evan was also able to attend.  In her rare moments of free time, she enjoys traveling, skiing, working on scrapbooks, and listening to the variety of music venues available in Telluride.