Rachel Walters

Ms. Rachel, also known as “Ms. Cosmic” by her students, has been an educator since 2000, including with Phoenix Montessori Academy since 2015. She began her career as a college art history and humanities instructor and has consistently approached teaching as an interdisciplinary, project-based process that honors the curiosity of each child.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Art History from Washington University in St. Louis in 1993. She continued her graduate studies at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, with an emphasis in Anthropology, Archaeology, and Non-Western Art, and earned an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certification in Museum Education. During this time, she studied Ancient Mayan sites through a Latin American Studies grant and spent a summer abroad in Rome, Italy.

Ms. Rachel began teaching at the college level in 1997 but maintained a strong interest in childhood education and Montessori philosophy. She joined Phoenix Montessori Academy in 2014 as a co-teacher in Upper Elementary. In 2018, she worked in Lower Elementary while completing her Elementary I and II Montessori Certification through CMTE/NC. In 2019, she transitioned into her role as a Cosmic Education teacher.

Her classroom is grounded in the Great Lessons and cultural works of Dr. Maria Montessori and is designed to foster curiosity, exploration, and a scientific sense of discovery. She believes the world itself is one of the most powerful teachers and that each moment offers an opportunity to learn.

She is guided by the words of Dr. Maria Montessori: “The child is endowed with unknown powers which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of those hidden possibilities.”