Hello! My name is Daniel Thongdara (pronounced TAWNG-dah-rah) and this is my third year at Villa, but my eighth year working in Montessori and my fifth as a Primary Lead Teacher. As I will spend a lot of time getting to know your children, it'd be nice if you had a chance to get to know me a bit.

I grew up in a small town in West Virginia with most of my time as a child spent in the woods or by the creek observing the rich diversity of flora and fauna. Following this lifelong love of nature, I studied Zoology at Washington State University and received my bachelor’s degree in 2015. My first experiences in childcare were at summer camp internships at the San Diego Zoo. After graduating from college, I spent a year teaching English to adults in Shenzhen, China. I returned from China to Seattle, Washington in 2017 where I joined the Education Department at the Woodland Park Zoo giving night and early morning tours, presenting animals, and leading their preschool summer camps.

In April 2018, I joined Minor Avenue Children’s House in Seattle as an assistant teacher in a preschool classroom. I was fortunate enough to train and learn under the brilliant, talented, and compassionate teachers and directors at MACH over the next three years. In May 2021, I became a certified Montessori Lead Teacher after training with the Montessori Education Institution of the Pacific Northwest and became the lead of the very same classroom I started in. In July of 2023, I moved to Phoenix and joined Villa's extraordinary teaching team. Early childhood is so rich in powerful experiences that shape our entire lives, it is an honor and a privilege to share in these moments with the children.

My primary goal in the classroom is to create a living environment that the children feel responds to and meets their needs and interests—be those social-emotional, sensory, or intellectual. As the children spend so much of their lives in the classroom, I want them to feel a sense of ownership for the space so I seek to make their voices and ideas heard. I try to bring in as much of my own zoological background as I can as I have found that children’s curiosity and fascination with the animal kingdom to be nearly limitless. Overall, I hope to instill independence, confidence, and compassion in the children by ensuring the tools they need to follow their path are always nearby and by treating them with the kindness and respect they so rightly deserve.