3rd Grade Faculty

Head of Primary School

Sagrario Argüelles

Sagrario is a passionate professional with more than 20 years of experience in a wide variety of educational settings. She is a lifelong learner that believes that students learn best when they are empowered and feel ownership of their learning. Sagrario has a BA in Education from the Pedagogical University in Mexico and has taken different undergraduate courses from Stanford and Harvard University. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has a deep understanding of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.

Sagrario was born and raised in México City. During her journey in education she worked in different schools in México such as Alexander Bain and the American School Foundation, where she held different teacher and administrative roles such as, lower school teacher, Primary Years Programme (PYP) coordinator and dean of students. She began her career in the United States in 2008 at Escuela Bilingüe Internacional in Oakland, California where she came to implement the Primary Years Programme (PYP). She held the roles of Assistant Head, PYP Coordinator and Director of Curriculum and Learning for Pre-kinder to 8th grade and oversaw the Middle Years Programme (MYP) implementation.

Her passion for education has also allowed her to do significant work for the IB as a workshop leader, consultant, school evaluation and accreditation leader and IB field representative in charge of the quality of the workshops given in The Americas. Sagrario has also been instrumental in the implementation of new IB services for schools at a global level, to develop a quality curriculum in schools.

Sagrario has sought to share best practices wherever she has taught, presenting at educational conferences such as the IB Regional Conference and the California Association of Independent School Conference.

Sagrario describes herself as an inquirer and is a true believer that as educators we need to nurture each child’s love of learning by cultivating academic excellence, emotional intelligence, and social engagement.

Spanish Teacher Assistant

Elsy Lozano

Elsy Lozano grew up in Los Llanos Orientales, in the southern part of Colombia, where she learned how to ride horses and enjoy the freedom of ranch living. At a young age she moved to Bogata where she attended Corporacion Universitaria Unitec obtaining an Associate’s Degree in Administration. Her husband’s job brought her and her family to the United States, New Hampshire, in 1997.

Her passion for working with kids began in 2003 when she started working as a volunteer at the Adult Learning Center Child Day Care in Nashua, NH, assisting with the daily plans, activities, and supervision of children. In 2003, she moved with her family to the Austin area where she worked for AISD becoming an established and respected assistant for teachers, preparing materials and instruction as well as meeting the physical and intellectual needs of students with and without disabilities. She has been teaching students in both Spanish and English language for the last 15 years.

One of her favorite pastimes is reading. Her favorite books include One Hundred years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Angels and Demons.

PYP and MYP Art Teacher

Paula Trejos

Paula Trejos was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Upon graduation from high school, she attended the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, where she received a degree in Fine Arts. While at university in Colombia, Paula was fortunate to play volleyball at the highest level. Not only did Paula play for her university, but also for the Colombian National team four times. She had the privilege of traveling throughout South America, the Caribbean and Central America. In 2008, she received an offer to play volleyball at Pratt Community College and to attend school in the United States.

After two first team All-American years at Pratt, where she set the school record in aces, she received a full scholarship to play volleyball at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas. Before leaving Pratt, she was inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame. In her two years at Wayland, she set numerous records while being named first team All-Conference twice and receiving Team MVP her senior season. Paula also excelled in art, her area of study. She finished 20 original pieces and was published in the local newspaper. In addition, she won the Plains Art Association Scholarship award, which judged two original art pieces from their gallery.

In 2012 she received her degree in Graphic Design from Wayland Baptist University. At Wayland, Paula participated in youth coaching and assistant coaching at Plainview Christian Academy High School. She began to coach the 14’s and under team with the Max High Performance volleyball club in Austin, while substituting for AISD. After five successful years as a preschool PYP Lead Teacher, Paula Trejos (Lacey) will move to the art department this year. She is excited to share her passion for art with both PYP and MYP students. Paula has a BA in Fine Arts from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Colombia and a BA in Graphic Design from Wayland Baptist University. She holds teaching certifications in art, bilingual education and Spanish.

Counselor

Alessia Bulsara

Alessia Bulsara grew up in a multicultural family, living in her father’s native India for five years before residing in Houston, Texas with her mother’s Catalan family. She received her Bachelors of Science in Psychology from the University of Houston, later returning to obtain her Masters of Education in Counseling. Alessia is currently a Licensed Professional Counselor, as well as a certified teacher, in the state of Texas and is also working towards becoming credentialed as a Registered Play Therapist.

Alessia’s passion for counseling children and families only grew as she completed her practicum hours for her master’s degree, and later stayed on to continue working as a counseling intern, at a child psychologist’s private practice in Houston. There, Alessia was able to attain experience and clinical skills providing individual, group, and dyad counseling services, both in office and in the school setting. Following this, she worked as a Professional Educator at the Monarch School and Institute for two years before moving into the role of a Therapeutic Coach, providing students with neurological differences individualized social, emotional and self-regulation/management support. Alessia simultaneously worked with children and families in a play therapy private practice in Houston, providing individual counseling services, parent support and online resources.

Alessia primarily utilizes a child centered therapeutic approach when working with children, meeting the child where they are at. She truly believes in the importance of a strong foundational relationship in order to provide support to the child and their family, and works as partners with parents, teachers and other supports in the child’s life to create a tailored, consistent and unique plan which focuses on the whole child.

In her spare time, Alessia enjoys travelling and exploring new places, yoga, and photography. She is very excited to be a part of the Magellan team.

Primary English Teacher

Wendy Cody

Wendy was born in New York, NY and grew up in Connecticut. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She began her teaching career as an English teacher in Granada, Spain, went on to teach 4th-6th grade in a Montessori school, followed by several years of elementary and ESL teaching experience in CT and Maine public schools. She holds professional teaching certification in both Elementary Education and English as a Second Language. Wendy’s teaching is based on being a model of a curious, lifelong learner with a love of literacy. She thoroughly enjoys nurturing childrens’ literacy development.

Primary Innovation & Design Teacher

Sophia Pellegrini

Sophia has more than 20 years of experience in education in both public and private schools. She graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Elementary Education and holds certifications in Special Education and ESL. Her passion is to help students become creative problem solvers and independent thinkers.

Nurse, Anderson Lane

Deepa Vinodh

Deepa was raised in Toronto, Canada where she successfully completed her Bachelors
of Science in Nursing degree. She has been a nurse for the last 18 years, 16 of which
were spent in the Emergency department at the University Health Network (UHN), one
of Canada’s top research and teaching hospitals. During her time at UHN, Deepa also
served as the Nurse Educator for the emergency department and has completed a
couple of research fellowship projects to improve patient safety. She pursued her
passion for teaching by becoming a clinical course director for undergrads and
international nursing students at York University.

Deepa enjoys practicing hot yoga, hiking, cooking, baking and travelling. She currently
has a first grader at Magellan and is looking forward to expanding her role
professionally at Magellan International School.

Primary Instructional Coach & Assistant PYP Coordinator

Paola Samaniego

Paola Samaniego is from Quito-Ecuador, and this is her fifteenth year teaching. She has has experience working with children between the ages of two months and eight years old. This is her tenth year teaching Spanish. Paola received a BS in Early Childhood Education and Developmental Psychology from Keene State College in New Hampshire. Paola later earned her Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Jaen’s University in Spain. Paola loves the PYP program and implementing it in the classroom. In the last year she has been learning more about sensory integration and self regulation. She is a firm believer in differentiation in the classroom, every child learns differently and as a teacher she wants to be able to provide many opportunities in order to acquire the skills needed to become lifelong learners!

She believes the inquiry based program works for children of all ages, but especially with young children who have that natural curiosity and desire to learn how the world around them works. She welcomes all your input and support throughout the school year!

Lead Teacher

Mansi Shah

Mansi Shah rejoins the Magellan faculty after a two-year absence. Most recently, Mansi was a 3rd grade Dual Language Teacher in Round Rock. She has a BA in Spanish Language Teaching and an MA in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Texas at Austin. Mansi has extensive IB training and was previously a lead teacher at Magellan for seven years.

Lead Teacher

María Claro García

Maria Claro graduated from Castilla La Mancha University in Spain with a degree in Education in 2008 and two specialties, Childhood and Physical Education in 2010.

Her working life always has been linked to education and sport. Since she was 16 years old she worked as a swimming instructor, aerobics instructor, soccer coach, lifeguard, triathlon technical officer, and synchronized swimming judge.

Like any good teacher, she enjoys helping others. For this reason, she worked in an Association of Families with Children with Cancer (AFANION) and also, she worked as a volunteer teacher in a CARITAS program.

She loves to be in continuous learning, she always tries to improve herself. In 2015 she applied for a position as a visiting teacher in the EEUU and she was selected by the Spanish Ministry of Education. This would also be an opportunity to learn English for her 5-year-old son.

When she finished the 3-years cultural exchange at Manor ISD, she and her family decided to reside in the U.S.

With her second motherhood, she paused her working life to grow professionally. She earned a Master’s Degree in Management, Innovation and Leadership in Educational Centers in February, 2020, and at the same time, she got her I.B. Certificate in Leadership Practice and the I.B. Advanced Certificate in Leadership Research.

That is why she is very happy and motivated to put into practice at The Magellan International School everything she learned.

Research Teacher & Associate Librarian

Sandra Noack

Sandra Noack was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She comes from a multicultural family, half Colombian and half German. She was also influenced by British and American cultures as she studied at a bilingual school. At age 12, she realized she was meant to be a teacher when she started teaching her little sister how to read and write. Later on, she continued this practice when she decided to home-school her own kids. She is proud of her three children, who decided to become teachers, thus prolonging the legacy of educators in her family.

Upon graduation, Sandra completed her education as a preschool teacher at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional from Bogotá. Her experience as a PYP teacher for more than 11 years has reinforced her beliefs and values regarding education. Her main purpose is to engage her students and help them become internationally minded, caring, inquisitive, and knowledgeable. She believes education is a never-ending process and teaching gives her the opportunity to learn new things everyday.

She enjoys connecting with her students and learning from them in many ways. Sandra also enjoys art, which has always been part of her life. As a self-taught painter, she believes that persistence and discipline can be more powerful than talent. She enjoys exploring different media and shares her creativity with her students. Sandra is proud to belong to a group of lifelong learners at MIS and will strive to build strong bonds within the community she cares deeply about.

Learning Specialist - K-3

Allison McCallum

Allison is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. Most recently she served in administration at Langston Hughes Academy Charter School in New Orleans as the Response to Intervention Coordinator. She has taught K-5 English at the International School of Denver, the Harriet Tubman Montessori Charter School, and the International School of Louisiana. Allison taught English at Magellan from from 2018-2019 and colleagues are delighted at her return.

Allison enjoys working in a multi-cultural environment, building meaningful relationships with students, families, and colleagues. She is passionate about advocating for and supporting students with learning differences and strives to instill this enthusiasm in her students through identifying unique learning styles, interests, and talents.

Allison holds a Bachelor of Science degree in History and English from Mississippi College and a Master of Arts in Teaching Degree from the University of New Orleans. She holds a dual certification in elementary education and special education.

Allison enjoys reading and cooking in her free time.

English Teacher

Joy Marcus

Joy Marcus is from London, Ontario, Canada and holds dual citizenship in Canada and the United States, due to her mother’s roots in Amarillo, Texas. Joy’s lifelong love of languages was kindled when her parents enrolled her in the French Immersion program offered in Canada’s public schools. She later became interested in learning Spanish while studying at Western University and interrupted her formal education to spend a year living in Santiago, Chile. After completing her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, Joy went on to earn a Bachelor of Education degree and then spent two years gaining invaluable experience as a substitute teacher for the public school board in her hometown.

Joy’s travel adventures continued when she moved to São José dos Campos, Brazil in 2009 where she learned Portuguese while working at Esfera Escola Internacional for six years. There she trained as a Primary Years Program teacher and grew in her practice of inquiry-based learning while acting as a lead English teacher in each of the primary grades. Joy was also delighted to play an instrumental role in helping students develop a love for reading as a specialist library teacher for grades 1-5.

In 2015, Joy began teaching at Magellan as the first grade English teacher. She soon became fascinated and intrigued by a specific subset of students who, despite great effort on their part, struggled to acquire basic reading and writing skills within the regular classroom. Motivated by an acute desire to help these students succeed, she embarked on a journey to learn how to teach reading and writing using an explicit, multisensory and systematic approach. She is set to become a fully qualified Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) through the Academic Language Therapy Association in the fall of 2022.

Joy was thrilled to transition into the role of Language Specialist to provide reading intervention classes for students in grades 1-3 who need specific support to become independent readers and writers. She is passionate about children and feels incredibly fortunate to be a part of the Magellan community.

Outside of school, Joy enjoys gathering around food with friends, running Austin streets and trails with her dog, Mr. Darcy, and exploring the Hill Country.