Montessori Writer

When going through Montessori training, we are taught to take care of ourselves.  We need to find inspiration in our lives and reflect on ourselves, in order to be the best for the kids.  Sometimes it is hard to find something on which to meditate.

I recently came across a great book through one of my book reviewing sites.  It’s called Everyday Greatness by Stephen R. Covey.  In it are seven sections, each section containing three chapters.  Prior to and following each story in each chapter are inspirational quotes and commentary by Covey.  At the end of each chapter are reflections and questions to be answered.

The book is great for Montessori teachers who want to meditate on their own lives.  It could also be a great launchpad for group discussions at staff meeting or with your peers.  With older elementary students, some of the stories and passages could be shared and discussed in the classroom.

What other inspirational books do you read or use?  Please share them below!

Over my years in Montessori, I have frequently heard parents say that they just can’t handle sending their children to school every day.  They don’t think their children can handle it.  I, personally, think that it’s usually the parents who can’t handle it.

We try to convince them by trying to sell the philosophy.  They claim they like the philosophy but just can’t get away from the multiple days a week.

Then, if they try to choose a few days a week, they want to do something like MWF or TR.  And a lot of schools used to give in to that.  Perhaps some still do.

If you’re going to offer a 2 or 3 day program, it should be consecutive days for a little consistency.  And then it should be the same children.  I don’t think I 2/3 day class belongs mixed in with a group that comes 5 days.  It’s a lot of change for the little kids, but I have seen it done time and time again.

When doing some reading this week, I found a great quote in Making Friends by Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer:

Seeing a particular child in the same place at a similar time can become part of the rhythm, pattern, and comfort of life, providing the familiarity that helps them to feel safe in the world.  This is why some childcare professionals  suggest young children fare better with simple, consistent care rather than a part-time mix that may be confusing and involve too many children, adults, and changes to enable familiarity and a sense of security to take root. (p. 69)

I want to send this out to every single parent I know who doesn’t understand the importance of consistency.  This even spreads beyond the realm of making friends, but somehow the social aspect seems to speak more highly to those parents with whom I have dealt over the years.

What other ways have you found effective to convince parents of the importance of consistency?

Quoted material: 

Hartley-Brewer, Elizabeth.  Making Friends:  A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Child’s Friendships.  Philadelphia:  Perseus Books, 2009.

One of my good friends, with whom I got my training, posed another good question the other day.  Should Montessori administrators be required to have their Montessori training?

I have worked for many possibilities before.  I had the Montessori teachers who later became administrators.  I had the administrator who started training, but never finished it because she was too busy getting her school started.  I’ve had the administrator who was simply running the school, even though she knew very little about Montessori and the method.

What is the answer?

I personally believe that the administrator who is in charge of the teachers and the students must have a Montessori background.  Otherwise, she has little to no concept of what is going on in the classrooms and doesn’t understand the needs.

Someone with a great business sense would be essential in the business aspect.  You need to have someone who can work with a budget and knows how to run a company.

I think ideally, you would have a person who can encompass both of these ideals, or a team comprised of both who also work well together, to balance each other out.  I have worked in a couple of programs where there was the “Montessori administrator” and the “business administrator”, and there seemed to be a balance.  I’ve worked where there is one person trying to do both parts of the job, unwilling to delegate, and things seem to fall apart.

There is also an Administrator’s training.  So, the next part of the question would be, even if the administrator has classroom training, does she also need administrator training?  If she receives administrator training, does she need classroom training?

Again, I am interested in hearing your thoughts and experiences in this area.

A week ago I posted about the debate of using plastic, wood, and glass in the Montessori classroom.  Thank you so much to those of you who answered!  I got my desired reaction, which was the sharing of ideas and some conversation!

Most of you were polite and productive with your comments.  I had one person on Twitter say that someone who suggests using plastic in the Montessori classroom obviously does not embrace the Montessori philosophy.  At first, I assumed that she was commenting in general, but then I realized that she was directing the comment to me.

I’d like to clarify a bit here. 

I do tend to prefer the use of glass and ceramic in the Montessori classroom, as it is what Maria wanted.  Natural consequences are that careless use of the materials leads to them breaking, and the child will then try to be more careful.

I ask the budget question, because eventually money can run out, and honestly, I don’t have a lot of extra money to keep replacing materials myself. 

The stories that I shared reflected the practices of other Montessori teachers and schools out there.  These practices are not strictly done at the three schools that I talked about.  They are used all over the place, with similar justifications.  I was using those stories as examples.  And one of those schools is AMS accredited and works closely with Sister Anthonita Portia, so you know it is actually a pretty good school!  At another one, I specifically worked closely with Sr. Anthonita as the school grew and progressed.  And the other one has started the accreditation process a couple of times, but it is a long and arduous process.

I have another question for people regarding the use of unbreakables in the classroom.  What do you do when you have a group of children who have issues that prevent them from maintaining body control?  For example, the boys with Sensory Processing Disorder who cannot regulate their bodies and are still crashing into things as they make their way through the evaluation process and determining the appropriate sensory diet?

What do you choose to do when you have a class of mostly three year-olds who have never been entrusted with glass before in their lives?  Their mothers still have them drinking out of sippy cups so as not to stain their carpeting and cause unnecessary cleaning?

In an ideal world, parents would be easily convinced to start using glass at home, but realistically it is difficult to convince them.

And the jury is still out on helping children with SPD in the Montessori classroom.  I have had both good and bad experiences with it.  I have also been in contact with the professionals, and they have also heard mixed reviews, but mostly that Montessori is not an appropriate environment.

I guess this post has kind of taken two directions all mixed into one.  I wonder what Maria would do? (WWMD? haha)

I think she would like to have smaller groups of children and would work really hard with them in the beginning of the year to reinforce careful movements and handling of fragile materials.  Perhaps starting with something like wood would be better, as it is still naturally beautiful, and yes wood can break when it is dropped!  I’m just curious what you all think?

When I started out as a Montessori educator, we were told that in the Practical Life area, everything needed to be beautiful.  The school I worked at had an incredible closet, filled with all kinds of trays, bowls, and utensils in every color of the rainbow.  But they were all plastic.

There was an unspoken fear that the children would break glass and subsequently get hurt.  We waited until the end of the year to put out anything glass or ceramic, because in theory they were normalized then.

The shelves were set up quite nicely and the children were attracted to the works because of the bright colors.  Does that mean we were wrong to use the plastic?  They were still learning the process, after all……

 The next school I worked at also primarily used plastic.  Of course, we were much smaller, and I had a tiny budget with which to work.  There may have been a few glass or ceramic items, but not many.  Again, the children seemed to be attracted to the activities and were learning from them.

My next school, though there was plastic in many of the classrooms, started making a push toward more glass, ceramic, and wood.  The goal was to get back to a more natural environment.  Part of the learning process involves using care when handling breakables.  A natural consequence of inappropriate handling is they break.

But again, budgets can come into play.  If you’re going to have a lot of breakables in the classroom, you must always have a back-up vessel to replace it.  Plastic is less likely to break, and therefore more budget-friendly.

Plastic also doesn’t necessarily teach the children to be careful.  When it drops, it bounces.  Everything is okay.

So, what is the answer?  What do you use in your classroom?  What experiences have you had?

Many times when parents come to visit a Montessori classroom, they are shocked to see the teacher sitting off to one side of the classroom, rarely directly engaged with the children. They fear that their child will not receive the promised one-on-one attention. What they don’t realize, is that the teacher, or directress, is indirectly planning for their child’s one-on-one instruction.

When people find out that I have an age range in my classroom, they shake their heads and tell me how hard it must be to handle them.  I actually find it to be much easier to have an age range.

Three year-olds on their own (outside of one or two at a time) honestly make me cringe.  I once had a class of 12 three year-olds at a daycare, and I almost cried every day.  I didn’t make it more than a month and begged to return to the office.

Having older children in the classroom is like having a dozen extra sets of hands.  At the beginning of the year, when the younger children are learning how to find the bathroom down the hallway, you can count on the older children to escort them.  When you’re in the middle of a lesson, you can count on the other children to answer questions.  And as I said before, sometimes those big kids can teach things to the younger children that even us directresses cannot convey.

Children like to show off their knowledge, so older children often want to help the younger children.  Younger children look up to the older children as sort of mini-heroes, so they look to them for guidance.   Then, as soon as they are the older children, they gleefully take on the role.

Multiple ages in the classroom also allow for role models.  Children are natural observers, and they like to watch each other work.  Much of their learning comes through observation.  They can be encouraged to work toward mastery on an activity with the older friend’s activity as incentive.  “If you want to learn how to read like Jane, then you need to practice these activities.”

Another advantage of the mixed ages in the classroom is children are taught at their level.  That way, the three year-old who happens to be reading isn’t left waiting for her peers.  The five year-old still working on her sounds isn’t left behind.

Do younger children learn bad things from the older children?

Absolutely!  My favorite was the year that I had a child with preteen and teen siblings who had taught him the F-word, which he gleefully taught to the younger children.  But this is going to happen at any age.  And it really doesn’t happen that often.

I have heard parents repeatedly worry about the bad habits that will be learned by the other, older children.  I would worry more about what they are being exposed to on TV.  Any time children are put together, differing ages or same ages, there will be exposure to bad habits.  To me, it’s just not a solid enough reason to avoid the program.

Classroom management calls for creativity and the ability to think in the moment.  If you set up your ground rules well in the beginning of the year, and reinforce them regularly, you will find yourself having few problems, no matter the age of the children.  Learn where your class’s strengths lie and use them to your advantage.