Montessori Writer

This time of year is always difficult, whether you are a Montessori educator, or teach in public, private, or parochial schools.  Though the majority of our society seems to celebrate Christmas, there are other holidays within the same season.  Most of our multicultural schools have children from many walks of life, and we strive to include everyone somehow.  In previous years, there was a Festival of Lights, but that was before my time here.  My first couple of years, we used to sing a lot of Christmas songs, and added a few Hanukkah songs.

With our new music teacher, who has now been with us for three years, we finally have a more multicultural feel.  One of the new songs is the African Noel, which uses the African drums to maintain the beat, while the lyrics are a simple, “Sing noel”.

Another great song is the Chinese song “Go A Tin”.  The children use rhythm sticks in between verses.  We also added “Feliz Navidad” this year, as well as doing our Hanukkah songs.  Also, to represent our children from India, one of the mothers taught our children the Diwali song.

Following their half hour sing-a-long (which I did this year instead of a performance because they are so little), we had refreshments in our classroom.  The parents were great, and brought prepackaged cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies, and cookies.  This was a slight change from the past few years, when our children actually prepared all of the food ahead of time.  But as I discussed before, we have had to keep the food preparation activities out this year, as a precaution against the H1N1 virus.

What amused me the most about my children this year is that they came back into the classroom, simply grabbed one cookie, then all went to choose work!  One poor child wanted to do a map, but there wasn’t enough space for him to do it.

So now, my party ended 1 1/2 hours ago.  Most of the children went home, but a few are sticking it out for the rest of the day.  We’re going to cheat and put on some movies.  I can guarantee they may almost all fall asleep!

How do you celebrate the holiday?

We have noticed in my classroom this year that it is more difficult than ever before to get the parents to sign up for anything. I can understand not necessarily wanting to sign up for an email list - but that is only so that the room parents can easily communicate with everyone. What’s bothering me is I can’t get people to sign up for observations and conferences.

I sent out observation sign-ups at least 2-3 weeks prior to them being held, which meant that conferences were sent out over a month in advance. The actual conference tends to be more popular than the observation, as going over that written report sounds more serious than watching the child interact in the classroom. (Actually, you learn more about your child in the classroom by actually observing, so as long as there aren’t any concerns about the child, observation can be more important.)

Sadly, only a few parents actually signed up for the observation. And about a quarter of my parents didn’t sign up for a conference, despite numerous reminders and the fact that the sign-up sheet is constantly posted outside my classroom door.

Eventually, they have all either arranged for a meeting or a phone call conference. It’s just frustrating. Also, the conference days are listed on the the calendar that goes home in August prior to school even starting.

Short of physically walking up to every parent and making them choose then and there (which didn’t even work in a couple of cases) or spending hours on the phone, what other ways can we get their attention?  I’d love to hear…..

With parent-teacher conferences just around the corner, I can’t help but think about all of the different record-keeping methods I have used over the years.

My first school had detailed checklists for each area, specifying skills and certain works within each.  Progress was noted with the Mastery Triangle.  Each “grading period” over the three-year period used a different color, so that you could actually see the child’s progress over the years.  I found it to be a very visual way to keep track of a child’s progress.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep a blank copy to use, and have never been able to recreate it.

I did have a similar version that we used at my second school.  Unfortunately, when I left, we were in the middle of having to realign our curriculum with the new state standards, so the last copy in no way resembled the original.

Other methods I have seen are literal checklists.  Notations for progress include P for progressing and M for mastery.  I think it is an I for introduced, and the date is to be included with each entry.  For a visual person such as myself, I feel that the mastery triangle is a better technique.

Several other people I know have a chart with every child’s name and age on it.  In each square, they write down the activities and lessons given to each child.  If the page is used more than one day, different colors are used each day.

I am personally more of a fan of keeping notes by child instead of by day.  I despise having to flip through numerous pages of notes to find the activities used by one child.  It’s also easier to see which lessons have been presented, and how long it has been.  I used to keep handwritten notes in a notebook or a binder.  I can sit anywhere in my classroom, and jot down what I see, when I see it.

This year I updated a little bit and I now keep track on my laptop.  I make it my goal to sit down at least once a day and go through the list of children, keeping track of activities they have done, things that have ben said, and lessons given.  I find that because I type faster than I can write, I have more copious notes on each child than I have in the past, and I can do it in the same amount of time that I used to spend writing.

I do maintain a separate binder for reading, upon which I record which readers the children have done with me, as well as which ones they have taken home to practice with their parents.

What kinds of record-keeping methods do you use?

Different schools have different methods of acclimating new children to the classroom each year.  I previously mentioned how my school sets up one-on-one meeting times for parents and children who are new to the classroom.  The following day, the phase-in process begins.

We start with just the kindergarteners on that first Wednesday.  Wednesdays are half-days, with options for enrichment in the afternoon, starting the second week of the school year. 

On Thursday, the four year-olds who stay full-day (Extended Day) join the kindergarteners.  Friday is the day for four year-olds who are remaining half day, as well as starting the three year-olds who had been in the toddler program the previous year.

The Monday and Tuesday of the following week usually inclue the three year-olds who are new to the school.  So, each day, there are new children.  After one week, all children have usually started.

There are pros and cons to any method of orientating children to the classroom:

Having returning children be in the classroom first allows them to automatically be role models for the newer children. 

For some three year-olds, it is overwhelming to visit the classroom with no children, only to suddenly have 20 other children with them on their first day.

Parents of multiple children have a great deal of difficulty with children starting on different days, and after school care is not available until your child’s first day.

It can be difficult to adjust as a teacher to starting with children who know what they are doing, then suddenly having new children with different needs each day.

While Montessori lessons should be repeated, it can be difficult to show new works each day to a new group of children coming in each day.  You want to be careful how much you put out at once, yet don’t want them to be bored.

You can better focus on ground rules with small groups at a time.  New children each day force you to go over them and over them and over them, thus allowing for a better chance of the children normalizing.

Other schools have done different methods for orientating children.  I will get into other methods I have tried later. 

What does your school do?

Today is that day that I met my new students, or at least most of them.  One thing our school does is we set aside a special day where new children come in for a one-on-one session in the classroom.  Parents get to come with them for that time.  In my room, I spend time talking to the parents, answering their questions and asking a few of my own.  This year, I had to comfort a lot of moms who were sending their children away to school for the first time.  It was very cute!

Meanwhile, my assistant is bonding with the child.  Honestly, she will be spending more time with that 3 year-old, as she redirects him around the room, reinforces the ground rules, and assists in the inevitable potty runs.

In other classroom, the teachers orchestrate multiple children visiting during one session, so that the child automatically has a familiar face on her first day of school.  To each their own!  Each teacher uses her own system to her advantage and it works well.

The biggest issue encountered today was, of course, the potty-training issue.  To parents who have not yet mastered the art of potty-training, you have 6 weeks to do it, according to our policies! 

How does your school introduce new students?  Do you have a chance to meet with them one-on-one beforehand, or is a blind first day on both sides?

As most schools are doing, we are making adjustments and preparations for the predicted mass outbreak of the swine flu this fall.  Unfortunately, I feel like some of these preparations are going to drastically reduce the effectiveness of our Montessori curriculum.  (And I will welcome any suggestions for activity substitutions, because I haven’t yet come up with any!)

We are, unfortunately, currently located in an old Catholic school building.  Only one of the classrooms is fortunate enough to have running water in a sink.  The rest of us are forced to either send children down the hallway (my girls go around the corner) to the bathroom, or to wash hands the old-fashioned way in a bowl.

To keep my children in the classroom as much as possible, I encourage my children to use the “handwashing station” any time they need to wash their hands.  They put a pitcher of warm water (from the thermal container) into the bowl, scrub their hands with soap, rinse in the water, then empty the dirty water into a bucket of waste water.

Children know to wash their hands every time they want to eat snack or do a food prep activity, any time their hands get dirty while doing a work, or if they become somehow unsanitary from typical kids picking at….well…you know….And my children are pretty well-trained in this aspect.

Snack and food prep are also very big in my classroom.  Along with that comes washing dishes.  So many skills are acquired through these processes, that these activities have become the crux of my Practical Life curriculum. 

The children also use cloth towels (to cut back on paper waste), and they enjoy washing them on the washing board.  (They  are laundered by parent volunteers each week.)

Due to concerns about the H1N1 virus, we are being asked to use solely paper products, and to eliminate the handwashing station from our classroom.  I have to admit that I am not comfortable sending my little ones out of the classroom to wash their hands that frequently.  I don’t like to use that much hand sanitizer (because it doesn’t actually wash your hands, though it kills the germs).  And I have a strong conviction that if we don’t teach the children hygiene skills, how can they prepare themselves for handling sickness?

One activity that we have all decided to implement is washing dishes that are not used for actual eating, so that they can learn the process.  But I haven’t yet figured out how to teach the handwashing, without having to sanitize the bowl every single time it is used.  My assistant can’t quite stand over the bowl to wipe it out every time it is used (like 40+ times per day), and I’m not about to let the children use Lysol wipes.  (Not to mention those are not OSHA-approved).  I still have a few days to figure it all out….

How are you having to change your methods in anticipation of the H1N1 outbreak scare?

On Monday of this week, we returned to school to set up for the return of students next week.  I had stopped in for an hour the previous Friday, because I always require a “Zen” moment of alone time in the room to lay down the rough draft for the year.  And then, we were done on Monday.

I can never set up the classroom the same way twice.  First, I can never remember exactly how it was, anyway! Second, the kids are different every year, requiring different needs.  After all, Montessori is about preparing the environment, right?

With this year being mostly 3 year-olds, I moved more of the shelves back against the walls, creating no real pockets of hiding space, other than under the loft.  I took extra steps to hide the hiding places under the loft, where those little 3 year-olds bodies could fit to hide.  I increased floor space and reduced table space.  I took out one large language shelf and turned it into an extra Practical Life shelf. 

I am starting the year with much fewer Montessori materials out than usual.  The materials for younger children have all been moved to the front of the room; materials for the older children have moved more toward the back of the room.  I close most of the Practical Life in the afternoon and focus on bigger projects for the extended day in the back part of the room.  Lots of simple manipulatives are out to keep the young ones occupied until they are all phased-in and there is more time to give them lessons elsewhere in the room.

How do you set up your classroom each year?  Do you keep it the same, or do you mix it up a bit from year to year?  How many materials do you put out?

It’s inevitable that in the summer you can’t help but think about what you’re going to do when you go back in the fall.  You toss ideas around in your head, but keep telling yourself that you’re not going to think about it until it’s time to get ready to go back.  At least that’s what I do.

But then the packet comes.

You know which one I’m talking about:  the packet with your class list, and information from the administration?  And you’re thrust into that mental preparation…..

What do I do?  I usually end up reading bits and pieces of Montessori books, looking for nuggets of inspiration.  I’m particularly fond of Montessori From the Start:  The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Threeby Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen.  It’s a great way to remind yourself of Practical Life, and of how much those little three year-olds are capable.  (Especially when faced with a year like I am going to have, with over HALF of my class being 3!  YIKES!)

I also like to revert back to Maria herself.  I can get re-inspired by her stories.  I remember why I got into Montessori teaching in the first place.  Of course, you can sometimes feel a little depressed that your classroom isn’t like that.  But, you have to take it all with a grain of salt.  Even Maria, herself, had a bad day every once in a while!  She was human!  Dealing with many humans!  But when trying to sell a program, you don’t mention all of the faults and problems.

Another way to become reengaged is to work on writing Montessori articles.  A while ago, I asked people to send me a few Montessori questions.  I’ve been trying to process answers for them, to ease myself back into the Montessori groove.  More to come soon.

So, what do you do to prepare for the new school year?  How do you reengage with the Montessori philosophy?  Please share with us, so that we can all inspire each other!

Food preparation is a fundamental part of the Montessori practical life curriculum.  But in this day an age of increasing food allergies, how can we safely prepare the environment?

In my classroom, almost half of the practical life shelves are devoted to food preparation, with special cooking projects done on a regular basis.  Thus far, we have been fortunate enough to not have terribly dreadful food allergies.  A sibling of one of my students had such a serious allergy to peanut butter, that we had to prevent it from being in the classroom.  Apparently he once had peanut butter (not at school) and simply breathed on his sister, sending her into anaphylactic shock.  So, he couldn’t even risk having it in the classroom, in case it got on his clothing.

We sent out notes and mentioned it in the newsletters, to remind the parents in my classroom to not send in any peanut butter.  If someone did, then the food item was sent home.  If it was at lunch, that child simply moved to a different table.

I’ve had students in the past in my class who were actually the ones suffering from the food allergies.  One child had such a severe peanut allergy that the entire wing of the school had to become a peanut-free zone, in case of cross-contamination.  Another child was allergic to almost anything:  wheat, soy, citrus, eggs, milk, etc.  He was simply supposed to avoid those foods.  We could tell if he snuck a cracker at snack time, because he would immediately break out into a rash and couldn’t sleep at nap time.  (His parents felt sorry for him and would let him try “normal” food every once in a while, because they thought he was missing out.)

So, how do you handle food allergies in your classroom?  We are informed prior to the child starting (most of the time) of any and all allergies, and plan accordingly.  Some schools have given up the food preparation aspect of the practical life curriculum, which is sad because of all the skills it teaches.

Perhaps as a possible solution, I can offer up the following book, upon which I stumbled when researching online.  Lisa Lundy, who suffers from food allergies herself, and has three children with serious food allergies, spent years researching food allergies and came up with a cookbook.  All of her recipes are wheat-free, gluten-free, milk-free, casein-free, lactose-free, egg-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free, and coconut-free.  They could provide for a unique variety of food preparation and food tasting activities int he classroom.

Her website is www.thesuperallergycookbook.com.  The book is called The Super Allergy Girl Cookbook, ISBN 9780979754203.  I’m interested to hear what you think.

In one of my latest adventures, I am reviewing books for a site called Bookpleasures.com.  One of the first titles that was sent my direction was Learning Disabilities:  Understanding the Problem and Managing the Challenges by Etta K. Brown.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a reference to Maria Montessori in the chapter about Sensori-motor integration, specifically the fine motor aspect:

One hundred years ago, Maria Montessori advocated the fundamental need to teach handwriting before reading.  She gained worldwide fame for teaching Rome’s “mentally retarded” street urchins how to read by the time they were five or six years old.  Extensive brain research now validates her position.  The phenomenon lies in the fact that the brain receives extensive physiological stimulation during the handwriting process, which helps ready the left brain for reading. As an interactive sensory process, training in handwriting ensures further brain growth, which increases its capacity for language development and language-based learning. [p. 161-162]

She provides the website  Retrain the Brain as her source for this information. 

I checked out this website.  It is interesting, as it is yet another place that condemns the use of Ritalin in the ADHD child, and encourages the use of multi-sensory techniques to teach handwriting.  I also like how it uses music while the children are writing.  New ideas for this upcoming school year…….writing to Mozart…….hmmmmm.

 Anyway, we’ve always got to love when we find further justification for what we do, outside of our own Montessori world, right?

If you’re interested in learning more about Etta K. Brown, her book, or her services, you can visit her website.