I've been away for a while, huh? Well let's see, I did my second observation and I've been back for a week. Let's fill in the gaps.
First, the substitute that had my class (obviously not Montessori trained) was less than a good fit. Despite the fact that I gave specific instructions to NOT give lessons with the materials, this sub felt differently. My assistant told me that at one point she took the spindles boxes and brown stairs and was trying to give a child a lesson with it. WHAT? What on earth could you conjure up to do with brown stair and the spindle boxes together? Also, the children were off the wall for their substitute/s (their were a couple) and broke a lot of materials.
Needless to say, my room was a complete disaster when I came back. Pieces of materials missing or broken, things in the wrong place. I was pretty disgruntled Monday morning. I decided to have a serious conversation with the children about respecting other adults and their environment. It was an interesting moment. They were excited to see me, but as we sat down I let them know that we needed to have a serious conversation. Surprisingly, they got really quiet and serious themselves. I spoke to them very calmly and quietly about some of the things I had found broken in the classroom and some of the things that were told to me. They listened earnestly.
As we began class, there was a feeling of calm and maybe even relief. Certainly, I was relieved that the children were not going nuts and carrying on their habits from the previous week. Perhaps the children were relieved that I was back too. And then I looked around the room at my little hooligans and had to smile. Despite their poor behavior (and proof that we are not exactly normalized) I still love them. I was just happy to be back.
21 hours ago
3 comments:
I have a question for you. I am involved with a public Montessori school that my son attends. Right now we are struggling with the district to allow the school to do purely Montessori math. There is a new curriculum (I'm told the 4th one in 5 years surprise, surprise) and to add to the conundrum, another public Montessori in the same district seems fine with using the district curriculum.
Do you struggle there to maintain true Montessori? Do you have district support for using Montessori materials vs. their idea of a curriculum?
Any advise for a way to convince them to let us be and prove that Montessori works? I'm beginning to wonder why they ever opened the two public Montessori schools if they don't intend to use the materials.
Marsha - we use only the Montessori curriculum- no add ons. We (teachers) are very adamant about this. We refuse to do "Monte-something". Every year we do have to battle with top down initiatives. Fortunately, we've never had any curriculum issues. I think we have success with because of teacher solidarity. We are all AMI trained (DCPS requirement) so we are all on the same page. I would recommend that the teachers of all the Montessori programs in your district get together and discuss pedagogy. If possible, invite someone from a local training center. I'd love to talk with you more if you have more questions. Feel free to email me at psmontessori@gmail.com
I just had to laugh picturing the little munchkins giving the substitutes a hard time... And, um, spindle boxes with brown stair... Yeah, that makes total sense (not!).
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