Montessori Consulting

Another teacher and I were watching the children play outside this afternoon. Many of the children were engaged in games of imagination. Some were swinging and some were running and yelling. Exuberance? Aggression? For many who were joining in it was definitely just a fun thing to do. For some it was hard to tell. But there was some definite aggression. It was not directed at anyone in particular, Just some angry yelling.

We keep a close eye on this behavior and I will address it in another post. Our conversation naturally turned to aggression and violence in the media, a topic that affects us personally as teachers. We see first hand the effects of media violence. It astounds us that many of our students play violent video games.

The other teacher shared with me that some parents are pleased that their children can concentrate and pay attention to video games for extended periods of time. She made a point that summed it up perfectly.

Children do not pay attention to video games. Their attention is pulled from them. It is grabbed by the structure of the game. Children are not giving their attention to video games at all. It is being taken from them. And because children become accustomed to this mode, it is even harder for them to “pay” attention when it is appropriate.

Pay attention, please, parents. The future of childhood is at stake.

I was away from school on Friday so I could attend a conference given by the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association. Since this conference was in Atlanta, I felt like I just couldn’t miss it.

And I’m so glad that I didn’t. It was good to connect with other Montessorians from around the country. But it was even better to hear so many ideas from folks outside the Montessori Community.

My favorite speaker was Richard Louv, author of The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. My daughter gave me the book for the holidays and it is a pleasure to read. In fact, my granddaughter wanted me to read it aloud to her and we covered about 3 pages of this lyrical text. Mr. Louv is equally lyrical in person.

I also had the opportunity to attend two sessions by Robin Moore, a landscape architect. He gave practical tips on incorporating more nature into a typical schoolyard. It was exciting to imagine the possibilities.

I came home after three intense days of presentations exhausted, but inspired. I was glad to have gone, but I will also be glad to be back in the classroom.

Since I was preparing for the Parent Meeting tonight, I really had a chance to put some thought into this topic. We adults look for creativity in children, but we sometimes mistake imitation for creativity.

True creativity involves reordering, rethinking, making new connections, or in some way changing some aspect of experience or reality so that it results in something new. What we often forget is that creativity takes preparation and work. The creative process requires experience with reality so there is a base upon which to work. The early childhood experience in a Montessori environment is the perfect setting for creative preparation. Children learn to order, compare, observe and reflect with the Montessori sensorial materials. They are exposed to a very wide variety of ideas and concepts. They are sponges of information.

Montessori stressed the importance of giving children access to real information about the world. In fact, the real world is so wondrous that there is no need to confuse children by exposing them to fantasies created by adults. That should wait until children are in the second plane of development when they have a firm grasp of the difference between fantasy and reality.

This would be a good topic for a longer essay. I’ll have to put some time into that one day!

We had some folks observing today and the first comment/question was, “I didn’t see any discipline. What do you do for discipline?”

Of course, there was discipline happening, but I’m glad that it was not obvious. We want discipline to be private and personal, not a major event in the classroom. But the real key to why the classroom seems so calm and self-disciplined is that the children have the freedom to choose from so many interesting activities. We adults are not telling them what they have to do and when they have to do it, so we don’t see a contest of wills. The children have the freedom to choose.

With that freedom there is a correlating responsibility to respect the same freedom in others. We have a respectful classroom. Often when there is a problem it is enough to remind children to respect others. They get it. They also thrive on that respect.

Sometimes at lunch a student will ask if it is okay to eat a certain item that is designated as “dessert.” I always tell them that they can make that choice for themselves. They rarely disappoint me. I’ll hear, “I think I’ll eat more of my sandwich first.” Or “I’ll save my pudding until after my carrots.” When we give the message that we trust them to make choices, they get the kind of practice they need in making choices.

It would be foolish to turn children out at age eighteen, expecting them to make appropriate choices if they haven’t learned the skill all along through practice. There is not a magic age at which children suddenly turn into choice-makers. It is a process that is part of the whole discipline picture.

What do we do for discipline? It’s a big picture.

It is only 8:45 AM and already the classroom has a busy hum. A student informs me that there were not any papers in the number two cutting drawer, so on my way to the supply of papers I take a look around the room.

There are two kindergarteners adding with the golden beads. This involves place value through the thousands. One of those students has already read silently the “secret” words. Another kindergartener is learning the names of the countries of South America. There are two students walking on the line. One is working with a wooden tool box. Another is cracking corn to feed to the birds. This is with a nutcracker that has been modified to split one kernel of corn at a time. A very young student is sorting pictures of hot and cold objects. There are two fellows sitting in quiet conversation. One is painting. One is transferring objects with tongs. So busy, so early. It bodes well for the rest of the day.

In the early childhood class we have a really powerful computer software system for record keeping. It makes it very easy for us to track what lessons the students should be learning and keep them moving ahead appropriately.

I also try to send home notes about what the children are doing frequently enough that every family gets a note at least once a week. Sometimes I sort the lessons on the computer to show me what all of the adults have presented that day so I can quickly write those notes to parents. I started wondering whether I could set the computer to print out the lessons for each child within a time parameter. I know that we print out a list for an individual child of all the lessons learned since the previous conference, but this would need to be a daily, or weekly list that had all the children and all their lessons. I also wanted to have it with enough space so I could cut the printout into strips and add any written comments I wanted.

I was so excited when Carl set that up in just a few minutes. Now I can print out that list, add personal comments, and get that communication to parents even better. I hope parents will be as excited about this as I am. Imagine, a weekly or even daily update of what the children in the class are learning! I can hardly wait.

There has been lots of interest in the inset lesson lately. We have been introducing the first presentation to some of the children and others are learning some of the more intricate design possibilities.

Insets are part of a group of many other lessons that help children learn to write better. With the insets, there is pencil use without trying to write letters. Children also learn how to form the letters with their fingers when they use the “sandpaper” letters. They also use the geometric cabinet, rough and smooth boards and many other materials to gain the fine motor control that culminates in the ability to put pencil to paper and write successfully.

We have five trays for the insets, so five children can be doing them at one time. Today I think all the trays were actually in use. I think the explosion in interest happened because one particular fellow was so excited about learning the first presentation today. He looked at me and said, “ I practice this at home.” And he definitely wanted to practice at school today. It seemed that every time I turned around, he was doing another inset in a different place in the classroom. His excitement reminded others about the insets, and before long, we had and “epidemic” of insets. I’m glad they were so catching!

We have been teaching many of the children lessons with the bells lately. The bells are a matched set of tones from middle C to high C including the sharps and flats. One set is colored the same as the keys on the piano are colored while the second set is all natural wood-colored. The series of presentations begins with simply learning how to strike the bells properly. The set is very, very expensive, which is one reason to approach them with care. But it is important to teach the correct method of striking them in order to get the right sound from them, too.

After children can strike the bells correctly, we begin teaching the children how to match two pairs, the E and G notes. Those tend to be easy notes for children to recognize. Once a student is able to match those notes, we add the rest of the notes to the C-Major scale. Then we teach the names of the notes and the progression goes on to other more difficult levels, including notation and learning the sharps and flats.

Several children are at the stage where we are teaching the names of the notes. Even when we are using the bells for striking or matching, the children hum the notes along with the sound they hear form each bell. It is really pleasant to hear the bells and the children using them, humming. This is one of those lessons that really allows us to be aware of how one child’s interest in a lesson can spread through the classroom. We are hearing the bells in use much of the time.

Along with the bell material there is a lesson that teaches the parts of the bell. I originally made this paper lesson many, many years ago. It was definitely showing its age, and one of the parts was either missing, or I had not included it when I originally made the material. I got the lesson out this week to give it to a child and decided it was time to redo it.

Children aren’t really aware of all the work that goes into the materials in the classroom, so I decided to make the new version in front of the children. After I had made copies of the picture in the correct size and cut them out in 4 ¼” squares, I colored all twelve of the pictures in the classroom so the children could see that process. Then I mounted the two sets on the purple cover stock that I had cut (most of the music lessons in the elementary are mounted on purple). Finally I typed up new labels and mounted them on purple card stock, too. The lesson then had to wait for a day until I had a chance to laminate all the cards. In the meantime, I made a little holder for the cards with cardstock and contact paper.

At last, the lesson was on the shelf and ready to use. I invited a child to do it with me. She recognized that we were using the new lesson that I had made. “Am I the first one to use this? she asked. My affirmative answer made her glow with pleasure. I’m sure she and the other children will have a new appreciation for the preparation that goes into their lessons. I’m glad to have had the chance to let them see some of the process.

We had been back in school for about a week now and I looked up to see what was happening in the classroom. It was especially quiet, so I knew that the children must be busy at different tasks.

This is what I saw. One of our youngest students was sorting out pictures of living and nonliving items. A kindergartener was using the fraction tray for 6ths to 10ths for learning to recognize the amounts. Another child was making three different kinds of clay pots – a pinch pot, coil pot and slab pot. A student was experimenting with the magnets to see how the poles either attract or repel each other. Another one was shaping clay into a ball or boat to see what would sink or float. One kindergartener was practicing writing in cursive on a special chalkboard. Another child was dusting the classroom. There was a student building amounts with the special Mortensen materials. He was doing units, tens and hundreds and choosing the numerals to match. A younger fellow was using different materials to gain mastery of his concept of 1 – 10. One boy had all four cylinder blocks out and was finding the correct socket for forty different-sized cylinders. Someone else was tracing the figures of the geometric cabinet with two fingers as preparation for writing and geometry. A young student was looking at a book that described one of the sensorial lessons. Another was doing a collage lesson. There were only two children watching the work of others. Even watching is an important way to learn.

It was busy, busy, busy.