Montessori Consulting

One of the long-terms goals of Montessori education is to help children develop character traits that will lead to peaceful coexistence with other citizens of the world. This morning I saw a small step in that process unfold.

As I was passing through the EC room I noticed that a little girl looked very sad. I asked her about it and she explained that another student had hurt her feelings. It went something like this:

Aleta: Did you let him know that your feelings were hurt?
Girl: No, he was doing a lesson.
Aleta: If he is talking while he is doing a lesson, you won’t disturb him by telling him how you feel. Would you like me to go with you?
Girl: Yes. (We go to the boy.)
Aleta: B___, K___ has something to tell you.
Girl: I’m sad.
Aleta: Could you tell B___ why you are sad?
Girl: I’m sad because you hurt my feelings. (no response)
Aleta: Could you tell B___ how he hurt your feelings?
Girl: You hurt my feelings when you said that you were not my friend. (no response)
Aleta: Is there something that would help you feel better?
Girl: I need a hug.
Aleta: Would you prefer a hug from me or B____?
Girl: From B____.
Aleta: B___, K____ would feel better if she got a hug from you. Are you willing to hug her?
Boy: Yes. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.

They hug and smile and go happily back to what they were doing.

Such a little thing. Such a sweet thing. How easily we can encourage kindness and empathy instead of competition and enmity.

I was away from school again today. I was visiting in Lexington where I have an intern. After spending the morning in her classroom I gave an in-service presentation to the whole staff of the school. It seems like the out topic for all Montessori teachers is “Classroom Management.”

We had a lively discussion about how to help children become more self-disciplined. that really is one of the main ideas that sets Montessori apart from traditional classrooms. We want our children to grow into self-actualized individuals. It isn’t that we want them to just question authority. but it is that we want them to be able to think about what is the right thing to do, no matter what the situation.

Regardless of academic progress (which is going to happen easily once a child is self-disciplined) if a child has the strength of character to stand up for personal values, I will consider that we have been successful.

Part of Montessori training is learning the art of observation. Montessori credited much of the success of her method to scientific observation. As often happens, it gets so busy in the classroom that teachers find it hard to step back to observe.

We were fortunate this week to have a visitor who could spend time simply observing. Our daughter needed to log in observation hours as part of her training. What was really nice was that she shared her observations of the classroom with us. We had a day and a half of detailed, objective notes about the classroom.

These observations are invaluable. Since they were done by an “outsider” we are able to see our practices with fresh eyes. I wish we were able to benefit from this kind of observation more often.

We have had some bugs. Not the six-legged kind. We’re talking the fever kind. The sniffly kind and the not-so-happy tummy kind.

People from outside of Montessori just don’t get that children really want to be at school. But they do.

I looked up from where I was working at the big table in the elementary room today and saw a little girl walking across the room toward the bathroom obviously trying not to throw up. I went to lend assistance. We got to the bathroom and all was well (for the time being). When I said that I though I better call her mom, she replied, “But I only had the dry heaves.” She was very white! “I don’t need to go home,” she said. But you aren’t feeling well.” “That’s okay. It’s only dry heaves.”

Well, we have had more than dry heaves the past couple days, so I called mom and sent her home. She did not want to go.

It reminds me of another student a few years ago who insisted to his mom between trips to the toilet to empty his stomach that it really would be okay to go to school.

Bugs don’t seem to be a good reason for being absent. Interesting.

This is one of my favorite days of the year. We don’t play up holidays very much at school in order to maintain an environment that is orderly and secure for the children. But Valentine’s Day allows them to share such sweetness.

Giving Valentines is completely optional. We find that the children who don’t give others Valentines are not in any way discomfited since it goes fairly un-noticed. For older children, though it does allow us to give some grace and courtesy lessons on reciprocity.

I am so often amazed at the care and time that children expend on their Valentines. Numerous children brought individually created Valentines for each and every member of their class. Others had chosen their Valentine “theme” with thought. One child gave a Valentine to every single child in the school. She did not know that there was a new student in the early childhood class so I told her that if she ran out of Valentine’s she could use some she had brought for teachers. I noticed that I did not get a Valentine from her. I’m glad she chose to use the one to me to fill in.

During the actual opening of Valentines we see the height of the sweetness, though. Children spontaneously stop and go to the giver to express thanks. Watching a classroom full of gratitude in action is extremely touching. I love Valentine’s Day. Such sweetness.

I would like to share with you an explosion that we have seen this year. Don’t worry. It is one of those Montessori explosions that has nothing to do with pyrotechnics! Montessori often wrote about how children would experience explosions into reading or explosions into writing (or other areas of learning).

Every child comes to us with a secret schedule for development that will only reveal itself over time. It is truly impossible to teach some things until the child is at that stage of development when they are sensitive to being able to learn them. Montessori called these sensitive periods and she was able to observe that many sensitive periods for learning particular things fell within certain average time frames. But every single child is different and normal does not have to be average!

We have a child who has not been very expressive. This year we have seen a tremendous explosion in verbal and artistic expression, though. What a wonderful explosion it has been. Today I heard some beautiful words: “Miss Aleta, Miss Aleta. It’s not working. It’s not working.” Full sentences, clearly articulated.

But I think I better explain a bit….

Although I prefer to have the children call me simply by my first name, this is the South and not all parents are comfortable with that. Miss Aleta is fine. Many of the children do just call me Aleta, though. I’m no more important in the classroom than they are, which is the reason I am comfortable with that.

After lunch the younger children who are going to lie down for naps use the bathroom in preparation for their rest. This student was exiting the bathroom with this dire warning. She dragged me in to witness that the toilet was filling with water, but not flushing. I assured her that I could fix it and she was pleased and confident.

She has also been using art in an extremely expressive way recently. And telling us all about it. Look, there are people in the train. The sun is shining in the sky.

We thrill to these explosions. And there are even more to come.

I had a call today from a young woman doing a research paper on the Montessori approach. I feel that it is important to accommodate requests to be interviewed since any effort to help educate others about Montessori is worthwhile.

So, I looked at the calendar to see when a good time would be to schedule this little meeting. What a surprise I had! There was hardly a spare moment between now and Spring Break. We are going to be very, very busy with visitors and conferences.

Of course, this is the time of year that folks want to come observe the school to help guide decisions about enrolling their children for next year. Plus, second semester conferences are in full swing for the early childhood class. I was actually thrilled to note that nearly all the early childhood families have scheduled conferences. Conferences are very labor intensive for us, but they are also such a wonderful time to exchange information.

I found a little time slot for the interview and filled in the spot where a conference would have been held. What a busy time!

While I was substituting in the early childhood class while Carl went to the dentist, we started decorating bags for the Valentines that children will exchange next week. We are so used to how we do things in Montessori that we forget that parents may have misconceptions about the process. A new project like this does not mean that all the children sit down at one time to work in a group. Instead, we set up a work station and children come complete their bags one at a time.

It is really encouraging to see how patient children can be when there is something “special” like that in the classroom. Even though they know that only one person may work on it at a time, they also understand that everyone will get a chance to complete a bag. And it may not even be that day.

I was amused to find a collection of little hearts glued to the art board instead of the bag after one particularly young child was finished. The glue was still moist, so I transferred them to the bag myself.

We did work as a group during the afternoon when it was only the kindergarten students. They enjoyed some camaraderie while decorating their bags. As they finished and cleaned up their areas, they naturally went to the shelves to select individual lessons. I was substituting again in the afternoon, since Carl had a doctor’s appointment.

There are a few children who stay late who did not complete their bags in the morning. So I took the materials into the multipurpose room to allow some of them a chance to work on their bags.

In the elementary, getting the bags done is a very quick process. At that plane of development children usually have a clear idea of what they want to do. They tend to work in order to get something finished. The younger children work in order to do the work. Efficiency is not part of the vocabulary of early childhood. That is one reason adults are often frustrated by how long it takes little children to complete tasks. We often try to rush them to meet our sense of efficiency instead of slowing down to meet their need of process.

Watching children decorate bags is a good way to observe the differences in developmental levels.

Part of the practical life of being in the elementary is the responsibility of choosing and preparing snacks for the school. We let the students know what items we have on hand and the person in charge for that day then gets everything ready, even the special snacks for children with allergies.

They learn how to prepare popcorn in the microwave, too. The packages of low fat popcorn take exactly three minutes and 20 seconds to cook in our regular microwave.

Yesterday was a popcorn day. Only the elementary is allowed to have popcorn, so they prepare cups of pretzels for the early childhood class. I was doing arrivals yesterday when I caught a whiff of burnt popcorn. Followed almost immediately by the automatic fire alarm. The monitor gave the message of “Smoke in kitchen.” I’ll say!

Next we had telephone calls from the security service AND the fire department. That’s reassuring.

We opened the window in the kitchen, closed the two doors leading to the kitchen and put a fan on to blow the smoke out. All morning! Before leaving last night I sprayed the entire school with Oust and gave the kitchen two doses. It still smells like burnt popcorn!

So what happened? Our young chef was preparing two bags of popcorn and decided to do the second bag in the “new” microwave. The only problem is that we have never tested to see how long it takes to cook a bag of popcorn in that microwave. Obviously less than three minutes and 20 seconds!

It was a busy day for booklet making in the kindergarten this afternoon. When parents see the finished result of all this work, they probably have no idea how much effort has gone into the booklet.

First children learn to match sets of cards that have different parts of an item or different types of items highlighted. Once we are able to determine that they are able to discriminate these differences, we teach them the vocabulary to go with the cards. Card sets being used today included types of insects, parts of the body, parts of the bell, parts of the parakeet, and parts of the plant.

When children are interested they may color in the respective parts to create a book. Then they use a special hole punch tool to prepare the separate papers to tie them into a booklet. If they are unable to write the terms or names on the pages, they can dictate that to a teacher.

We have many printed papers for parts, but as the children get better, they often want to trace or even draw their own pictures. Today, there was a mixed level of effort. Some were drawing, some were tracing, some were simply filling in the pre-printed pages and one was even writing the words independently in beautiful cursive.

I think this really shows how children may work at the level that is best suited to their development. the interesting thing was that so many of the students chose this kind of activity at the same time. That actually illustrates how effective horizontal learning is, too.

To be fair, during all this booklet making, there was a child doing the constructive triangles. He was happily following his own path.

Not many days are as hectic as today was. There was a convergence of demands that made this a very unusual day.

I make my dentist appointments six months in advance. Everyone knows how hard it is to get a good time if one waits. This week Carl and I both have appointments scheduled. Today was the appointed day for Carl’s. Then Britton informed me that due to his wife’s surgery, he would need the day off. Oops. There is no way that both Carl and Britton could be gone on the same day!

Easy fix! I could switch days with Carl. But there was another wrinkle. Today was the day that the fifth grade students had to take their T-CAP writing assessment. I don’t like to feel pressured in giving those, so I knew that I would need to administer it as soon as returning from the dentist. To expedite that process I took the test directions with me to the dentist so I could review them while waiting.

On my way out, I took the mail out to the mailbox to help reduce the stress on the rest of the staff in my short absence. And when I got to the dentist’s I “forgot” to take the directions in to the office with me. I did not have long to wait, so I figured it didn’t really matter. But when I got back in the car to return to school, the directions weren’t there either! Oh! Oh! I had put them in the mailbox along with the outgoing mail. This was one day I was thankful that our mail doesn’t run very early! That would have been a real disaster.

I retrieved the directions and administered the test when I got back with just enough time left afterward to do the snack dishes and set up for lunch before doing the early childhood group.

Today was pizza day. Britton is usually in charge of getting pizza ready. But I filled in that job today. I did not do as good a job of it, as I learned later. But I did get everything set up for both classrooms. I think the very best part about this hectic day was getting to eat lunch with the younger children. That really was a treat. And a good thing I was there, because someone (me) had not fully separated every piece of pizza. When the little children went to get their pizza, the piece that was slightly attached would fall on the floor (topping side down, of course!). Quick, pull those things apart!

After all was said and done, even as hectic as the day was, I enjoyed so many parts of it. Watching the children clean up after lunch, listening to the older students laugh aloud at the book I was reading to them, going outside, snow flurries during dismissal. I ended the day with a teacher in-service in Knoxville. We teachers work hard, but it is worth it. And fortunately we can laugh at our mistakes.

On Fridays I get to do the short group in the early childhood class. It was a rainy morning so I tried to do some things that were a bit active to help diffuse some energy. What was funny was that one of the children asked why I did not read books. Despite the fact that I sometimes do, I explained that since I was the teacher who did French, I usually did not read.

We did some French today, and when I asked the children “Ou est la langue?” they all stuck out their tongues. (I had asked where is the tongue). Then I acted highly shocked that they would do that! Giggles galore! We did some other body parts before getting back to the tongue. More shock. More giggles. We had a great time.

Because they couldn’t go outside, Carl and Britton took them to the multipurpose room for more playing. They did some rhythm instruments, and some great hopping around. Then Britton did the Hokey Pokey with them. What fun. I was in the multipurpose room helping the elementary children get the room ready for lunch.

One student was filling basins with water for washing the dishes, one was putting out placemats and napkins and another was setting the glasses and plates. A fourth worker brought the lunch boxes in from the hall. All this industry. And if a student is absent, another one gladly fills in.

When we sit down to eat, two students go around the tables serving the milk and water. One hears “please” and “thank you.” At three, the Hokey Pokey may be what it is all about. But as the children get older it is more about quiet respect and responsibility.