Montessori Consulting

The past two days it has just been the teachers working at school. What a different feel that gives the classrooms. Rebecca and Britton have been busy tidying up everything and OH it does look spiffy! Several families have come by to see the school these past days, which is nice, but they certainly don’t get to experience the happy hum of children at work.

In some ways it has been rather pleasant to spend these days finishing up paperwork and sharing adult time. We get along well, but rarely have the time to enjoy one another’s company because we are usually busy teaching.

On the way to work this morning Carl and I and Britton all heard the NPR report about the younger work force who needs lots of positive reinforcement in their jobs. We all got laughs about it during the day in a sad kind of way. Sad because those young adults have been so acclimated to needed outside encouragement to feel worthwhile that they have a hard time coping without it. Hopefully our Montessori children will grow up to be adults who can recognize their own self-worth through personal recognition of a job well done.

Carl had the last laugh on the topic. At lunch he handed out “certificates” to Britton and Rebecca for their “good job” at eradicating dust bunnies.

Hmmm. I didn’t get a certificate. I guess I’ll just have to feel good about getting all those tasks done that I have not been able to get to until now.

Some parents as they left with their children today shared the thought that we sure must be looking forward to the summer break. Well, yes – and no.

The end of school has arrived too fast. Children are moving on, have moved on already, in fact, and I’m not ready. I haven’t had enough time to process that they won’t be back, that they are not going to be in the classroom anymore. Like a mother facing an empty nest I almost feel that I want them to stay. But it is time for them to grow and that means leaving.

So, there were tears today. I’ve gotten better over the years about not crying at the end of the program when I hand out the gifts to my “graduates.” I used to get so choked up in front of the whole congregated community that I almost couldn’t go on. I’ve learned to keep that all under check until later. After the last family has departed and the school echoes with the lost voices of my students.

And I look at the sweet mementos that children and their families have brought. Those tokens of appreciation. And I finally shed those tears that I could loose during the hectic farewells and good wishes.

And yet I see those confident students walking forth into the bigger world and I feel a tremendous sense of pride. They will do well. Like fledglings they may make a few false starts, but I know they will soar.

The last day of school. A day of tears, a day of laughter, a day of hope. A day of farewells, both temporary and permanent. It is a hard day for teachers.

The end of the year really sneaked up on me this year. It seems the school year only just started and now we are preparing to say goodbye to the students for the summer. For some of them the goodbyes will be for longer. It is a sad time for us teachers.

Fortunately there are many things keeping us pretty busy, so we don’t have much time to think about it. There is the annual cleaning out of the desks, gathering up of materials from the students and general tidying up to prepare for the summer. In some schools the students help pack away the classrooms, but since we use the rooms in the summer for teacher training, our students don’t do that. On the other hand, we do try to get things pretty much all cleaned up and put away.

Then there is the big end of the year program. I’ve made three trips to buy fabric for costumes this year. The kindergarten students are not going to get to keep their costumes since the fabric is still completely usable for sewing activities. The elementary students have been doing some cutting on theirs, though. And I have heard some comments about how much they like what they have. So, those folks are going to get to take their costumes home. It is a small gift, well worth the satisfaction that the older children will garner from it

On top of all this activity we have also had many visits from people interested in seeing the school for one reason or another. Their view is of classrooms with a much higher level of energy than usual! Funny, they all comment on how quiet and calm things seem, while we are acutely aware of how close that energy is to bursting out of its seams.

On the other hand, many of the children have been especially busy trying to finish long-running projects they have been working on. They do this with a certain urgency now that the available time runs short.

Lots and lots of busy-ness, with the end-of year business.

It has been difficult getting the kindergarten students ready for their short skit on Friday. There has been at least one kindergarten student absent every day for over a week. We have been preparing in bits and pieces, though.

Since the same student was absent this afternoon for the second day in a row, we did not practice acting out the skit today. The other children were a little concerned about that, but I did not want this girl to come back feeling like everybody else know what to do while she didn’t.

The children did get their hats cut out, though. I did not have any big construction paper in tow of the colors we needed, so those children simply colored white paper with the appropriate color.

Hopefully everyone will be in attendance tomorrow and we can practice the whole skit, even wearing the costumes. It is going to be pretty cute!

The elementary and kindergarten students have been working on skits for the last day of school. They are adapting stories from Jonathon Wolff’s series on Excellence in Character. What is nice about these skits is that we have folded some of the stories into the regular group time and the children are fairly familiar with them allowing for some ad-libbing.

Today some of the fabric I had bought for costumes was on the chair in the office and a kindergarten student asked me, “What is that stuff in the bag on the chair?” I turned the question back around and asked what the student thought it was. With a delighted giggle, the reply was that it was for the crayons.

The excitement about performing on the last day is growing. I won’t give any more of it away, but the children are beginning to bubble. I just hope we can keep a lid on this pot and keep it from boiling over before the last day rolls around.

The elementary students took a field trip to Ijams Nature Center today. It was a really awesome trip. We did some critter collection in one of the ponds, took a short hike during a soft rain, and simulated a predator/prey situation with rabbits and foxes. The kids were great and I think the trip helped to solidify and integrate some of the work they have done in the classroom.

I am always amazed at how tired I am after a field trip, though. I felt like Jello this afternoon. But it is a good tired, knowing that we all had a wonderful time extending our classroom outside the walls of the school, into the larger environment.

It amazes me how close we are to the end of the year. The days, weeks and months have flown by. It makes me feel a little sad.

I was on my last trip to visit interns this past week when the hard drive on my laptop failed. My computer has always served as my external brain, freeing me from having to remember all the "stuff" that I need to do.

Well, this was a major brain cramp. The poor dead computer will be getting a new hard drive eventually and then "retire" to general work around the school. In the mean time, I'm trying to find myself on a new model. I was able to back up some of te files from my hard drive before it kidcked the bucket, but not all of them. I've suffered some brain trauma, but fortunately it is just on my external brain.

But, it will take lots of time to rebuild all that was lost. I fear one of time banks I will have to utilize for this effort will be this blog. Posts may be more intermittent for a while.

When I was visiting another school yesterday, one of the teachers asked me why May is such a difficult month. In talking with her about that, some things came into better focus for me.

In May we start seeing the entire dynamic of the classrooms change. Children become acutely aware of the imminent end of the school year. For many this creates a sense of unease since their structured lives will be affected. Others know that they are not returning. Their departure affects them personally in different ways, but also affects the rest of the class.

Some children who know they are leaving Montessori for different learning environments try to soak up as much as they can in their final days. But their activity level has a desperate edge to it. Others who are leaving must make an emotional break from the school in order to leave without feeling devastated. These children “look” for reasons to dislike the school so they can make a clean break with no heartache.

Between these two extremes are a multitude of other reactions.

For adults, this creates a difficult dynamic. We want children to feel good about whatever the future will bring. That includes encouraging those who are leaving about the positives about the change, while simultaneously reaffirming that the Montessori community of the remaining students is strong and vital. This is no easy task. Plus, some children who are leaving try to “recruit” their friends to come with them.

A Montessori family cannot be replaced. Every time a child leaves, the rest of the class is affected. This is especially true when families leave prematurely. We hope that once families join our community they will stay all the way through the elementary years. In few other schools will they (and their children) enjoy such a close-knit community. We want the community dynamic to be stable!

Let’s imagine you are learning about mitosis. In the tradition from which most of us came, that meant a test at the end of the week. I can hardly write the word “test” without experiencing the accompanying rise in anxiety that those science tasks entailed. Now imagine cramming for the test, trying to force bits of “trivia” into a reluctant brain. How fun was that?

Remember getting those tests back, dreading the grade and any red marks indicating failure of one sort or another?

Now picture this. Yesterday I gave a lesson on mitosis to one of the students in the elementary class. I mentioned that the goal was to lay the cards out in order without looking at the control. I urged the student to use the control at first in order to learn the steps, though. No stress.

Today, this very student came to me in great excitement. “I got them all right except prophase and anaphase!” There was no test – will be no test. Nor any red marks. No failure. There will only be a sense of accomplishment at having learned something new because it is interesting. This is one of the beautiful things about Montessori education. When children have the means for self-correcting, they learn with pleasure. When they are judged or given rewards and punishments, learning suffers. We need a paradigm shift in all education.