I have received some truly wonderful gifts this season. Although we encourage parents to fulfill their desire to give gifts by giving to the classrooms, several go beyond that and give things to the teachers. I would not be so ungracious to imply that we do not appreciate these gifts, but the accompanying notes mean more to me than the physical gifts themselves.

I am moved by the messages of gratitude from parents in these notes. We go about our jobs on a daily basis, dong what we can to create a nurturing environment for the children. Of course, it is not just a job. Montessori becomes a way of life.

In the day-to-day work, it is easy to forget how much this means to the families we serve. Just as they are grateful to us for what we do for their children, we are grateful to them for entrusting their children to our care. Such a leap of faith.

I had another special gift. I heard from a former student who expressed her gratitude for the difference I had made in her life.

There is no greater gift for a teacher. Thank you, Sarah.

In a previous post I mentioned that a newer student who transferred from traditional school had commented about liking this school. In conversations with another adult at school today, I learned more.

As it turns out, one of the comparisons this student has started to make is what happens at Montessori when kids act silly among their friends is…. nothing. Where our student went to school before what happened was ridicule. Act out of the norm and the result was teasing instead of tolerance or acceptance.

What a little thing. Our new student expressed a sense of relief at this change. The freedom to be a kid and not worry about how you will be treated by your peers. This is what develops in a community of respect. I am grateful all over again to be part of this. We tend to take these little things for granted.

We shouldn't.

When older students transfer into Montessori from traditional schools they almost always go thorough the same steps as part of their adaptation to the new learning environment. At first they thrill to the idea of the freedom the find in Montessori. No tests! No grades! It seems so wonderful that they go through a honeymoon period.

There is so much to do, so much to learn.

BUT

There are also many more responsibilities. In some ways there is much more work expected of them. There are social conventions that may be unfamiliar. Some of the social interactions that were considered normal are no longer acceptable.

When the whole picture starts to be clear, the honeymoon is over. This can be a difficult time for students as they navigate unknown waters, trying to re-establish their identities within a group.

We all know that once we end the honeymoon stage, we are building strong relationships that are going to be deep and lasting.

I know that is where we are now with a new student in the elementary. While cleaning the tables for lunch today, he said, “I like this school.” He went on to describe some of his observations about how this school compares to his last school and what he likes better about this new environment. There were some things that he liked better in his old school, but he can now recognize what makes this classroom tick and how he is a valuable part of it.

I told him, “I like this school, too.” And I do.

One of the things I love most about teaching is seeing those moments when children make connections within the environment. They happen at odd times. One such moment happened today as we were walking out to the playground. The first child in the line stopped, turned to the child behind and said, “I’m consonants and you’re vowels!”

They were holding their gloves together and noticing that although the style was exactly the same, the colors were different. One set was the color of the consonants in the movable alphabet and the other was, of course, the color of the vowels.

I was especially pleased because I know this particular child has been working on identifying the vowels and consonants lately. When I see children apply what they know in a different setting, I know that the information is really integrated. Only then can they make connections.

On Fridays the elementary class has its weekly class meeting. After the meeting, the students play chess, so one would think that the meetings would be a very rushed affair in order to get on to playing chess (a VERY popular pass time).

But class meetings are serious business and the students recognize this. I have been especially impressed with the decisions made by the students lately. Today they worked out a way to spread around the afternoon jobs more evenly so the same volunteers did not end up doing the bulk of the work. They also decided to reinstitute use of the electric pencil sharpener. That issue engendered a great deal of discussion and only narrowly passed.

Another issue that they handled was the “commotion” caused by more than one student watching the tarantula at a time. An unofficial guideline has been that only one person at a time visits the classroom pets, but they made it official.

I am also impressed with how well the students have acquired an understanding of how to conduct a meeting. Hopefully they will grow into strong community leaders as adults. In that capacity they may have to sit on many boards, but they will be prepared.

I am glad that as the class matures I am able to fade more from the role of leader to that of facilitator. Montessori called the adults in her classrooms directresses. Another term often used is guide. The bottom line, though, is that it is a student run classroom.

When we were children growing up, staying late at school meant that there was some kind of trouble. We had to make up work or meet with the teacher about some discipline issue.

Children stay late at Montessori, too. But what a difference! We have aftercare available for parents who work so some children stay even until 5:30. The funny thing is that we have many elementary aged children who beg their parents to let them stay. Usually the students enjoy some additional social time, or some building or art activities. We have never stipulated that they cannot do regular classroom lessons if they want, but that isn’t the norm.

This afternoon one of the adults who wasn’t familiar with the older children came to ask me if they could choose lessons from the classroom. I immediately knew who wanted a lesson and what the lesson was.

In an earlier post I mentioned that there has been a run on geography lately. This student has been really focusing on learning more and more of world political geography. I was giving a school tour, but was delighted to have that kind of interruption and answered enthusiastically that of course, classroom lessons could be chosen.

After the tour was over I happened into the multipurpose room to discover with no surprise that I had guessed correctly about the student and the lesson. Such happy learning was taking place during staying late.

What a busy morning it has been in the elementary today. The children came in and got right to work. We have teacher-student conferences on Thursdays and that often helps students recognize areas of the classroom they might be interested in visiting.

Today, though, has been very different. Geography has been in the air recently, from puzzle maps to star charts of the constellations. There have also been many lessons on money, multiplication and identifying animals.

One boy in the third grade came up to me after doing North America from the cabinet of the World Parts. “I’m going to make this more challenging,” he told me. He wanted to try to identify all the major cities of North America from memory.

It is always gratifying to see students take full advantage of their ability to learn according to their interests and as deeply as they desire. One day last week a student had only one lesson listed in the lesson log at the end of the day. I found that wonderful because this student had spent the entire day engrossed in learning about that one activity.

What if a teacher had come along and said that it was time to put that away because enough time had been spent on it? The learning would have been devalued. A very different message would have been delivered – that only adults can choose what work children should be doing.

How will young people ever develop self-confidence and initiative if we adults send the message that they aren’t able to make appropriate choices. Montessori advised that children should be given every possible opportunity for making choices so they can learn how. Then we will see the choice to make things more challenging!