The Goal: "Center for the Advancement of Montessori Public and Charter Schools"

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  "Currently about 95% of our school members are of the private-school category". It is fantastic that Laramie will have a public Montessori School in the fall. It is also wonderful considering that according to the aformentioned statistic, Laramie is is providing a public school that is only available in the five percentile range. In this article one man's hope is that Montessori will be "rooted in the public school system". This is my hope too. I am completely aware that Montessori may not work for every child and that some students thrive in the current form of education. What I want is alternatives for the students who are not staying afloat. Obviously, there are other people as eager as me.
           This article discusses the goals of the American Montessori Society. There are many articles about all the fabulous milestones AMS has achieved, but this one focuses on what AMS would hope Montessori would grow into. This is shown as the "Center for the Advancement of Montessori Public and Charter Schools," plan is developed:

•  Conducting a comprehensive analysis of lessons learned from existing Montessori public and charter schools - those that have been successful and those that have faced difficulties;
•  Implementing an outreach program of consulting services, professional development, and incentive grants to assist those interested in creating Montessori public and charter schools in their community;
•  Expanding our "Montessori Public and Charter School Networking Group," an online communications conference for educators and professionals working in public and charter schools who are interested in helping each other;
•  Identifying strategies for achieving buy-in by district and state leadership on essential standards and testing options;
• *Encouraging and disseminating research on the impact of Montessori education in public and charterschools.                                                                                                                                                 

 People are starting to understand the pros of Montessori, and are trying to fight for this alternative to be available to everyone.

 A Look at a Montessori Classroom

                                                         

Blog Entry

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Let's Work Together To Spread the Montessori Method

This article was written by Richard A Ungerer,executive director of American Montessori Society in 2009. He talks about his "visions of Montessori education in the 21st century." His key points are regarding Montessori becoming widespread. He wants to see the education system flourish across developed and developing nations. Author, Mike Rose, wrote, "In Search of a Fresh Language of Schooling” One point that he brings up is how politics and big corporations or, our profit-driven society, follow a profit-driven model. Richard Ungerer interestingly enough brings up his opinion about how "Montessori education will be recognized as effective and essential in addressing the competencies needed for students to be successful in the 21st-century global economy." I wonder what global economy he was thinking of back in 2009? I suppose it would be ridiculous to put your children in a school, where when they come out, they are completely unaware of how to live in the 21st century, but at the same time, a bubble of a school where children learn how to be intrinsically motivated instead of focusing on the global economy seems wonderful too. Just as it is important to me that the current public school education is not the only option for families, it is also important to me that Montessori never be the only option either. I wholeheartedly believe that all children fall on different sides of the education spectrum, and that some students do well in the current form of education. I also, think some would do well in the Montessori system, others would do well in Waldorf, etc. It is just fantastic that Ungerer is talking about the importance of making Montessori available to everyone.

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The Listening Project: Hands off Approach for Educators, Hands on for Students

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         The Listening Project is a hands off approach for the teachers, while it is very hands on for the students. This article describes a Montessori teacher's observations of her students as they  went throught a "10-day, 2-week immersion course to give students various opportunities to develop better listening skills and to help them understand more about the enlivening quality and healing potential of listening to others". At the end of the 10 days of their project the students sit down and share their experiences of interviewing people around the city, which was one of the requirements of the project.
         One aspect that I liked that the teacher mentioned was how the students were allowed to write her a letter stating why they deserve an "A" on their project. What a fantastic idea, and one  that I intend to borrow when I become a teacher. When doing a project or a paper, there's a lot of work that goes into it, and then all of a sudden it's just done; kind of like a cake. You have to buy the ingredients, go back to the store for the ingredients you forgot, make the cake, bake the cake, and clean up the terrible mess afterwards, then you eat it and it's done within 5 minutes. A paper where students could explain, " I spent 7 hours on this paper, how they interviewed this person, I had to run to the store because I ran out of ink, I had to take the bus for an hour and half to get to the library because I don't have a computer" are all the bits and pieces that deserve at least five points of effort on the paper. I like to think I'm a human being first, and a teacher second, and valid excuses are acceptable to me as a human being, instead of someone being docked points because of my teacher uniform.

          At the end of this project, all the students sat together and discussed what they experienced and one of the main topics was racism(of the African American students). They were able to voice how they felt, and they felt validated by the response of other students and the teacher. The Montessori approach of different aged students collaborating together is a true representation of  the world. All you need to do is walk into a workplace, a college classroom, a staff meeting,a city and you will witness collaboration and multi-aged individuals. This very "real" classroom is a method I hope I can one day incorporate into my classroom, and if not, maybe I can get a Montessori certification.


Group of Montessori Students out on the town

An Alternative Educational Organization: Dreamin' of the Montessori Way

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In this article, Montessori is described as an "alternative educational organization": I like the sound of that. I like knowing there is an alternative to the mainstream. As Mark Twain once said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." A lady by the name of Nancy McCormick is introduced in the article, as someone who for a long time tried to incorporate Montessori philosophy into public and private schools.

Maria Montessori is also talked about and this is a good description of what she strived for , "She combined sensory-rich environments and hands-on experiential techniques in the hopes of reaching children previously labeled "deficient and insane." What a huge MILESTONE! Including children who were thought to be inferior. Her work was not done in vain, and I am proud to see so many changes occuring today regarding children who can not conform to public education.

My son, Indiana, is an old soul, a wise soul, an intelligent soul. He is in 3rd grade at a public school here in Laramie. One of his daily homework assignments is to write an 8-12 sentence paragraph about his daily chapter reading. Indy decided he was going to create his own little journal to write these in. He divided a sheet of orange construction paper into four and cut out a section. He did this with about five pieces of paper, and then stapled them all together to create a 20 page 5.5x4.25 little notebook. I am very impressed and happy with his teacher who has so far allowed into to hand in his homework in this homemade journal. I am also aware that this may change in future grades when Indy is no longer allowed to write in his little journal and will be required to write or type on 8x11 standard sheets.

If I put Indy in a Montessori School, I feel I will never have to worry about a teacher who wants my son to stay "in the box". I feel that at a Montessori school, his ideas, his creativity, his ambitions will be nurtured and encouraged based on the fact that kids can design their own projects and pick and choose their interests. Maybe I'm only dreaming about this idealistic Montessori philosophy, but hey, I'm idealistic and I'm a dreamer.

                                               Indy(Left)                                      Emmet(Right

Victory: The Laramie Montessori Charter School

http://www.laramiemontessori.org/docs/How%20Montessori%20education%20Visser%202009.pdf

Michelle Visser writes a very understandable, clear, concise explanation of what the Laramie Montesorri Charter School hopes to provide for Laramie children. She discusses the idea of Maria Montessori summed up in this quote:

"Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."

The aforementioned quote is very important to the Montessori philosophy. Let the kids lead themselves, let them teach each other, let them decide the curriculum. Montessori emphasizes life skills, and allows children to have a taste of the "real world" that happens after they graduate high school.
 One major piece of the Laramie Montessori curriculum will be The Five Great Lessons. These concepts are retaught ever year so that the idea does not disappear.

     1. First Great Lesson - Coming of the Universe and the Earth

     2. Second Great Lesson - Coming of Life

     3. Third Great Lesson - Coming of Human Beings
     4. Fourth Great Lesson - Communication in Signs
     5. Fifth Great Lesson - The Story of Numbers

Visser reinforces Maria Montessori's aspirations to let the world know that children with disabilities can learn, handicapped children can be involved, and that this tactile, hands-on, approach is beneficial to all sorts of learning styles.

Three Awesome Pieces of News:

LMCO is excited to announce that the Laramie Montessori School charter application was approved by the Albany County School District Board of Education on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011.

LMCO was awarded a Federal Charter School Program grant in October 2010 for $377,000. With the approval of the charter, this grant money can now be utilized for costs associated with the start-up of a new public school.

LMCO is immediately moving forward to secure a quality school facility and additional grant funding.

Middle School Students’ Motivation and Quality of Experience: A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Environments

Middle School Students’ Motivation and Quality of Experience: A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Environments

Kevin Rathunde and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

American Journal of Education
Vol. 111, No. 3 (May 2005), pp. 341-371

"This study compared the motivation and quality of experience of demographically matched students from Montessori and traditional middle school programs." The study depicts "greater affect, potency (i.e., feeling energetic), intrinsic motivation, flow experience, and undivided interest (i.e., the combination of high intrinsic motivation and high salience or importance) while engaged in academic activities at school" by students in the Montessori schools. Both groups tested equally when it came to taking part in informal, nonacademic activities.
Another study that was conducted explored adolescents and their learning environments. Half were tested in a Montessori School setting, and the other half were tested in "traditional public middle schools" The results showed a higher intrinsic motivation in the students from the Montessori school.  This section of the article discusses how the traditional classroom environments does not offer as much as a Montessori school does.


"What can be learned from research that compares Montessori and traditional middle schools? There are two main benefits. First, there has been an absence of empirical research in Montessori schools; this is especially true in adolescence, but it is also true with respect to early childhood education (Loeffler 1992).A second benefit of this comparison is more relevant for developmental thought and educational research. Over the last 15 years, a great deal of effort has been invested in diagnosing and designing classroom and schoolwide interventions that may enhance adolescents’ motivation" This seems to be a big part of the Montessori community. Establishing an environment that promotes learning and enhances student's curiosity.


This image is of the prepared environment in a Montessori Classroom.

Global Montessori: It's Even in Omaha!

Montessori goes to next level - Omaha.com

“High school Montessori tends to be more like college. You have choices. Brain development is such that they start reasoning. ... Usually, if you can get them interested, they go further. You want them to make connections." I always wonder, what about what they don't want to study?(Math, Chemistry, Physics, etc.)

 This article discusses the multi-age classroom and the independence of the individual student that comes with the Montessori philosophy. Students get to decide what interests them and get to explore into that topic. All the Montessori schools in Omaha are private and annual tuition is $4,000. One discouraging aspect of this article was how there was no discussion of attempting to make Montessori available to everyone in the form of a charter school. They discussed how they inteneded for the education program to grow, but there was no evidence of them 'giving it away'.

                                                           How to Manage Your Multi-Age Classroom

Montessori, What's That?

"Montessori is a revolutionary method of observing and supporting the natural development of children. Montessori educational practice helps children develop creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and time-management skills, to contribute to society and the environment, and to become fulfilled persons in their particular time and place on Earth. The basis of Montessori practice in the classroom is mixed age group (3 ages - 6 ages in one class), individual choice of research and work, and uninterrupted concentration."- The International Montessori Index.

The previous quote is an explanation of the form of education known as the Montessori Method. For the preschool years, the Montessori Method is an alternative form of teaching when compared to the standard preschool education system. Montessori combines tactile,and hands on learning methods to benefit the child. Collaboration is strongly encouraged which is why classrooms are mixed-aged:  The idea is that the older children will teach the younger, as the younger children  look up and learn from the older kids. Another philosophy they have is, in the real world, children are not segregated by age, so why should they be in school?

I went to a Montessori School meeting this past weekend, and something that one of the speakers said struck me, she said, "After a child has been in a Montessori School, many of them do not thrive in public schools if they have to go back for some reason". The reason she said this was to make her point that in Montessori schools, kids are "NEVER" bored, and when they return to public school, they think to themselves "I'm being dumbed down." Okay, here are my issues with her statement.
1. Elementary, Middle, and High School Montessori Schools are not as prevalent as preschools.
2. $$$$$$$$$
3. Shouldn't the Montessori System teach children to be adaptable to all forms of learning(big question, I know)
4. What the heck goes on in Montessori Elementary, Middle, and High Schools? Are they ready for the SATs? Will they be "bored" in college, do they have P.E.etc. etc.

Question #4  is what I intend this blog to be about:  Finding out the curriculum of Montessori Schools in the later years and how they differ to other types of school.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Montessori way.  I have two kids; a 2 year old and an 8 year old. I plan on my 2 year old  going to a Montessori Preschool and my son going to the Montessori Charter school that is about to open up, tentatively in the fall. What worries me is, what happens when there is no Montessori Middle School and High School? Will they not thrive unless we move to a place that has a Montessori Middle School and High School? I am on my journey to finding out!