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.
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
Group of Montessori Students out on the town
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