Some of the tips I have seen and heard that are mostly traditional in most Montessori classrooms are:
- Starting with most familiar materials in the classroom, mostly non-Montessori "entry items", like puzzles, blocks or other manipulatives, art activities, etc.
- Populate the shelves slowly - that would mean at the beginning of the school year, most of the shelves are empty. What's on the shelf are those for the beginner or easy level. Mostly Practical life and Sensorial shelves are getting filled first and moving on to Language, Culture and then Math.
- Present, present present - that at the beginning of the school year, guides are round the clock doing a non-stop presentation of materials to new students so they could get up to speed. Some schools would only accept new students at the beginning of the school year and therefore, the guide needs to present all of the materials in the environment as much as s/he can.
- Gradual transition - some schools, they let the new students come-in week before the school year opens to have the environment to them without the old students. This helps a lot in terms of focus, concentration and learning the routine.
- Huge Grace & Courtesy - is being presented/given during the beginning of the school year. From defining space, to learning how to roll/unroll mat, putting away work to conflict resolution... Model and re-model to all the students.
- Mess, mess and more mess - is expected at the beginning of the school year. At least for the first six weeks. Broken glass, spilled water, spilled beans, broken knobs, etc.
Preparation of the teacher:
There are a lot of preparation being done before the school year begins. Montessori stressed that a teacher must be morally and spiritually prepared in order to effectively direct the education of a child.
Here's how I was preparing myself so far:
1. Read an inspirational book - this is for my spirit. Before anything else, I would like my spirit to be renewed and inspired. This year, i was led to this great book: The Tao of Montessori: Reflections on Compassionate Teaching
by Catherine McTamanney. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is looking for something that will wake-up their Montessori spirit. This helped me center myself in knowing and believing in what I do.
by Catherine McTamanney. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is looking for something that will wake-up their Montessori spirit. This helped me center myself in knowing and believing in what I do.
2. Getting fit - whew, this is a tough one. I have to stopped my usual exercise due to a back pain. I still do my usual walking when i can so I hope to get back on threadmill and workout. I may be asking for help from a friend to get me back on track.
3. Eating healthy - I have started (yep, just started), getting conscious of what I eat. I was born and raised in the Philippines and grew up in a family that really doesnt care about what's in the food. We love fried, stewed and anything and everything. Although, my family eats lots of vegetables and fishes together with rice, It is very challenging now that I have my own family. My children have varied taste and particular in texture of the food. I have to fry egg in three different ways for each of them eats it in certain way. The way I have started with this goal is simple. Read the label and stay away from processed food. Once I get this over with, I am hoping that i could prepare variety of delicious and healthy home cook meals for my family loves to eat at home anyway.
4. Getting organized - I am in a lot of ways scattered. That's why it was hard for me to start this blog for fear of not being able to keep up with it. Well, people change and so I have slowly, gradually been organizing lately. Pinterest is your friend to find some organizing solutions to almost anything.
I came across an article about the preparation of a Montessori teacher, and I will post it next time.
I wish everyone a great school year. Feel free to share your tradition, routines on how you start your year.
Peace, love and joy,
Lei
