I Love MontessoriThe First Two Weeks Back to the Montessori ClassroomSeptember 3, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
I have enjoy so much being back to school. I have a lot of energy and excitement towards my daily day with the children.
It is amazing how children adjust to their daily routine. The children have gotten right into their daily activities. They all have their way of saying I am here and I love that. I enjoy so much getting to know them and seeing how they work and communicate with each other.
The children are great and my year is going so well. I hope that I can keep all my energy and excitement all year, so that all the children are happy and learning with my excitement too.
I love that now I have more chances to observe the childrens work. This is when I feel that I have succeeded in having a true Montessori classroom. I love to observe the children at work. I get to see another side of them when I stand back and see what they are interested in and what they are really capable of doing.
The first weeks has been hard since I been giving a lot of presentations and not been able to observe them work as much I would like to. But like I mentioned before it is getting better since now have I am getting more chances to observe them. I feel a great sense of pride when I can just stand back and let them be “just like it should be, the children working where they want to work and with what they want to work.” These are the times when the teacher can really see where a child is and how and where she/he should be working with the child.
I have been so busy with the daily school planning that I have not had a chance to write on the blog more often. Hopefully I will get in the rhythm of things and write more often and longer posts.
I will leave you with this from Maria Montessori, which I strongly agree with “The Teacher, …., must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work” (Montessori, 1967, 276).
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The First Day With All My StudentsAugust 31, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
On Monday I had orientation with the new children in my classroom. The first group of children were really nice and orientation went smoothly. The second group was a little more difficult because one of my children had a hard time leaving his mommy. So his mom joined us for orientation. In all the day went pretty smoothly. I also got a lot of paper work done since I only had an hour with the new children. I made some new materials for the classroom and finished my lesson plans for the week. It was a productive day.
It was a great day! All my children are great. I have a good group of children. I gave a few lessons and got to observe the children working. The children worked f though they have always been there. Even the new children to the Montessori Method were amazing. I am so happy to have all of them in my class. I think they enjoyed the day as much as I did. I hope to always have happy children. I will do my best to keep the children happy and involved in their learning.
I am so proud of having my official lead teacher position and to be able to work in such a great environment. I am proud of what I do and hope to always be as enthusiastic as am now. I want to always enjoy what I do. So I hope to always be able to serve the children in a positive and encouraging way. I hope to be a guide that gives them the desire to always want to learn. I am glad that I got to learn and work with the Montessori Method. It is a great way for children to learn.
Here is to many days of happy children and great experiences!
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Still Working on the Montessori AlbumsAugust 20, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
Today I spent about four hours working on three albums. They were the Record Keeping Album, the Teacher Resource Album (which included Philosophy, Child Development, Children With Special Needs, Classroom management, Peace Education, and Parent Teacher Communication) and the Cultural Album (which include Science, Geography, Art and Movement/Music). Once again like I mentioned on my previous post it is frustrating to work on them because I get to put these albums together however I want. So I had to decide what I was putting on each album since I did not want to have a binder for each of these subjects.
So what did I accomplish in those four hours? Well I got each binder in order and placed tabs with labels for each subject and sections under each subject. I also got a refresher on all the helpful materials I have to fall back on when I need assistance with any of the subjects mentioned above. I also accomplished writing up a Table of Contents for each album, even though I still need to type it up.
While putting these albums together I also went back to look at the notes I took in class last summer. This was very helpful to me because as I was looking through some of the papers I did not quite understand certain things so my notes clarified them for me. So I put my notes at the end of each subject and hope to have time to type them up. I figure that it would be more helpful to have them in the binders instead of in some notebook tugged away somewhere where I would never look at it.
Now what do I need to do to finish off the albums. I plan on putting sheet protectors on each album. So I need to go out and buy some more sheet protectors. I would also like to type up the Table of Contents and my notes. For now, that is all I can think of that needs to be done to feel like my albums are complete.
Once again I will let you know when they are finished to my liking.
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A Few Days Before I Start My New Montessori AdventureAugust 13, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
I will be starting the school year in just a few days. I am looking forward to it. It is going to be an exciting and an educational year for me. I will begin my first year as a lead Montessori teacher. I will have my classroom were I will decide how I want it to look and run. It is going to be tough, but it will be a great year.
I look forward to meeting my students and families. There is no doubt that I am going to do all I can to make it their best school experience ever. Just like I want my daughter to have good memories of her school years that is what I want for my students. I want them to enjoy going to school and to look forward to coming to school everyday.
I actually do not remember my first years of school and sometimes I wish I did. I cannot remember anything before third grade. I wonder why I do not remember my first school years. I think in a Montessori classroom the children have so much more that in a traditional school because they are constantly working on hands-on activities and with other friends.
Next week is going to be a busy week. There is going to be a lot of planning, cleaning, and meetings. It is all about being prepared for the children to come the following week.
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Excited About the New School YearAugust 5, 2008 by Miss Norma | No comments
I am really excited to start the new school year. I am looking forward to having a successful and productive year. I have two weeks before I start the teacher planning portion and I cannot wait.
I look forward to working with my co-teacher and our students. I plan on getting to know all my students really well and giving them the best school experience they can have. As of now there are about 18 students registered for my classroom. That is a good number for my first year as a lead directress. I am pretty sure I will end up with a full classroom and know I will do fine anyway. This is what I enjoy doing so I know I am going to do my best.
I also have a very supportive group of co-workers so that will make it even better for me. I know all the staff so it is so much more comfortable to be able to approach them with any concerns I might have and need support and suggestions for.
I plan on getting to know all my parents and have them involved in their child’s education. The Montessori philosophy believes very much in the involvement for the family in the children’s education. So it will be one of my goals to emphasize good parent involvement. I believe that it is important for children to see that their family cares about their education. It also gives them more encouragement.
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