I cannot believe it is over. I thought that this day would never get here with all the papers and materials I had to write and put together. It was such hard work! Now I have to work on my next big milestone, which is to become a successful and effective teacher.

My certificate was all I needed to become an legitimate Montessori teacher.

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American Montessori Society (AMS) Certification Papers

It has been really hard adjusting to being a head teacher and delegating duties to my assistant. I was having difficulty with the way she works in the classroom. I am also used to having someone free to watch the classroom and help the children that need assistance. I felt she was constantly down while I was giving lessons and had too many disruptions since there was no one for the children to just go to and ask for help.

I think she does not give the children enough freedom to choose their work and to be independent. I was expecting to go into the classroom with the children having the freedom to watch other friends at work or observe the classroom and choose work independently. But I was seeing it differently than my assistant teacher. She has been with the children for a couple of years so she new them more then I. I felt she took that to an extent where she was not allowing the children to make their own choices. I do agree that sometimes you need to make choices for them but that is only if they are not choosing any work and are being disruptive. I also felt that even though some children were not challenging themselves to their full extent we did not need to push them so much, since they just came back from summer break and needed an adjustment period.

So I have had to get used to some of her ways and try to get her to understand my ways. This week is going much better with her. She is more open to my changes and ways. We are planning together and agreeing on things together so that is so much better than having to feel like you are alone and having to convince someone to do things your way.

Aside from all of that I love my group of children. They are so smart and eager to learn and that makes it so much easier on me. I have a few children who are in the period of just constantly vocally communicating everything so that classroom at times can be noisy.

This week I have been trying to have the children get used to being responsible for their self and their choices. I want them to be able to realize that they are in control of themselves and the decisions they make. So we have been talking about making good choices and worrying about one self.

It has been a couple of weeks of getting to know myself, my assistant teacher and my students. It has been a bumpy, but a knowledge full, roller coaster.

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Adjusting To and Accommodating An Assistant Teacher

I have a great group of children: they are hard working and respectful. All the parents I have met so far seem very supportive and have volunteered for different things in the classroom.

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The Week of Presentations

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 Two Weeks Back to the Montessori Classroom

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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The First Day With All My Students

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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Still Working on the Montessori Albums

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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A Few Days Before I Start My New Montessori Adventure

I first looked through my Science, Geography Art and Movement Album. I try to put tabs in for each section. Also, I put them in order that made sense for me. It was a little difficult because each category had different sections in them so I did not know how to tab it so that I can tell when the new category stared. So I ended up putting tabs for each section and category but did not label them yet.

Then I worked on the Philosophy, Child Development, Record Keeping and Parent Communication Album. That was even more confusing for me because I did not know what order to put them in or if I should have put them in different binders. Eventually I ended up leaving it in the order it was and putting in tabs for each category.

I still need to work on both of these albums. I want to put in sheet protectors and tabs that are different for the categories and sections, so that when I look through the albums it is clear where each category is.

I set them on my dining table so I can see them daily and continue to work on them.

I will let you know once I finish them and how it turns out.

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Working on the Cultural and Philsophy Montessori Albums

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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Excited About the New School Year

When children start working in the language area they first start working with objects. They work with classified objects, Object discrimination, Go-together objects, and rhyming objects. The reason why they first begin working with objects is because we want to first build their vocabulary and confidence. The children really enjoy working with these materials. I think it is because they actually have something physical to hold and work with.

Once children show readiness to work with the sandpaper letters they start to learn their phonetic sounds. Once they recognize the sounds they get to work with the sandpaper letters and objects. Believe it or not, children learn to read quickly.

For preparation for handwriting in a Montessori Language environment we have the sand tray, chalkboards and metal insets. I just wanted to touch on this for now and will be going into more detail in a further post.

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Language in a Montessori classroom