The air is getting cooler. The leaves are changing colors and falling from their branches. Pumpkin Spice seems to be taking over the world….All of which indicates that fall has arrived! That means that fall parent-teacher conferences are JUST around the corner. That fact may invoke many different feelings as a classroom teacher and even as a homeschool family or…
I know it has been a while since I posted on the blog. I have decided to do some prioritizing and reorganize what is important to me and how I choose to spend my time. I have been thinking a lot about what I am doing to impact our world in positive ways. There are some, for sure. I try…
When it comes to discussing, prioritizing and allocating limited resources, there are many that can be identified. Limited resources on Earth include things like rainforests, water, open space, energy, and fossil fuels. But in our personal lives, there are also resources that are limited. Those include attention, effort, money, personal investment, and the one I will talk about in this…
Spring is the time when the seasons change. The days start to get longer. New life springs up all around us. It is also the time of standardized testing season for schools around the country. As someone who has experienced the whirlwind of standardized assessments as a parent, a teacher, a coach, and a mentor, I can tell you that…
The Montessori Universe lessons are all based on the teaching of the five Great Lessons. The Great Lessons are an amazing way to introduce students to the magic of our universe and spark their interest in learning more. They touch on the the “big questions” in life. Why are we here? What is our purpose? How did we come to…
There are many facets of Montessori philosophy and educational practices that are easy to grasp and understand. The concept of multi-age groupings of students, child-led choice-based learning, skills mastery through repetition and practice, even the concept of teachers as guides instead of lecturers: these are all concepts and practices that even people without a background or deep understanding of Montessori…
As the school year begins, parents, students and educators must work together as a collaborative, cohesive, collective unit in order to provide the support that students need to be successful as learners throughout the year. You can think about this relationship as a triangle, where each leg must both balance and prop up the other legs in order for the…
Wow! It’s hard to believe that the upcoming 2021-2022 school year is already upon us. It seems like just yesterday, we were all celebrating the end of what most of us would categorize as the hardest school year-EVER! For students, parents and school staff last school year is one we are all quite happy to have in the rearview mirror! …
Dr. Montessori organized her student groupings in multi-age classrooms. The age breakdowns are as follows: 3-6-year-olds in Primary 6-9-year-olds in Lower Elementary 9-12-year-olds in Upper Elementary 12-18 year-olds- Adolescence 18-24 year-olds- Maturity AMI article on Planes of Development You Tube video on Planes of Development If you haven’t ever seen a multi-age classroom in action, it can seem…
With recent events in the United States highlighting the deep political divisions and racial disparities in our country we thought that it would be an appropriate time to focus this blog post on Montessori’s educational philosophy on Peace Education. Peace Education can be defined as: “Anything that teaches anyone how to be more peaceful with themselves, others, and the world”…
Whew! We’ve made it! The end of the first semester is upon us, finally. It is important to stop for just a minute and to take a breath. That, in and of itself, is a momentous occasion. We need to take a minute to allow just a bit of celebration for having accomplished finishing this semester. We know that it…
As the school year ended last spring, We are pretty sure we were able to hear an audible collective sigh of relief from all those involved. Parents, students, teachers, administrators, school board members, and local government officials were all very happy to be ending what can only be described as a chaotic last few months of school. With the pandemic…