As I think about the upcoming school year, I am trying to
figure out how to make my room more “Montessori.” I teach in a public Montessori school (and
have for many years) and it is always a struggle to balance the Montessori
philosophy with district requirements.
This year, I hope to allow more independence and choice in student
learning. I want to actually “follow the
child” as Maria Montessori encouraged.
What this means to me is that I will give some whole group or small
group lessons, but the majority of my time will be spent giving individual
lessons or very small group lessons.
This sounds a bit daunting to manage—which is the biggest obstacle in my
way. But, I think it will be well worth
the effort…
First, I will need to set up procedures so that the students
can work independently (without me having to constantly monitor). I like many of the ideas from The Sisters
regarding setting up Daily 5 and I think I can tweak their procedures to work
for my situation.
Next, I need to figure out what I want the students to do
all day. Again, I will take some
inspiration from The Sisters, but also tweak it to encompass all subjects and
feel more true to Montessori.
Then, I’m also thinking I will need to schedule in some type
of a daily conference with each child for accountability purposes. And maybe incorporate some type of data
folders/progress monitoring with it???
Still not quite sure where I want this to go…
Finally, I think I will be ready to start planning some
lessons. There will be lots of assessing
(formal and informal) the first few weeks so that I can begin to truly
individualize learning.
Once I have all of this “finalized” or at least fleshed out
a bit more, I can look more closely at my year plan and work on pulling
work/lessons more in line with this style of teaching/learning. Because sadly, this has not been how my last
few years have been…
Just putting this in writing, I already feel better. I know I have a lot to do, but feel like this
plan is a good place to start. And this
year will be ten times better than last year!
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