"How to Teach Maths" podcast episode

If you are looking for some humor and inspiration for your Montessori 12-18 math teaching, check out this episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage podcast entitled “How to Teach Maths”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0019ytj

Takeaways for me (that all support Montessori!):

  • Tell stories of the human beings who discovered? invented? (a controversy you’ll have to decide for yourself) math concepts.

  • Math is so much more interesting and accessible when it is in a real world context and when the students know how it is useful.

  • Self confidence and self-talk make a huge difference in one’s success (or not) in math.

Keep up the good work refining Montessori 12-18 math!

If you are curious about how to teach math in a Montessori adolescent context, we hope to have some blog posts in the future with tips and ideas.

Listen to Children Always, especially during the pandemic

Facebook post by retired Superintendent Dr. Teresa Thayer Snyder

-Voorheesvile Central School District, New York

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school. My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era. What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply.

When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned. Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet, or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help them write that history.

I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.

Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time was not lost, it was invested in surviving an historic period of time in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed. They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need be given as many tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to a post pandemic world.

Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what can be. Please, let what can be demonstrate that our children have so much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any assessment tool ever devised.

Peace to all who work with the children!

Upcoming Webinar: Cultivating Awareness of Racism in American History with Dr. Ayize Sabater. All proceeds go to the Black Montessori Education Fund. →

The International Montessori Training Institute (IMTI) is pleased to host a Webinar with Dr. Ayize Sabater:

Cultivating Awareness of Racism in American History

Saturday September 26, 2020

1:00- 2:30 pm EDT

Far too often in the U.S., students learn about the “American master narrative” or the “founding fathers” when exploring American history. In light of continued and grotesque racial injustices, we may need a new lens. We may need an approach that allows us to thoughtfully interrogate the “American Master Narrative,” one that challenges the “founding fathers.“ Together, in this presentation, we will interrogate and explore some well-known moments within the USA’s history towards the hope of realizing a liberatory lens. 

Please join Dr. Ayize Sabater for this important and timely dialogue.

REGISTRATION OPENS SEPTEMBER 14th! (click here or go to the Montessori-imti.org website to register)

COST: $30—All proceeds to go to the Black Montessori Education Fund.

This webinar will be recorded and made available to those who register but cannot attend the live session.

Books for the times we are living

“An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking: it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.”

— Maria Montessori, Education and Peace

We are experiencing a global pandemic and, in the United States, a reckoning with racism and inequality. We have been searching for books that might help our Adolescent Communities dive into these issues.

Here is a collection of books recommended by seasoned Montessori adolescent guides. It is an eclectic collection touching on themes of isolation, racism, inequality, and pandemics.

If you have books to recommend (for ages 12-15 or 15-18) please email us at contact@montessoriadolescence.com. We will happily add them to the list.

  • Revolution, Deborah Wiles

  • Farewell to Manzanar,  Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston

  • The Rent Collector, Camron Wright

  • Crossover, Kwame Alexander

  • Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

  • The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

  • Fever Year, Don Brown

  • Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl

  • Stella by Starlight, Sharon M. Draper

  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie

  • The Martian, Andy Weir

  • Refugee, Alan Gratz

"Lockdown Learning Questions Children's Conventional Education"

“We don’t set up a blackboard and tell children at 12 months that it’s time to walk.”

In a May 2020 article on the Child and Family Blog titled “Lockdown Learning Questions Conventional Education,” professor Angeline S. Lillard pointed out that the global pandemic is shining a spotlight on what is broken in our education system. That is, it is not designed around the developmental needs of children.

She described the difference between children who, for remote learning, walked around their home or surroundings counting different shapes and making graphs of the data versus those who were expected to sit in front of a computer screen and fill out worksheets.

“This difference in experience is highlighting to parents a gulf between how many children are taught in schools and how learning might change if education were based more on what we know about child development.”

We have been having conversations about this same topic. If ever there was a time for our educational institutions to self-evaluate and take a turn for the better, this is it!

Let’s share the successes of Montessori education and put children’s needs and their natures at the center of how we design education.

Check out the full text of the article at the link below:

https://www.childandfamilyblog.com/child-development/lockdown-learning-questions-conventional-childrens-education/

Preparing the Environment: Remote, Blended, or In-Person

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Thank you to all who participated in Friday’s discussion!

Over 40 adolescent guides from around the world joined together online on Friday to discuss the Prepared Environment for the coming school year. The discussion focused on the needs of young adolescents (12-15 years old), but many of the ideas can be extended to older adolescents (15-18 years old) as well. 

We know as Montessori teachers that the prepared environment is an essential element of our work. Remember that while we are preparing the physical environments for the adolescent community we are also preparing the psychic environment. That is, keep in mind whether or not the environment will feel physically and emotionally safe. 

In this year when some adolescent communities will be learning remotely, some in person, and some a combination of the two, we asked ourselves these questions:

  1. How will we prepare our environments so they provide the order and security our adolescents will need to thrive?

  2. What is necessary in the prepared environment to allow adolescents to continue their process of self-construction?

We asked participants to provide their school situations if known. The group divided almost evenly into three groups: remote, hybrid, and in-person. Take courage in that! Whatever your situation, you are not alone in this adventure. 

Special thanks to our facilitators: 

Erin Foley, Sam Rotker, Susan Holmes-Glazier, Emily Dowell, Chris Marks, and Kira Donnelly!

The following are summaries of the notes from each of the breakout sessions. 

*Please note, these are shared ideas to help you think through how to successfully create your spaces for learning this year. They are not official recommendations. Please follow all state and local guidelines. * 

In-Person Learning

The Physical Space 

  • Look at your spaces and strip them down, get rid of extra 'stuff' and clean, clean, clean!

  • Be outdoors as much as possible because virus transmission seems to be much lower outdoors.

  • Set up an outdoor tent (or more than one), like a field station

  • A carport tent because it is taller, meant to be outdoors for long periods, and the flaps stretch out to optimize spacing 

  • Students bring in their own camp chairs

  • Use labeled personal lap desks or clipboards rather than tables 

  • Bins (plastic for easy cleaning) for students to carry around personal belongings

  • All students have their own, labeled, individual supplies

  • Remove couches and soft chairs because they can't be easily cleaned

  • Sanitizing stations (including outdoor stations) for shared materials - ie: science equipment

  • Have students design posters to help with reminders of sanitization, traffic flow, or general guidelines to follow

  • Despite our practice of student responsibility for cleaning the environment, admin. must set up outside cleaning to happen daily during this time. 

  • Consider purchasing electrostatic cleaners and UV wands

  • Merv 13 or HEPA filters for HVAC

  • Plexiglass dividers

  • Unidirectional pathways

  • Remove large tables and replace with individual

  • Masks inside at all times and off outside only when 6ft or more apart

  • Use of big hula hoops to help designate spacing outside

 Reentry ideas:

  • Orientation is key! 

  • Phase reentry into smaller groups to practice and provide orientation lessons on traffic flow, how to wear a mask, bathroom use, eating etc.

  • Lots of sanitizing lessons. Think of them as repeated 1st period lessons.

  • Invite specialists - physician or psychologists into school to meet with students to ask questions and inspire a greater understanding from an expert

  • Facial reading Creative Expression work or workshops on masks: 

    • Theater with masks - neutral mask techniques, communicating with your whole body 

    • Discuss Historical context of how masks were worn in different cultures and contexts. Make masks replicating historical masks

    • Study the history of Black plague and Spanish Flu

    • Use of clear masks for better communication

  • Community building in place of an Odyssey Trip: canoeing, community building games socially distanced

  • Creative Expression outdoors: earth art, nature sketching, watercolor landscape painting

  • Mandatory removal of shoes upon entering building 

General Thoughts:

  • Prepare ahead but include students in process

  • Invite reflection and process on how we live in a community safely at this time  

  • Employees are asked to sign a 'return to work waiver' so invite students to sign one too

  • Code of Civility should now include - emotional safety and tech safety

  • If doing live streaming of classes for any students at home, check into picture release requirements

Remote Learning

Remote learning is a challenge for all. In the spring, we were just trying to get through to the end of the academic year. We need to approach this year with a solid plan and to meet the needs of the adolescent. 

Code of Civility

  • This sets the tone for everything that follows. Start with this and build from it.

  • Use breakout rooms to create the code of civility.

  • Small groups could create a video to share their component with others.

  • Give 9th year students the opportunity to schedule their own time.

  • Schedule time for the 7th and 8th year students to collaborate - this will help the 7th year students acclimate and give the 8th year students a chance to lead.

Welcoming and orienting new students -

  • Encourage 8th/9th year students to offer words of advice.

  • Build community early with younger students by including 6th year students in activities such as an online scavenger hunt.

  • Create an online game like Minecraft, but make it “classcraft”

  • Meet with 7th year advisory separately.

  • Provide support for 7th year students to help them adjust to the adolescent work.

Structuring the day - 

  • Students are looking for outlets to feel useful, to find purpose, to have ways to discover themselves. Provide opportunities for this in the day and week.

  • Work on projects away from zoom. Help students schedule time to collaborate.

  • Challenge students to take on new responsibility at home and report back.

  • Provide students with a template for planning their day/week with two columns: planned time and actual time spent. Check in regularly on progress.

Useful platforms and structures

  • Students can create lessons to teach others.

  • Use Flipgrid to make and share videos. 

  • Work on etiquette for posting comments: positive and constructive feedback.

  • Padlet is another platform.

3rd Period Ideas

  • A rap battle in Humanities based on their study. For example, Civil War, one rap for the North, one for the South - make a TikTok video.

  • Create a collaborative work of art. Choose a piece, grid it out, and give each student their grid to re-create with food.

  • Students prepare lessons for lower elementary students: read aloud, a cooking lesson, cartoon drawing lesson. 

  • “How-to” videos for a household chore that students have never done before. Present using flipgrid.

Math Seminar

  • Using Google Whiteboard or Google Jamboard, students can prepare their work prior to the workshop time. They can create different pages for their work and then share it as they explain their work. 

Creative Expression

  • Send essential items home in individual kits.

  • Sidewalk chalk art.

  • “Chopped” cooking challenges to do over video chat.

  • Bob Ross day - dress like him and create a video to present to the class.

  • Have casual “knit-in,” or drawing/painting sessions over Zoom.

Physical Expression

  • Make a workout that is 30 minutes long and complete it together over zoom.

  • Students create a physical fitness plan - they set a goal and frequently check-in with guides or advisory groups.

Community and Work on the Land

  • Deliver a kit of food to each house. Cook it together over video chat. 

  • Decide what meal to cook at each house, then eat it together over video chat.

  • Gardening at home: Start the seeds at home, bring transplants to school at a scheduled time to plant in the school garden.

  • Complete farm work with fewer students who meet there and work for a couple of hours.

  • Meet on a rotating basis in small groups at school every Friday to work in the garden.

  • Invite guest speakers to join by video call: Senators, Congresswomen, climate change experts, other Montessori students.

Hybrid Learning Situations

Work on the land / Production and Exchange / Service

  • Microeconomy in a box - providing materials to take home

  • Farm in a box - providing materials to take home or deliver to students

  • Look for individual economic ventures

  • Create an online microeconomy with ability to take orders and payments

  • Service projects at a distance: cooking and baking at home for a school lunch program

  • A collective plant sale

Community

  • Fear of Missing Out - how do we connect the group that has to stay at home?

  • Webinars with specialists

  • Making global connections - zoom with other programmes

Local Travel

  • Involve parents

  • Camping with individual tents

  • A series of day trips

  • Keep in mind respecting the natural distancing between adolescents and parents

  • Preparing campsites can be hospitality work

  • Independent travel

What is next? 

We plan to host more discussions as the school year approaches. Please feel free to suggest topics for discussion at contact@montessoriadolescent.com and check the Events tab for announcements and instructions about registration. Have a story about something that went really well in remote learning so-far? Please reach out to us. We are happy to have guest bloggers share their experiences. 

Charting the Course: Forming Community from the Start

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Thank you to all who participated Tuesday’s discussion!

Over 40 practitioners came together to share their experience and ideas. The following is a summary of the conversation.

What we know is that there’s still a lot we don’t know about COVID-19 and adolescents.

Current scientific evidence suggests that school aged children, especially those under ten, are: less likely to contract the COVID-19 virus; less likely to develop severe symptoms; and less likely to be vectors of transmission to others in the community. Children older than ten may have the same susceptibility and ability to pass along the virus as adults. Growing evidence shows adolescents are at a greater risk to be negatively affected by the physical distancing measures put in place to mitigate community transmission. Studies are starting to show increased levels of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders due to the prolonged isolation from peers and social groups

The developmental tasks of adolescence are to form a sense of personal identity and build the skills necessary to function as an adult in society. These tasks can only happen within the context of a social group, in the context of community. This is why adolescents are so drawn to their peers and why community is emphasized in Montessori adolescent programmes.

Themes that emerged in the discussion

The Importance of Face-to-Face interactions

Even if schools are starting virtually at the beginning of the year, can you find ways for your community to meet that are in keeping with your jurisdiction’s physical distancing guidelines?

  • Meet at local parks or open community spaces for to see each other in person before having to interact online

  • Plan physical or creative expressions that can be done safely at a distance

    • scavenger hunts

    • orienteering

    • painting murals or chalk art

  • Community service project done in small pods

    • Creek or park clean up

    • Neighbourhood beautification projects

    • Making masks

    • Organizing food drives

    • Creating care packages for unhoused individuals

    • Supporting those in Long Term Care Facilities

  • Work on the land

    • Repairs/maintenance on school buildings that can be done in small groups

    • Harvesting gardens and caring for animals in a rotation

    • Partnerships with local farms who are without workers to help bringing in crops

    • Processing vegetables and fruits outside for preserving

  • Re-think start of the year rituals and trips

    • Odysseys that are local and respect physical distance guidelines

Intake and Orientation

  • Host student goal-setting conferences out of doors (at school or on a front porch)

  • Mentorship between current adolescents and new students

  • Set clear guidelines and expectations within which the adolescents can design their community contract/code of civility/ charter for the year

  • Involve the parents, their observations of their children are essential in online learning situations

  • Ask adolescents returning from last year to share their perspectives as you plan for this year

  • Have returning adolescents hold instructional tutorials or make videos about how to navigate the online learning environment :

    • How to sign on to GoogleClassroom

    • How to post an assignment

    • Etiquette of a Zoom meeting

Building Community Online

Remember all those “experiences of social life” that are integrated into the day of an adolescent programme. How can those be recreated/replicated online?

  • Cooking together

  • Eating together

  • Sharing in cultural celebrations and rituals

    • Birthdays for example

  • Creative and physical expression

  • Community Meeting

  • Social activities

    • Games/Trivia

    • Virtual Escape Rooms

    • Murder Mysteries 

    • Clubs and extracurricular activities

    • Movie nights

Production and Exchange

Experiences the economic system (production and exchange) build community because they appeal to the adolescent needs for economic independence and collective work.

  • Engage your adolescents in the challenge of converting your in-person micro-economy to an COVID safe business.

    • What can still be done in person?

    • What products can still be made?

    • How will you sell them? Advertise?

    • How will people pay?

    • How are other business managing during this moment in time?

Involve Returning Adolescents

When programmes moved to distance learning in the spring, communities had been together, in person, for many months; the culture was set. We will be starting from scratch in the fall, but we will have adolescents with institutional memory.

  • Recruit older students to help plan events, set the culture, make suggestions for what works and what doesn’t

  • Talk with them separately from the new students about the responsibility they have in building this new community from their memories of pervious years

  • Empower them with information, get them to lead the charge for adopting health and safety measures be it mask wearing, hand washing, and physically distancing in person or cyber safety, responsible technology use, and making time to be offline.

What is next? 

We plan to host more discussions as the school year approaches. Please feel free to suggest topics for discussion at contact@montessoriadolescent.com and check the Events tab for announcements and instructions about registration. Have a story about something that went really well in remote learning so-far? Please reach out to us. We are happy to have guest bloggers share their experiences. 

Amplifying Some Fantastic News

This afternoon, The Black Montessori Education Fund was launched by Dr. Ayize Sabater. We here at Project Erdkinder think the best way we can raise awareness about this exciting new venture by sharing this post from Nsoroma Montessori Consulting.

““[The Montessori m]ethod fit[s] our yearning…for another [liberatory] approach to educating our [Harlem community Black] children” (Sylvia Townsend, 2019)

Dear Friend,

The Black community continues to be attacked by systemic racism and individuals from police to persons in the highest seats of power in this land. Additionally, the Black community is currently being ravaged on a number of fronts, by long-standing factors: educational dysfunction, police brutality and most recently by COVID19, which has killed Black people twice the rate of Whites on the national level. Now, like never before, we need a visionary vehicle to disrupt the above mentioned assault and advance Black excellence to help weather these storms and present viable interventions. 

One possible intervention can be found in Montessori education, if it is culturally responsive and anti-racist. The Montessori method is a proven liberatory educational practice. Montessori education is a unique educational approach that utilizes student-driven learning which affords teachers the opportunity to nurture the needs of the whole child, to reach that child’s fullest potential. Dr. Maria Montessori, over 100 years ago, created this approach which has nurtured the holistic development of children from around the world. Montessori education is grounded in a highly specialized theory of human development (Whitescarver, 2015). Additional research (Lillard et al., 2017) found that public Montessori programs, working with high-poverty preschool children, closed the socioeconomic income gap between children. There have been a number of Black educators (like: Rose Butler Brown, Roslyn Williams, Leonora Gertrude Briggs, etc.) who have been trailblazing within the Montessori arena for decades and who have helped thousands of Black children and families around the USA. 

After more than a decade of Montessori educational leadership work, Ayize Sabater is now seizing the time to launch this new Fund to expand the above mentioned work done by Black Montessori educators. The fund’s purpose is to advance justice + equity + diversity + inclusion (known as J.E.D.I by some progressive activists) for Black folk. The BMEF seeks to amplify the voice and bolster the power of Black Montessori educators. To advance these principles, the Black Montessori educational fund, will:

 1. provide scholarships for Black students to attend Montessori schools.

2. provide funding for Black Montessori leaders seeking to establish Montessori schools.

3. provide scholarships for Black adults to become J.E.D.I trained Montessori educators (on varying levels: including: teacher; administrator and trainer level).

4. employ Black educational leaders to research, advocate, organize and promote the advancement of Black Montessori education.

You can see the original post by following this link.

We just donated to the fund and encourage you to do the same if this cause resonates with you.

Strata Montessori Proves Odysseys Can Still Happen

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When we officially heard from the Ontario government that no one would be going back to school this year, our adolescents responded with mixed emotions. Though they were relieved to finally have some certainty, they had all hoped—like we did—that we’d be together again in June. As an adolescent programme matures, traditions and rituals become unifying opportunities for the community. They’re events that help each year of adolescents connect to each other and feel a part of the history of the programme. As I spoke with the adolescents in my advisory, they talked about missing out on all the traditions which mark the end of our year together. One of the saddest pieces of ending the school year apart was not being able to go on our final Odyssey, biking through Ontario’s Prince Edward County. After hearing the comment being made in Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting, we decided surely we could still make the Odyssey happen.

Over the course of two weeks, staff and students met to find a way to still honour the spirit of the Odyssey—physical challenge, community, and service—in another way.  We came up with the first (and hopefully only) Strata Virtual Odyssey! From June 8th - June 15th the Strata Community embarked on a collective effort to bike, walk, run, skate, or swim the more than 7,000 kilometres we would have ridden on the Bike Odyssey.

To help organize our planning, the adolescents chose to be in one of four groups inspired by the members of a competitive cycling team.

Strata Montessori Adolescent School continue their end of year Odyssey despite COVID-19 remote schooling.

  1. The Domestiques were in charge of raising awareness and keeping people motivated. They posted videos to the GoogleClassroom, organized group rides that respected physical distance regulations and even devised a conversion table for those choosing a method of transportation other than biking to calculate their kilometer totals. Others from the group wrote motivational notes to each of their peers and delivered them during the week. Possibly their most successful idea was their method for participants to track their progress. They broke the 180 km personal goal into colour coded segments red for the first 25km, yellow for 25-50, green for 50-70 and so on. Each adolescent was encouraged to change their profile picture in GoogleClassroom to show how far they had gone. Such a simple but effective way of making everyone feel a part of the endeavour.

  2. The Mechanics got involved in the logistics of the Odyssey. They researched apps people could use to map their rides and posted video tutorials to help other students learn to use them. Others researched trail systems and safe-cycling routes in the different cities and towns in which students lived. Members of this group also became the bike maintenance and safe-riding experts, sharing resources to troubleshoot common cycling problems and bike safety and etiquette.

  3. The Soigneurs focused on the social events that typically happen during the evening on Odyssey. Four events were planned: a games night, a camp out with star gazing, a cookout and a final campfire. Each of these events was programmed by the adolescents complete with advertisements , instructions and options for different ways students could participate. For example, they encouraged participation in the camp out at the comfort level of each adolescent, suggesting building a blanket fort indoors, pitching a tent in their backyard, or building a shelter out of natural materials. Because it can get lonely roasting a marshmallow by yourself, they sent our Zoom invites and encouraged families to participate with their adolescents to give these events more of a community feel.

  4. The Sponsorship team was responsible for picking a charity and creating the system for submitting pledges. They researched local charities and debated the pros and cons of each before deciding to partner with the Salvation Army. They created a pledge sheet and established a GoFundMe page so sponsors could directly donate during this time of isolation. When other students questioned the choice of selecting the Salvation Army, given reports of an anti-LGBTQ+ stance, they had to do further research to dialogue with their peers about the choice. It was an unexpected but powerful learning opportunity!

Camp Fire Invite

This weeklong endeavour was a chance for students to get outdoors, be active, raise money for charity and make some memories. Ultimately, the Strata Community “biked” over 3000 km and raised over $2500 dollars for the Salvation Army. Though we did not meet our target goal, we did have 100% participation and managed to successfully come together as a community. When we think about remote learning, so often we jump to using technology to maintain academic expectations. What our experience shows is that technology can also support one of the key needs of adolescents, to feel part of a community of their peers. By capitalizing on the strength of adolescents to think creatively in novel situations and push beyond the status quo we were able to re-imagine our traditional Odyssey to still provide a rich experience in a new reality.

Tools for Remote Learning

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On June 16th, 2020, 36 Montessori guides joined us for an online discussion titled Montessori in a New Reality. Among other things, guides shared tools that they tested and found useful in remote learning. 

*Note - We are not getting paid to promote any of these, we get no personal benefit if you use them, and we have not personally tested them all. 

Here they are…

  • Google Classroom - for organization

  • Zoom and Google Meet - for online classes and meetings

  • Jamboard - a shared whiteboard in the google suite of tools

  • Canvas - a learning management system

  • Slack- for organization and communication

  • Flipgrid - allows students to create and share short videos

  • Daily Calm - for group mindfulness

  • Prezi video - allows you to record videos and add graphics

  • Parlay - was helpful for Socratic seminar discussions

  • Loom - for pre-recording video lessons

Montessori in a New Reality: reflections on remote learning

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So many questions! So many good ideas! We are all better if we do this work together.

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us (virtually) on June 16th for discussions about remote learning for Montessori Adolescent Communities! We heard from 36 people in a variety of school settings in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. 

Our overarching theme was this: What did we do well? What can we do better? 

In the spring of 2020 we did the best we could while in crisis management mode. Now we have some time to reflect, to share our observations and experiences, and to ground our planning for next year in the foundations of Montessori educational principles. 

Themes that emerged from the discussions:

Communication and Community! 

  • Be in touch often with students and families. 

  • Hold an open parent forum online every few weeks. 

  • Have advisory meetings at least weekly. 

  • Make sure students know how to get a hold of you and when you are available. 

  • Group work was essential.

  • The students asked for opportunities for social fun, whether online or events such as birthday parades. 

  • Have community council meetings 1-2 times per week.

  • Try moving to the platforms the students like to use - Tik Tok, Minecraft, etc.  

  • Create cooking challenges such as making a particular type of cookie or creating a delicious dish with a strange ingredient.

  • Organize small groups of students to do menu planning and cooking. The cooking would happen in their own kitchens. The meal would be to share with their family, perhaps with some formality. 

  • Create a cookbook of recipes created by students.  

Routine and Consistency

  • Be intentional and consistent about how you communicate, when work is due, when students are expected to be online. Decide on a platform and teach everyone how to use it well.

  • Some options for work and study structures online: 

    • Start together, log off (or use breakout rooms) and do follow up work individually or in small groups, then check back in as a whole groups. Be available during the “second period” work time. 

    • Have seminar discussions. Math seminar can happen by individual students presenting their screens and explaining their work.

 Balance of Head and Hand

  • If there are animals to feed or chores to do at school, have families rotate weekly responsibility for them. 

  • Take on challenges such as the “egg drop” or “egg catch” where students must construct protection for an egg dropped from up high. Record these and share the videos.

  • Do building projects in person with small groups of students, wearing masks, outdoors. 

Engagement and Balance

  • Take pictures of Creative Expression and Physical Expression adventures to share weekly. This is both for accountability and inspiration.

  • Have a pre-recorded online coffeehouse that is then watched all at the same time.

  • Hold a virtual art show.

  • Encourage creative writing about the experience of remote learning during the pandemic.

  • Encourage small groups of students to work together on video calls to paint, cook, or take on other creative activities. 

  • Food for thought: are we demanding more during remote learning than we would have been in the classroom because we feel like we should be providing something? Are we prioritizing and modeling rest and reflection during a stressful time? This does not have to be the most productive time of one’s student years. 

 Student Safety  

  • Create a policy about acceptable numbers of adults and students on a call. Check out school and local regulations for guidance.

  • Create an Online Technology Use Agreement together as an Adolescent Community. Write it up and have everyone sign it. Include norms for video calls and chats, intellectual property, and more.

This is a beginning. It does not answer all of our questions or make remote learning easy. However, it was comforting to find patterns in our observations and inspiring to hear stories of what went well. Hopefully it is the beginning of ongoing, rich conversations.

What is next? 

We plan to host more discussions throughout the summer. Please feel free to suggest topics for discussion at contact@montessoriadolescent.com and check the Events tab for announcements and instructions about registration. Have a story about something that went really well in remote learning so-far? Please reach out to us. We are happy to have guest bloggers share their experiences. 

 

Saying Goodbye From a Distance - Remote Farewell Ceremonies

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What is at the core of end-of-year farewell ceremonies?

Individual reflection

Group reflection

The emotional disbanding of the tribe

The hopeful beginning of something new

These are a few of the many pearls of wisdom shared in the “Saying Goodbye from a Distance” online discussion today hosted by Project Erdkinder. Thank you to everyone who participated! Most of us are in the wild days of the end of a school year, and we really appreciate the time you took to come together.

Special thanks to the facilitators:

  • Emily Dowell

  • Erin Foley-Wirts

  • Susan Holmes-Glazier

  • Pat Ludick

  • Colin Palombi

  • Robb Wirts

Why do we have farewell ceremonies?

  • To honor our togetherness as a community.

  • To reflect on who these young people are becoming.

  • To honor that human connection and civility are at the core of Montessori teaching.

  • To give a sense of closure for individuals, families, and the school community.

What are the important elements of farewell ceremonies?

  • Personal self-reflection of students.

  • A private, emotional ceremony that recognizes the disbanding of the tribe.

  • A public recognition of the gifts of the individuals who are completing this phase of their adolescence.

  • To have adults, including guides who were with these children as very young children, say to the students, “I see you, I know who you are, I trust you to take your gifts forward into a new community.”

  • To say goodbye, or at least, it will be a while before we see one another again.

Practical ideas

  • Give graduates a blank journal. Ask each of their previous guides (Toddler, Children’s House, Elementary, Adolescent) to write a personal note to the student in the front of the journal.

  • Incorporate symbolism, such as a lantern or other representation of light, into the ceremony.

  • Hold a drive-in graduation where families can social-distance in their cars and broadcast the speeches on a short wave FM radio station.

  • For some, finding a way to be physically together (please check your local guidelines for what is safe at the moment).

  • A slide show of the Adolescent Program’s year.

  • A slide show of graduates from their earliest years in Montessori to the present.

  • Involve the students in the planning of farewell rituals, even at a distance. Ask them what is essential, and in turn, what rituals to let go of in this time of distancing.

  • Donate money from the microeconomy to a local charity as an act of service.

  • Include a new tradition that represents these months of remote learning. Could be a time capsule, a piece of artwork, or collection of writing.

  • Record student speeches live, at school, in small socially-distanced groups. Put them together and stream them later online for the whole school community.

We can do this. Together, we can translate existing rituals into ceremonies that make sense for the present moment and still honor the human beings who are completing a cycle in their lives. Thank you to all Montessori Guides for your creativity and flexibility.

“Adaptability, …this is the most essential quality”

-Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence

America Dissected S2E19: COVID and the Classroom

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This morning, America Dissected released an episode that spoke to a lot of the questions that I have been asking myself lately. In it, host Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, epidemiologist and former Health Officer for the City of Detroit, examines what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children, parents, and educators in the United States. You can listen to the whole episode HERE or find it on most podcast services.

If you aren’t able to listen to the episode, here are some key points from Dr. El-Sayed’s conversation with sociologist and education researcher, Nikhil Goyal, that stuck with me.

  • Children, families, and educators are all experiencing trauma. For some, these are entirely new stresses, but for others this outbreak is exacerbating existing trauma. Children of frontline workers are especially vulnerable to the stresses and anxieties of this time. The issue is compounded by how difficult it is to provide trauma informed care virtually.

  • Learning gaps are just a reality. Online education cannot replicate the same learning environment as school. We need to acknowledge that students will have learning gaps and start thinking about how those gaps can be identified and filled later on.

  • We need to manage our expectations. This is not life as normal. Our prepared environment has transformed from in-person communities with purposeful work and genuine social organization to a virtual environment where each individual is experiencing some level of trauma. Why should we hold our adolescents and ourselves to the same expectations we had before this crisis started?

  • School is more than just academics. Children, especially in the public system, receive essential services through their school. It is a place for socializing, play, and connecting to a community beyond the family. Motor skills, critical thinking, problem solving, and social skills are all things practised at school. The developmental impact of sheltering in place on children is not yet known but we need to be thinking about more than just supporting learning academic content as this isolation continues.

Tales from Remote Learning

Ah change, my constant (and often unwelcome) companion, here we are again.

  • Two weeks ago we were at school agonizing about whether or not to cancel the Montessori Model United Nations trip to New York City because we were just beginning to hear about this new coronavirus.

  • One week ago we were pretty sure school would close for a week or two so we tried out videoconferencing at school with the students and asked them to bring home all of their books and work.

  • Now we are at the end of week one of project Remote Learning and getting ready to hunker down in our homes for the foreseeable future (weeks or months?). It has all happened so fast!

    TALES FROM REMOTE LEARNING WEEK ONE

The first lesson should be no surprise: adolescents rise to the challenge in a crisis. The students have been steady, flexible, forgiving of one another’s shortcomings, diligent in their school work, open about their fears, compassionate toward one another and toward those unseen who are suffering,

The second lesson should be no surprise either to anyone who has studied Montessori philosophy: human beings are adaptable.

The third lesson just makes me feel old: these students are digital natives and can pick up any technology with ease. They have been truly patient and excellent teachers to those of us born before computers were commonplace.

The fourth lesson is also common sense, but we are living it first hand: it is difficult to sit in one place and be in front of a screen for any length of time. We have limited video call lessons and discussions to two hours per day.

The fifth lesson is that the only reason we are able to transition to remote learning is that we just spent seven months building a strong and resilient community. We have struggled, cried, argued, debated, played, and studied together and formed bonds that are helping us get through this now.

The sixth lesson is that purposeful work takes many forms. In more normal times I would be looking for work and studies that connect us physically to the land, to our community, and to our place on the planet and for ways to make meaningful contributions to that community. Now, in these uncertain times of coronavirus and Covid-19, perhaps our purposeful work is to support one another, to maintain and strengthen our community, and to provide some normalcy for ourselves and our families. Personally, I am grateful to feel a sense of purpose and not to just wallow in fear and anxiety. I have new systems to create, new technology to learn, and most of all students who may need help navigating the strangeness of this situation. It has lifted my spirit to talk with them every day.

Looking for Literature Seminar Ideas?

Sometimes when you are not feeling inspired by what is on your shelf, it is just nice to have a list. Here are some ideas from Adolescent Guides with many years of experience. These are shared with primarily young adolescents in mind (12-15 years old). It is by no means exhaustive, but gives some tried and tested favorites:

  • The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien - character development and what it means to be a hero

  • Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury - symbolism, motif, and the value of books

  • The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera - an indigenous voice on the shifting role of girls and women

  • House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros - beautiful language

  • All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr - written by a Montessori child all grown up, a relationship story during WWI

  • The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton - accessible to students who are not as strong readers

  • Langston Hughes’ short stories - Thank you, M’am (look in American Street - a multi-cultural anthology)

  • Our Town, Thornton Wilder - can be read reader’s theater style

  • Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

  • Summer of My German Soldier, Bette Greene

  • The Giver, Lois Lowry

  • Night, Elie Wiesel

  • Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury

  • Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

  • Tribe, Junger - for more mature readers

  • Life of Pi, Yann Martel

  • To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

  • Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

  • October Sky, Homer Hickman

  • Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee

  • Animal farm, George Orwell

  • 1984, George Orwell

  • Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer - non-fiction

  • The Marrow Thieves - a Young Adult dystopian novel by an indigenous author

  • The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

  • The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's

  • The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mark Haddon

  • Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

Call in the alumni!

Ever have a bad day in the classroom? Ever feel like you don’t have the energy to swim upstream against the current? Ever wonder if these seeds we plant with our students will ever really germinate? Ever just want a nap more than you want to plan your next project? Call in your alumni! Go ahead – ask them your tough questions. Have parents ask their tough questions.  They are ready.

Were they prepared academically for high school and college?

Yes.

Were they prepared for the social transition to a larger school community?

Yes.

Was the transition difficult?

No, but maybe how to work a locker’s combination lock could be practical life work. Dressing frames, zippers, buckles, combination locks. Other than that, it was easy.

But wasn’t the adolescent community awfully small at a time when they are very focused on social life?

Relatively speaking, yes. It made us learn how to work together. We were a community.  You looked past the differences and got the work done.  That has been an important skill in High School and College. Now that I am looking toward employment after college, teamwork is everything. That is what employers want. I learned that in our Montessori adolescent community.

Are you glad you stayed for 9th grade?

Yes. Yes and Yes.

In the 9th year I gained leadership skills, refined my work habits and skills as a student (like time management, asking questions, doing group projects, being patient). I developed a lot of interpersonal skills.

I wish I had stayed for 9th grade.  That year is essential, you are really figuring yourself out, and I think it would have been much better for me if I had stayed for 9th grade.

But I am worried that my child has to leave the safe bubble now.  

In the Adolescent Program, I had a sense of the big picture, what was going on around the world, and how my actions affect the bigger things.  It is the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum; it shows you how the world works.

Looking back, what is your biggest takeaway?

A strong work ethic.

Having choices in my studies allowed me to figure out what I was interested in.  I cared about my work, and was interested in my work, because I got to choose.

In High School I didn’t care as much about the content. It was more, “Why am I learning this?” In Montessori the purpose of everything you learn is very clear.

Did you feel ready to take tests? How can we help prepare students for tests?

Well…study. It is really a time management skill.

A Guide said recently that the Montessori Adolescent Program is a “safe place to fail.” Did you find that to be true?

Yes! I was not afraid to ask for help.  I learned to take challenges and make mistakes.

I learned from Math Seminar that is it not just ok to fail but to put it up on the board and show it in front of everyone.

What about grade pressure?

I didn’t realize how focused I was on getting good grades in High School until I got to college and started to enjoy learning for learning’s sake again.

In high school those numbers defined who you were.  But you know, some of the students who were in the top 10 ended up having a hard time in life. It is more about character and work ethic. That’s what is important.

Guide, Teacher, Practitioner, whatever you call yourself, the work really is worth it.  If you ever doubt it, call your alumni.