As I near the end of my second month in the classroom, it seems
appropriate to reflect on what I've learned and much more that I have
yet to know.
Every group of children is different.
As a wise mentor once told me, "it's all in the mix." In a Montessori
classroom, if you have an older group of children not settling down to
work, a sense of chaos will descend through the age groups. Start at
the top and help connect the older ones to materials, and their
concentration and calm will also spread. Additionally, adjusting group
routines to be more seamless and finding tasks that serve a particular
child's needs is a never-ending process.
The children who cannot sit still in a group should be dismissed first, not last.
They are not yet able to do what you ask of them. Making them sit
longer as punishment will only lead to frustration and diminished
self-control.
Let the child who lies on the ground carry heavy things.
He may be flailing because of delayed muscle development. Sitting
cross-legged could be painful for his spine. Give him baskets of books
or other materials to carry, invite him on errands involving stairs.
Let the child who feels small among his peers feel big among the younger children.
The group clown who distracts others from their work may have noticed
that his peers have received more lessons than he. He may feel
developmentally inferior, or socially excluded, and act out for the
attention he desires. Ask him to help prepare cots in the nap room, or
read a page of a story to the children settling down to sleep. He may
just rise to the occasion and swell with purpose and pride.
Some children have diagnosable needs which require adjustment to routine or other interventions.
Despite claims of over-diagnosis, ADHD is real - as are sensory
processing disorders and other special needs. It's important to
determine whether the safety or educational experience of the rest of
your students is being compromised by one or two children and respond
accordingly. Many options exist outside of asking the child to leave
the school, such as bringing the student into the classroom before or
after the other children to ease transitions, designating a place for
this child to go if he needs down-time, shortening the child's day, etc.
I look forward to reading The Out of Sync Child on this topic.
Building individual relationships and trust with students requires effort and time.
Children pick up on energy, body language, and tone of voice when you
interact with them. Another assistant told me that one three-year-old
would run away from her when he saw her approaching in a huff, so she
adjusted her body language and mannerisms to better reach him. Many
young children act out because they have not learned how to control
themselves. Responding in a friendly tone with understanding is more
reasonable and helpful than trying to squash behavior you assume snubs
your authority. You will connect with each child differently, depending
on his or her personality and your own. It takes time to understand
these nuances and establish a relationship with each child.
Learn how to focus on an individual child while staying aware of the rest of the classroom.
And determine your classroom blind spots and figure out how to monitor
them discreetly, such as going to straighten materials.
Hone the ability to know when a small group is needed and how to orchestrate it.
Invite the first years who are rolling on the floor, calm energy with a
finger play or song, and re-connect students to the environment by
having them close their eyes and think of a material they'd like to
choose, assigning older partners to help younger children straighten
materials, or taking a walk to a shelf and having students choose a
material from there.
Learn to be a captivating storyteller. Learn to be a captivating
storyteller about a paperclip, plastic bag, or anything else you have on hand. As mentioned in the post
on transitions, children are in a sensitive period for language
development. Provide language enrichment to draw children away from
frenzy and back to center.
Every directress has weak areas, or areas where she's trying to grow.
One directress may wonder whether she is too controlling of her
classroom. Another may lack a passion for music and neglect the
materials for music. Another may not give Grace and Courtesy lessons to
the older children. Some blind spots are seen, others are not; some
are worked on, others are not. I am still trying to figure out the
sources of weaknesses in directresses and what I want to proactively
work on in myself.
Questions that I continue to ponder are as follows:
What sets the strongest Montessori directresses apart? Factors
I've considered include understanding and practice of the Montessori
philosophy, amount of directress experience, directress personality,
relationship with individual students, level of observation of and
intuition into childhood development, classroom management style,
frequency of lessons given, breadth of lessons given (i.e. teacher is
equally passionate about, knowledgeable of, and prone to introduce each
material), relationship with assistant, communication with parents, etc.
If a directress says a child is a worker or she has a classroom of workers, to what is that attributed? Factors I've considered include the directress's ability to connect children to the environment, the child's disposition, the mix of children in the class, the child's home life, the culture of the community or time, etc.
Approximately how many lessons do you give each day?
How often does an average child receive a lesson? A faster child? A
slower child? What are the indicators that it's time to give a lesson?
How long does a lesson usually last? How soon do you give follow-ups
like the distance game?
Re-direction is used in the
Montessori philosophy rather than punishment to lead students toward
positive behavior, self-discipline, and ultimately concentration. What determines the balance between friendly and stern re-direction of students?
Factors I've considered include the student's age, personality,
behavior history, type of behavior, directress personality, etc.
How does a Montessori directress navigate the relationship with parents and help establish consistency in the home?
How can a Montessori directress gauge success? Factors I've considered
include the number of normalized children in the classroom, esteem of
children, esteem of colleagues, esteem of parents, etc.
