Montessori Classroom: Second Month as Assistant

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.