I Loved Today

What a glorious day! Tower Tuesday went beautifully, and in the afternoon we encouraged project work, and what a sight it was! There were students busy at work on mats all over the floor. There were science experiments happening, there were art projects in the works based on zoology, matter and force and motion, and there were students hard at work on math and tower projects. Some students still had trouble settling (little JS among them), but I suspect it had more to do with the sudden and unexpected freedom granted to them. I believe it we make project work a central part of our classroom rather than an unexpected novelty, it will help the students normalize and find their path to knowledge.

I've been reading some great Montessori books, and it has been impressed on my mind that the heart and soul of a true Montessori classroom ought to be the cultural curriculum. Well, I looked at my own classroom and saw that, um, the cultural curriculum was getting the shaft, BIG TIME, in my classroom. So we're trying out some new things - one of them is encouraging project work, but the other is the demise of the morning tasks. We're not going to be giving set tasks each day, though the tasks will still be there. Students will be encouraged to complete the tasks, but we're not signing off anymore, and we're not having students miss recess anymore for not doing their tasks. We're trying to encourage a more organic Montessori experiences. We'll see how it goes.

We've decided we're going to back of of redhead RB and let her find her own way. We will continue to encourage work, but we will let her be sometimes too. It's kind of like what we did with JJ last year. She's smart and mostly on level, so we're going to back off of her academics and let her become socially normalized. I'm sure she'll get there - she's grown so much!

Oh yeah, one last thing: Kati and I are going to wean ourselves from "good job!" We both found ourselves saying it over and over - it's like tourettes for teachers! So we've enlisted the students to help. They are supposed to call us out whenever they hear it, and we'll be donating a penny per offense to the classroom cash collection. I expect the coins will add up quickly initially, but we're going to break the habit!

_____

Case Study

Without prodding or undue pressure from either me or Kati, JS got a tower done this morning. She wandered a bit in the afternoon. I found her hovering at the sewing table, and when I asked if she needed some help, she complained that "She wanted to sew, but RB was still not done." When I told her that she would have to wait until RB was done with her turn, she went to find something else to do, but it was almost like she needed someone to remind her that when a material is being used it is unavailable, and that while waiting for a turn with something we must occupy ourselves with something else. Hmm.

Later she wanted to do a science experiment, but we ran into the same problem: both of the experiment charts were in use, so she would need to choose a project that didn't require the chart or wait until a chart was available. Instead she put the materials away and chose to work on calligraphy at the light table. It turned out to be a good choice for her. She was able to put all of her attention on the strokes of her pen and produce some lovely script.