Monday, September 23, 2019

New Beginnings

Fruit stamping at the Art Table
We have started a new year.  

I love the beginning of a new year.  I love that it is full of possibilities and fresh starts.  This feels like a big year for me.  It's the first time in five years we've had a big shift in staffing.   This shift feels good.   There is a new energy in our classroom.  It's infectious and so much is happening both on the Montessori working front but also creatively.  Teachers are making new materials for the shelves.  

There are a lot of Grace and Courtesy lessons happening right now also.  Lessons on how to receive something and say,"Thank you" and how to ask for something and say "Please".  The best, most positive way to effect change is to model it and be open to all the ideas and possibilities.  

So I am watching and listening.  I am listening to our children, and listening to our teachers.  This past year I was taking a management course at a university.  I learned so much, especially about leadership and what a leader looks like.  I am excited to mentor my new teachers.  But most of all I am excited to teach leadership in my classroom.  One of the biggest parts of a Montessori classroom is the mentoring that happens.  The older children naturally mentor the younger children.  We don't call this out and say it is mentoring it just happens very naturally.  It is a beautiful thing to watch unfold. 
Parts of the Sunflower


Fall arrived today; it was the subtlest of shifts.  That same sublet shift is starting to happen in our classroom. We are hearing: "I am bigger" / "I can do more" / "I want to do it myself" / "I want to be the leader" / "Show others how to do it" / "Let them know they can do it their own way."

I've never been more excited about all that I see and hear unfolding around me.  It's going to be a fantastic year!


Table Scrubbing
"It is necessary for the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel her presence too much, so that she may always be ready to supply the desired help, but may never be the obstacle between the child and his experience". ~Maria Montessori

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