Learn about Montessori for All
Hi, Friend!
I hope this message finds you well on your Montessori journey!
Montessori Moment
At the start of every school year, our teachers facilitate connection-building activities among the children. This year, our Upper Elementary teachers facilitated an activity where children partnered up and taught one another a skill that the other partner didn’t know how to do.
One of our most school-adverse 5th graders decided to teach his partner how to crack open a coconut using a hammer. He gathered everything he needed—including 25 small paper cups. After he showed his partner how to crack open the coconut, he poured the water into all the cups and shared it with the entire class. The pride in his heart was palpable as he shared his unusual skill with others and they appreciated the fruit of his labors.
It reminded me of those beautiful moments we get to witness in our primary classrooms. Do you know the ones I’m talking about? Where a child slices up an apple and then walks around offering it to everyone?
It is in those moments where this quote from Maria Montessori comes alive for me: “A ‘great work’ must be undertaken. An extremely important social task lies before us: actuating humankind’s value, allowing [them] to attain the maximum development of [their] energies, truly preparing [them] to bring about a different form of human society on a higher plane.”
During these difficult times, I am grounded by the vision of education for peace.
Montessori For All
At Montessori For All, we produce resources, processes, and professional development to help public schools fully implement Montessori in a way that leads to equitable outcomes for all children. Most public Montessori programs across the United States (including our lab school, Magnolia Montessori For All in Austin, TX), are struggling to disrupt the patterns of inequity that plague the United States. Let’s keep sharing and working together to figure this out!
Featured Resource: Distance Learning Videos
Throughout our year of hybrid and distance learning during COVID, we produced and shared nearly 2,000 videos in a variety of subject areas. We are still using these videos for children in quarantine, as well as for parent/guardian education purposes. I wanted to highlight some of them in case they are useful to you:
We are so grateful to be on this journey with you! All of our tools and resources are “works in progress,” so please feel free to reply with any feedback you have about how to make them better!
With gratitude!
