A Conversation Today
April 29, 2011I’m thinking about a nice conversation I had in one of our lower Elementary classrooms today. A few students were watching a friend work on the trinomial cube. When he finished the cube, he said, “I saw the videos on our Facebook page!” (referring to the three videos that have been on our Morey PSA website for a while which are now linked to our Facebook page). Others chimed in with some excitement. Then the same child asked, “Why did our school switch to Montessori?” The others looked at me expectantly. I said there were basically two reasons:
- Many educators know that Montessori classrooms are really good for children.
- When we were told we should offer something different than the area schools, it was decided that Montessori would be the best thing to offer.
I asked, “Did you know there have been Montessori schools for over 100 years?” They were very impressed, and started giving their opinions about what was good about Montessori. They talked about being able to use lots of materials instead of just sitting and listening. One shared the fact that he feels sorry for his buddy who goes to another school because he is so bored. He doesn’t have these great tools to use. “They don’t even have maps!” (referring to the puzzle maps we use to learn political geography). Another said he likes that he can do math, then reading when he chooses, but not all at the same time like everyone else. It was interesting and inspiring to have that impromptu conversation with the children. It reminded me to get their input more often – not to mention give them more information about the story of Montessori and her schools all over the world.
