A Montessori Mother

Lucky me! A dear one has procured a library copy of A Montessori Mother from 1912. This text, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, was one of the first books to recount an American experience of the Montessori Method. Fisher visited Italy and was able to observe Montessori schools up close. She chose to write the book because of the strong response of her contemporaries to the visit. She was constantly asked to expound on her visit and the resulting book is part ethnography, part Montessori biography and part summary of the Method.

I'm only two chapters in and plan to read the book in it's entirety. It's a much easier read than any of the books written by Montessori at the time. The 1912 copy has wonderful photo plates that show a classroom in Italy and show children working with the original materials.

What a great read. I plan to order a reprint when I have to return this copy. Amazon has a reprint available for less than $10. This might be a useful and accessible text for teaching about the historical context of the Method for teacher training programs.

Picasa rocks my album making world

Okay. Okay. So I am all ready blogging via the graces of Google. The images you see on this blog are all ready hosted on Picasa.

But, check this out.

I downloaded Picasa2 software from the Google website. Picasa2 has a terrific and fast interface for looking at all the images on my computer. I upload photos from my Canon digital camera using the Canon software. The next time I open Picasa it takes less than 20 seconds to catalog the new images in the Picasa index.

Picasa2 lets you edit images right in the viewing window with fairly powerful effects. Change lighting, straighten, red eye. Clearly a lot of Google genius effort went into making these features useful and simple.

Album making used to be a tedious process for me. I would go into my dated folders, copy the pics for each lesson and put them into a new folder with the lesson title. I would open a Word doc and use Insert Image to stick each image into the document. Then, I'd use Word's image tool bar to brighten or crop my photo. Making the changes in word only effected the image that stayed in Word.

Now, I can edit my pics in Picasa2 and save the changes to the image file. Next, I upload the pics for one lesson into a Web Album. I can caption the web album with description. Then, to print out, all I do is cut and paste the pic and caption text into a Word doc. Done. Then I have a write up saved on my computer and backed up on the internet.

Albums. Easy.

Now, if only you could print the captions right from Picasa's website or from Picasa2... I'd completely eliminate Microsoft from the formula.

This is for Montessorians, too

I just got an iphone. I've never been one for tech hype or early adopting in the past, so it's sort of a surprise for me to be into this shiny pretty thing.

This phone some inspiration to get my albums digital. I looked at practical life album on it today. Holy cow. Link to the Picasa pics right there in the proper sequence. This will change my classroom life. I could keep the phone in my apron and take it out for reference on a break.

I imagine the requisite bookshelf worth of plastic-protected albums will go the way of the roledex in the next 10 years. Gone will be unsnagging stuck or loose pages from the binder rings. Gone will be breaking your back or bike to haul these items from home to the classroom.

sports metaphors

I feel like an Olympic distance runner as I courageously look at the work I've got ahead of me over the next year. Thrilled for the challenge and feeling prepared and confident that I can achieve my goals.

The non-Olympian voice of self-doubt is scared and wishing to curl up in the air conditioning and WATCH rhythmic gymnastics for the duration of summer. "Goals? What's the point?" this voice intones.

My plan: ditch whiny voice self on the couch and pursue album making and philosophy assignments with a caffeinated passion.

practical life album live!

Please visit my new blog, practical life album. Practical life lesson features sequential photos of many of the practical life lessons that are the foundation of the Montessori 3-6 classroom. When possible, I will provide a summary of the lessons and materials and possibly some discussion of the aim of the lessons.

Secrecy

I saw the documentary Secrecy this spring at a film festival. The film chronicles the levels of government secrecy since the Cold War era. Is it surprising that "classified" is more popular in the Bush II government than any before it? Not really. The film really sheds light on the sad legal history of making public docs a big secret by digging into a recently unclassified 1950s court case that has justified the government need for secrecy.

One of the experts from the film discusses the differing mentalities between the Cold War Era and the Digital Age. He argues that openly sharing information about terrorism and terror suspects diminishes secrecy, but can ultimately improve safety because it means more eyes and minds are aware of a terror threats. His point is that more information, more widely available will result in more people who can make connections that can lead to apprehension of criminals.

In this new age of digital information, we global citizens have extreme freedom of information. The internet makes an overwhelming amount of data available. It also makes that data portable and accessible from almost anywhere. It is in that spirit that I am choosing to post photographs and descriptions of my Montessori training albums.

I'm planning to keep the album information limited to mostly pictures. For one, I want to honor the fact that most of my lessons are under copyright protection from my training program. For two, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. And I am wary of losing data from my hard disk, it will be nice to have a web backup.

Still, I have struggled with why I want to make these photographs public. Aren't these my private efforts at learning and creating self-awareness as a teacher? What benefit will these photos provide to a public sphere?

It's easy, I'm making these photographs publicly available to share with the world what it is I care about with passion. I want the world to see more Montessori guides, schools, children, parents. Why not allow the world a glimpse into my interpretation of the lessons of Dr. Montessori?

It turns out that life isn't a 3rd grade spelling test. There are no more teachers berating me to "cover my paper." There are no Soviet spies wanting to steal away my Montessori secrets. There is just you and me and the spirit of Montessori.

three year journey

Having a record of my thinking and self-development over the past three years is a beautiful and meaningful gift to myself.

I am a thinker at the core, and it's easy for me to get carried away by the progress of ideas. Seeing the development of my own ideas and confidence is incredible. It's so easy to forget how ideas change and grow. It's so easy to think that no arriving at a conclusion has required little effort.

Montessori Journey. Just typing that reminds me the power of these ideas.

The practice and promise of Montessori ignite me at the very core of my being. These ideas have introduced me to the concept of spirit in a way I didn't know was possible three years prior.

"Doing Montessori" has truly been a journey of self-discovery, as much as an exploration of methodology and a career.

I am humbled to live out the ideals of John Dewey, that life and experience are one, as the quote at the bottom of the blog explains. Three years ago, I made a decision based on my intellectual training to PRACTICE Montessori. I can look back now with great appreciate for the wisdom of the Dewey way, for my training as an undergraduate to value experience over mere inquiry.

Now, my internal critic is anxious to point out that this decision has led to no fame, no glory and (though more realistically attainable) no graduate level degrees.

However, this journey has awoken in my heart a truer understanding of what it means to give love. It has awoken in my heart and my head the meaning of spirit and the connection between my spirit and that which is divine and what connects us all on this planet. I have been inspired by the writing of Maria Montessori to seek out spirit and connection in my own life that three years ago seemed impossible.

So. Three years later. No fame, no fortune, no MBA/JD/M.Ed/ABD on a Ph.D.

"Just" an awakening of true self-awareness and a desire (and some tools) to deeply connect with the world.

I suppose I'll have to live with that. Good thing I'm interested in living joyfully these days. :)
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Montessori meets positive pyschology and mindfulness

A plan, a plan. Another new year turning around here. There's so much in hope in my heart. I feel full of joy, peace and love. I am anticipating a new year full of excitement and connection.

I've had the most incredible intellectual experiences in the past year and I think that's the direction I want to take this blog. Towards where Montessori fits in with other thinkers -- let's talk Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi(Flow) and Martin Seligman (Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness). How do Positive Psychology and Montessori Method compliment each other?

Montessori anticipated all kinds of thinks that today's psychologists are studying. I want to get on board all of this discovery.

I am also fortunate to have discovered the benefits of meditation and yoga thanks to the book Full Catastrophe Living, by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. The practice of mindfulness is definitely at play in Montessori teaching and the classroom environment. How is Montessori teaching children to be mindful? How can teachers incorporate mindfulness practices in the classroom and outside of it?

Also, I've been doing a lot of writing for the purposes of Montessori training and I'm considering posting it here or elsewhere.

first day reflection

There is so much beauty in this world.

How is it possible that the mere laughter of a child can open the heart?

..that pretend snoring is the most awesome noise that your soul ever heard?
..that when it works it feels great?
..that when it's tough, you can still feel sure of yourself?

It's good to be back.

practical life

Lots of news to report:

I am more than half-way through the schooling to be a certified Montessori teacher. This feels great! Also, DAUNTING! There's more work to this that I want there to be. I want it to be: I care about Montessori, I believe in Montessori, I can teach Montessori...but really, there are some intermediate steps. Most of these steps are usefully -- like knowing the procedure for table scrubbing or sandpaper letters.

So, my task this year is to dig in deep to those extensions and variations to the materials. One of the mentors in my life convinced me that the materials have the answers for my kiddos that spend all day in school. Yes, the need some community driven extras, but there is plenty in the materials to fill up a 10 hour school day.

I have had so much energy for the classroom in this past week (about 2 weeks out from the start of the school year). Lots of thinking coming together. There's a little nagging thought that I'm overthinking things. That I'm putting too much of myself into this. That there really *isn't this much* to think and plan. What if I'm setting myself up for being disappointed.

I know I have the curse of big thinking. It gets me in trouble when I want to do 10 things in a week and can really only get to 2. I need to scale down. I have a 100 ideas for this year and realistically, 20 might be the max. I'm good in the sense that I'm just trying to get a sequence down for the enrichment activities that I plan. The sequence would mirror the kind of sequence in the albums.

For example, I'm looking at what I want to do with art and cooking curriculum. I really want to go clay crazy this year, so we will start with playdough (familiar from at home) to learn how to treat the clay in class and work up to making thinks to take home with model magic and sculpey.

Or for cooking (which my practical life training treated in a mish-mosh way) figuring out the individual skills that kiddos need to prepare food in a small group. Haha, patience is the first one! That was one of the most stressful activities last year because the children would say, "I want a turn, I want a turn," because I was disorganized and didn't layout a consistent ground rule about prep. Or we had to go back to the kitchen to get something, etc. Now, it will be fun to prepare things with the kids because we'll follow a sequence and keep items in the classroom that we use a lot. If I give a lesson (and make a work) about leveling off flour, the kids can do it and I can stress less when we're making cookies.

Also, I'm on a healthy food kick. Got some cool cutting implements and want to do more fruits and veggies. Most of my class last year ate a lot of different fresh stuff.

More to report soon, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, some tasty illustrations courtesy of training lunch hour: