Terms You Need to Know as a Parent: Certification

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Today we’re continuing our series Terms You Need to Know as a Parent.

Terms You Need to Know as a Parent
Part 2: What does Montessori certification include?

Teachers are Montessori certified only after they have completed extensive training, rigorous testing and hours of observation through a MACTE (Montessori Association of Teacher Education) accredited teacher training or through AMS (American Montessori Society) or Association Montessori Internationale.

The First Plane of Development: What

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Today, we continue our series on the Montessori Planes of Development with a look at the first plane, spanning from birth to age six.

The first plane can best be described as a time of exploration. As Gretchen Hall, Director of Training at the Montessori Training Center of New England, points out in her 2011 article How Science Fits Into the Whole Montessori Curriculum (The NAMTA Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1, Winter 2011), developmental psychologists have called the infant the “the scientist in the crib.” As a child comes closer to the primary level (2.5–6 years), the need for psychological clarity and order develops. Children at this age are natural explorers who enjoy learning what. Their primary focus is on developing and testing how the world works.

Hall notes that modern science confirms what Montessori discovered over 100 years ago: the child from birth to six has extraordinary intellectual powers given to help in the task of creation. Montessori believed children have an absorbent mind and go through sensitive periods that are optimal times for learning. During the first plane, children have a love for the natural world, refining their skills through coordination activities that aid in the development of concentration. Independence becomes a priority, and they develop a keen sense of order.

Other posts in this series:

The Planes of Development: Developing the Joy of Learning

The Third Plane of Development: How Can I Apply What I Know?

The Second Plane of Development: Why and How

Montessori and Education Reform

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Education reform is a consistent topic of debate in local communities and the nation at large.

In her article, Montessori: The Missing Voice in the Education Reform Debate, Laura Flores Shaw, Head of School at Oak Knoll Kinderhaus Montessori, gives a thorough overview of the potential of Montessori as an answer.

I can tell you that the solutions we are all looking for are both simpler and more radical than the noisy debaters would have you believe. We need to do more than reform education. We need to transform it.
– Laura Flores Shaw

Terms You Need to Know as a Parent: Accreditation

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Each Wednesday, we’ll share Parent Education posts – content that covers specifics about our school, classroom curriculum, Montessori in the home, and information that’s relevant to parenting in general.

Today we’re beginning a new series: Terms You Need to Know as a Parent. The name “Montessori” can be used by any establishment, regardless of the educational background of the teachers, the curriculum they teach, or the materials they have on the shelves. As parents, the only way you are assured a quality Montessori environment is by viewing accreditation, certification, and licensing credentials, and being informed of what these credentials mean.

Terms You Need to Know as a Parent
Part 1: What does the accreditation process include?

Accredited schools have obtained the highest level of recognition by an accrediting organization. Accreditation is earned through self-studies and a quality review team. Accreditation occurs for programs, not facilities. Organizations such as SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools), IMC (International Montessori Council), AMS (American Montessori Society) or AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) accredit programs only after the program has been validated as being of quality. Our school has earned SACS Accreditation and AMS Accreditation.

Montessori Philosophy: What are the Montessori Planes of Development?

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Montessori education is based upon three planes of development: birth to age six, age six to twelve, and age twelve to eighteen. As Gretchen Hall, Director of Training at the Montessori Training Center of New England, described in her 2011 article How Science Fits Into the Whole Montessori Curriculum (The NAMTA Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1, Winter 2011), each plane is a distinctive psychological learning period characterized by the physical and psychological changes that take place during its span, as well as specific environmental needs to support development. The Montessori Method considers the unique needs of each age group by varying focus within each plane of development. In the first plane, the child focuses on the world and the facts. In the second plane, the child focuses on the universe and reason. In the third plane, the adolescent focuses on how to transform society.

Join us next over the next several Mondays as we discuss each Plane of Development and the importance of fostering the joy of learning.

An Introduction to the Montessori Math Curriculum

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Have you ever wondered how math is taught in the Montessori classroom? This video, an excerpt from a series by Montessori educational video producer edvid.com, provides a great overview of the Montessori math curriculum, moving from sensorial work in the primary classroom through concrete and abstract concepts in the elementary environment.

An Introduction to the Montessori Math Curriculum

The First of the Five Great Lessons: The Story of Creation

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The Five Great Lessons are a key part of the Montessori Lower Elementary curriculum. Designed to both introduce the child to large concepts and illustrate how smaller ideas and elements are a part of the whole, the Great Lessons provide an overview of history, from the beginning of the universe to the developments, discoveries, and achievements of mankind. These exciting lessons inspire a sense of wonder in the student and encourage an understanding of the purpose of more specific areas of study as an integral part of a larger framework. The Great Lessons are presented each year to build familiarity as students progress through the Lower Elementary classroom.

The Great Lessons are not connected to a particular religious viewpoint; rather, they are designed to develop in the students an awareness and respect of the human journey, and a desire to explore and seek truth in the world around them. Tying in with our character education, the Great Lessons teach diversity of life on earth, basic needs, and the interconnectedness of all living things.

The first of the Five Great Lessons, the Story of Creation, tells the story of the origins of the universe. Below is a video illustrating the Story of Creation as it shared in the Lower Elementary classroom.

Technology and Your Child’s Brain

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Technology is part of our children’s lives. Here’s a short video examining one researcher’s opinion regarding technology and children. After watching, you may decide to do more research to make a family decision regarding the amount of technology your family allows.

What Is Cosmic Education?

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You may hear the term “Cosmic Education” when discussing the Elementary curriculum at MAV. But what is Cosmic Education, and how is it valuable to the child’s experience?

Cosmic Education is an educational approach founded by the Italian physician-educator Maria Montessori in the first half of the 20th century and developed in detail by her son, Mario Montessori, after her death in 1952. It is rooted in the principle that a knowledge of the universal whole allows us to understand the value and purpose of its parts, and how their individual stories form a larger narrative.

In the last 50 years many scientific discoveries regarding the universe have been uncovered. Maria Montessori was a visionary with great insight. Even in her time, she could foresee the potential unfolding of scientific knowledge and its impact to future generations. In her 1942 work, To Educate the Human Potential, Montessori stated:

“Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe… If the idea of the universe be presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder… The knowledge he then acquires is then organized and systematic; his intelligence becomes whole and complete because of the vision of the whole that has been presented to him… No matter what we touch, an atom, or a cell, we cannot explain it without knowledge of the wide universe.”

The result of this educational approach, at both the elementary and the university levels, is a curriculum that unifies all the subjects of human knowledge into one, coherent, continuous, and comprehensive study.

Historian David Christian continues this approach in his course work today, explaining:

“Big history surveys the past at all possible scales, from conventional history, to the much larger scales of biology and geology, to the universal scales of cosmology. It weaves a single story, stretching from the origins of the Universe to the present day and beyond, using accounts of the past developed within scholarly disciplines that are usually studied quite separately.”

The importance of the Cosmic Education approach is beautifully demonstrated in Christian’s The History of the World in 18 Minutes, the introduction to his Big History university course, seen here as presented at the TED conference in March 2011.

Teaching Kids to Recognize and Label Their Emotions

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Has your child ever been so upset but they couldn’t tell you why? Want to help your children communicate better with each other? This is a great article that will introduce ways to help your child recognize and label their feelings.

11 Ways to Teach Kids to Recognize and Label Their Emotions