The Student Becomes the Teacher
Then the teacher becomes the student again. The best part is that you never have to be one or the other. You can always be both. As a mom, I sometimes forget to be the student. Sometimes moms and dads think they have to have already figured everything out. But we don't! We shouldn't! And, we CAN'T!
This is something I'm learning at my sons' Montessori school. The grownups and the children have teaching and learning opportunities in the Montessori environment. My almost-two-year-old is attending the program two mornings per week. I get to stay with him, because he really can't do an entire 3 hours yet. I also have to make sure he doesn't eat the beads, throw a temper tantrum or have a toddler meltdown. That would not be tolerated at MOH. It is a quiet, serious environment where everyone works towards their own goals and interests.
The amazing thing is that Kieran is adapting very well. He now understands that you choose something to work with from a shelf, you carry that work to a table, you do your work, then you carry it back. The other kids sometimes try to teach him how to use the tools correctly. I watched one little girl show him how to do a number puzzle today. He watched her and then put the entire thing together by himself.
Sometimes he gets frustrated when I remind him to put his work back before getting something else off of the shelf. But, I don't give up. I make sure he completes the task. If he screams, yells or cries, then it's time to go. I had to take him out today and he was so unhappy about it. However, that's the only way he will learn that screaming and yelling is not acceptable. He's doing so well. I'm just in awe of the way my boys learn.
Soren, my almost-five-year-old, absolutely loves school. I overheard a conversation between he and his teacher, Nancy, this morning. He was saying that MOH is the best place and he just loves being there. He then went on to ask Nancy about a particular work that he remembered doing last year. He described, in great detail, an experiment involving the displacement of water. He remembered that there was a bowl for things that sink, a bowl for things that float and then you put the things into a container and added water to see what would happen.
Nobody made him learn about that. Nobody gave him a test or a quiz to be sure that he had, in fact, mastered the concept. It was simply one of the many works that line the shelves at MOH, and it caught his eye. The teachers explained the purpose of the work and gave him the words like 'displacement' and 'volume'. Then he was left to see the natural consequences of his actions. This is real learning. It is not memorization for a test or mastering a skill to get some sort of applause or recognition. He was curious, he was interested and he was ready to LEARN about that. So, he DID! He then retained that knowledge for a year. Why? Because he learned it when he was interested and ready, rather than when someone else decided he SHOULD be ready.
That's how it works. It's just that simple. People are born wanting to learn about their environment and they have different interests and ways of approaching the world. In the Montessori philosophy, there's room for all of them.
I feel so calm and sure of my purpose when I'm at this amazing little school. I know that, by the end of this year, I will be ready to undertake homeschooling. I'm just so very grateful to be able to have this experience with such gifted teachers. It's exciting. It's joyful. It's REAL LEARNING!
This is something I'm learning at my sons' Montessori school. The grownups and the children have teaching and learning opportunities in the Montessori environment. My almost-two-year-old is attending the program two mornings per week. I get to stay with him, because he really can't do an entire 3 hours yet. I also have to make sure he doesn't eat the beads, throw a temper tantrum or have a toddler meltdown. That would not be tolerated at MOH. It is a quiet, serious environment where everyone works towards their own goals and interests.
The amazing thing is that Kieran is adapting very well. He now understands that you choose something to work with from a shelf, you carry that work to a table, you do your work, then you carry it back. The other kids sometimes try to teach him how to use the tools correctly. I watched one little girl show him how to do a number puzzle today. He watched her and then put the entire thing together by himself.
Sometimes he gets frustrated when I remind him to put his work back before getting something else off of the shelf. But, I don't give up. I make sure he completes the task. If he screams, yells or cries, then it's time to go. I had to take him out today and he was so unhappy about it. However, that's the only way he will learn that screaming and yelling is not acceptable. He's doing so well. I'm just in awe of the way my boys learn.
Soren, my almost-five-year-old, absolutely loves school. I overheard a conversation between he and his teacher, Nancy, this morning. He was saying that MOH is the best place and he just loves being there. He then went on to ask Nancy about a particular work that he remembered doing last year. He described, in great detail, an experiment involving the displacement of water. He remembered that there was a bowl for things that sink, a bowl for things that float and then you put the things into a container and added water to see what would happen.
Nobody made him learn about that. Nobody gave him a test or a quiz to be sure that he had, in fact, mastered the concept. It was simply one of the many works that line the shelves at MOH, and it caught his eye. The teachers explained the purpose of the work and gave him the words like 'displacement' and 'volume'. Then he was left to see the natural consequences of his actions. This is real learning. It is not memorization for a test or mastering a skill to get some sort of applause or recognition. He was curious, he was interested and he was ready to LEARN about that. So, he DID! He then retained that knowledge for a year. Why? Because he learned it when he was interested and ready, rather than when someone else decided he SHOULD be ready.
That's how it works. It's just that simple. People are born wanting to learn about their environment and they have different interests and ways of approaching the world. In the Montessori philosophy, there's room for all of them.
I feel so calm and sure of my purpose when I'm at this amazing little school. I know that, by the end of this year, I will be ready to undertake homeschooling. I'm just so very grateful to be able to have this experience with such gifted teachers. It's exciting. It's joyful. It's REAL LEARNING!
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