My goal for the evening was to give parents a sneak-peak into our classroom. The Montessori classroom can be a mystery to parents. Students come home talking about bead frames and purple triangles and geometry cabinets and puzzle maps and expect mom & dad to know what they are talking about. I hope that this event allowed you to experience the materials and gain a better understanding of Montessori education. Remember that you are always welcome to peak into our classroom by scheduling an observation.

Students learned quickly that even when you truly understand a concept and a material, it can be a big challenge to explain it to someone else! I often cite this as the most important reason to stay in Montessori for the entire 3 year cycle. Third year students have frequent opportunities to give lessons to younger students. There is a large body of research that shows the best way for a student to solidify and retain knowledge on a topic is to teach it to someone else.

During class meeting on Thursday, students reflected on the event and worked together to create this list of the positive/negative aspects of the experience.

Some positive feedback:

*Everyone spoke clearly during lessons
*We remembered to introduce ourselves
*We were patient and explained things well
*Everyone chose works that they knew really well
*No one complained, even after giving the lesson many times
*It was really fun
*Parents thanked us for giving them a lesson
*Parents were usually polite if someone made a mistake
*After care was fun

Some negative feedback:

*Some parents interrupted a lot
*It was hurtful when parents checked our work on paper while we showed them the lesson (this was added by students who presented math lessons)
*Some parents tried to give us lessons by showing another way we could do the work faster. It was frustrating.
*Some parents were talking to other parents about their kids and some friends overheard
*We ran out of cookies before everyone had one (this is my favorite!)

Thank you to all of you for being flexible when our numbering system didn’t work – we’ll try a new format next time. I will try to get more photos next time – I wasn’t able to get a picture of everyone. We would like to host this event again next year and would appreciate any feedback from parents.

Enjoy the weekend & I will see you all at conferences next week.

A student demonstrates a lesson from the art curriculum.

The most colorful long division work you’ll ever see!

Grammar 101

A trip through Europe’s major cities.

Addition & subtraction on the small bead frame

This student tells the story of the Ordovician Period.