Reframe Your Approach to Peace

I’ll never forget the wonder I experienced during my 3-6 training when learning about Montessori education as a means of creating world peace.  The idea that our youngest children have the potential to transform humanity when we nurture their spirit and expose them to tools for gaining inner peace and the guidance to resolve conflicts…

R is for Rewards

R is for Rewards Recoil Learning

Rewards can shape behavior by providing incentives for performing certain behaviors.  Use of extrinsic rewards, such as money, gold stars, or candy, can have unintended consequences.  These include reducing performance by singularly focusing effort on the reward, or making behavior dependent on receiving a reward rather than increasing or enhancing understanding.   Rewards are Either…

P is for

P is for Participation Promotes Purpose

So much of what we do as Montessori educators is proscribed from the annals of Dr. Montessori and passed down generationally through our training to become certified guides.  This entire blog series seeks to uncover why what we do works and how we might enhance our practices to improve student learning outcomes.  This week’s focus…

Imaginative Play

I is for Imaginative Play Ignites Self-Control

Imaginative Play is at Work in Montessori Environments   Most people would agree that children naturally love to pretend play and use their imagination to create alternate worlds.  Most people would agree that this imaginative play is a natural part of human development.  What most people don’t agree upon though, is whether pretend play should…

Hands On

H is for Hands On Holds Attention

Hands On Learning is a Hallmark of Montessori Methodology   The focus on specific hands on elements in learning environments scaffolds the learning to be acquired.  Hands on materials allow for lessons to build upon one another and extend a student’s abilities in a stepped fashion that proceeds from concrete to abstract.  Through her observations…