Montessori Is Right Pick for a New Choice School
On March 21, School Board members eliminated three of four options suggested by school staff for solving Arlington’s overcrowding program. The only remaining option includes building a new choice school.
We hope Arlington will move forward with a plan to create a new choice school to help alleviate overcrowding by choice, not force – and consider making it a Montessori school.
More than 40 years ago Arlington started one of the first public Montessori programs in the country, and more and more Arlington families are choosing the century-old educational model.
There are almost 600 APS Montessori students in 31 classrooms. Those students are as young as 3 years old and as old as 8th grade. And there are approximately another 350 students in private Montessori schools in Arlington.
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Teachers explain children in Montessori classroom are self-directed and self-disciplined learners
Cincinnati WCPO
Parents have more options for Montessori education in Cincinnati than ever before. Its self-directed classroom curriculum has drawn lots of supporters as well as critics from both parents and educators.
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Ten-year-old discovers 'new molecule' while tinkering with educational model
The Mail Online, by
Nina Golgowski
A 10-year-old Missouri girl may be the
youngest in history to discover a new molecule after a brief
introduction on molecular formation by her middle school science
teacher.
Clara Lazen of Kansas City was piecing together over-sized atoms from an educational model in her Border Star Montessori School classroom when she composed something her teacher had never seen before.
'I
just saw that these go together more,' Clara told Fox4 while holding up
her molecule's model. 'Like, they fit more together and they look
better. And all the holes have to be filled in for it to be stable.'
Montessori: The Missing Voice in the Education Reform Debate
Over a century ago, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered through scientific
observations of children that they are not empty vessels to be filled --
they are intrinsically motivated doers. She saw that providing a
hands-on learning environment that valued choice, concentration,
collaboration, community, curiosity, and real-world application produced
lifelong learners who viewed "work" as something interesting and fulfilling instead of drudgery to be avoided. Now, research in
psychology and neuroscience continually validates Dr. Montessori's
conclusions about children and learning, and Montessori schools are
flourishing -- not just preschools but, increasingly, elementary, middle
and secondary schools. So as the education reform debate thunders on,
with the many sides agreeing on little beyond the fact that our schools
as they are currently designed are failing our children, I can't help
but wonder: Where is the voice of the Montessori movement in the
American school reform conversation?
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Parents Should Consider Montessori Options
Arlington Sun Gazette, Letter to the Editor
Every January, many Arlington parents go school shopping
– not for supplies, but to determine where to send their students
for their first day at school.
Arlington offers a wide array of excellent public schools and
programs, including one growing one: Montessori.
Arlington is a leader in public Montessori education, now
celebrating its 40th year. There are almost 600 students in 31 APS
Montessori preschool, elementary- and middle-school classrooms.
(And there are more than 300 other students in private Montessori
schools in Arlington.)
The Montessori method helps children master the Arlington
curriculum and develop a love of learning by using hands-on
materials in a student-directed multi-age classroom.
Montessori-certified teachers offer differentiated instruction to
help students learn at a pace that allows them to gain confidence
and that fosters curiosity to learn more.
State tests show they are learning. Drew Model School’s
Montessori SOL scores, the County’s most diverse elementary
program, mirror the county’s SOL scores as a whole.
The countywide program at Drew is open to all Arlington students
and busing is provided. At a time when APS is trying to tackle
capacity issues, many families are already helping to solve the
overcrowding challenge by choosing Montessori.
To learn more about the Montessori program, you are invited to
attend APS’s Montessori Information Night at Drew at 7 p.m. on Feb.
8 (snow date: Feb. 15), and to go to the Arlington Montessori
Action Committee Website at www.arlingtonmontessori.org and search
for “Montessori Revealed” to learn more.
Karla Hagan, Arlington
The Washington Post
Most kids in a Summer of KidsPost photo: Thirty-seven students from
Montessori schools in Arlington took KidsPost with them to Greenbrier
State Park in Virginia for a weekend camping trip.
Montgomery approves its first charter school
The Montgomery County Board of Education approved its first
charter school Monday night, sending a cheer through the crowded board
room and signaling a breakthrough for a movement that is pushing to
expand beyond struggling inner-city districts.
In a 6 to 2 vote, the board authorized a new Montessori-based
elementary school and officially handed over the keys to Crossway
Community, a nonprofit organization, to run it.
School board member Patricia O’Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase) said she
was proud to help shepherd in a “historic moment in Montgomery County”
by voting for the school.
“I believe strongly that Montessori
education has a proven track record, Crossway has a proven track record,
and that they have dotted all their I’s and crossed all their T’s and
met all the challenges that we threw to them,” O’Neill said in an
interview before the vote.
Joan Franks Selected 2011 National Distinguished Principal
Quoted from MESPA
Joan
Franks, principal of Armatage Montessori School in the Minneapolis Public
Schools, and a member of the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’
Association (MESPA), is Minnesota’s 2011 National Distinguished Principal
(NDP). The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and MESPA present
the prestigious award, which has corporate sponsorship from VALIC.
The
NDP program was established in 1984 to honor exemplary elementary and middle
school principals who set the pace, character, and quality of education
children receive during their early school years. The program highlights the
fundamental importance of the school principal in achieving educational
excellence for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students and reinforces
their continued leadership in helping children develop a lifelong love of
learning. One NDP principal is chosen annually from each of the 50 states and
the District of Columbia.
“Making sure that all kids learn, grow, and achieve is
core to my mission as a building principal,” said Franks. “At Armatage, the
combination of high standards for all, additional support for struggling
students, and the Montessori method allow us to help students develop to their
fullest potential.”
Twenty years ago, an abandoned public school building in
Montgomery County became a social services hub for a working-class
neighborhood that was rapidly transforming into a major destination for
newly arriving immigrants.
Since then, converted classrooms have become subsidized
apartments for single mothers and their children. An old gymnasium
serves as a community center that neighbors book for events such as
first aid training and foreclosure prevention counseling.
A nonprofit organization known as Crossway Community, which oversees the
center, also offers parenting classes, jobs counseling, and
Montessori-based child care and preschool classes, which draw long
waiting lists every year.
...
The school would open in 2012 and eventually serve up to 188 students
from preschool through third grade. It plans to hire state-certified
teachers and incorporate state learning standards into the curriculum.
In exchange, the county would give the school about $14,000 annually per
student. It would become the first public Montessori program in
Montgomery.
Developed in Italy a century ago, the Montessori
method is distinguished by mixed-age classrooms and student-directed
learning. It also emphasizes life skills and social skills.
The New York Times, by Adam Bryant
This interview with Jeremy Allaire, chairman and chief executive of Brightcove, an online video platform for Web sites, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. The New York Times Company owns a small stake of less than five percent in Brightcove.
Jeremy Allaire, chairman and C.E.O. of Brightcove, an
online video platform for Web sites, says the initial hires are key in
building a business. In his case, he sought bright people “with whom I
could have a high-bandwidth conversation.”
Q. What were your most important leadership lessons?
A. One of the most important influences early on was
being educated in a Montessori setting. The Montessori ethos was very
formative for me because it built into me a belief in self-direction, in
independent thought, in peer collaboration, in responsibility.
Those even became tenets for me in terms of my management style — a kind
of laissez-faire approach to allowing people to self-direct and
peer-collaborate to figure things out and get things done here. That
attracts a certain kind of person. There are other people who can’t
thrive in that — they need things spelled out, they need their five
tasks.
Another was that I took an interest in high school in extracurricular
activities that were really about critical thought, analytical thought
and leadership. I was on the debate team. I did model United Nations.
So at a very young age I became very comfortable with speaking in a
leadership capacity, conveying ideas, arguing for ideas and synthesizing
information.
Photo:Earl Wilson/The New York Times
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The Wall Street Journal, Ideas Market, by Peter Sims
...The Montessori Mafia showed up in an extensive, six-year study about
the way creative business executives think. Professors Jeffrey Dyer of
Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of globe-spanning business
school INSEAD surveyed over 3,000 executives and interviewed 500 people
who had either started innovative companies or invented new products.
“A number of the innovative entrepreneurs also went to Montessori
schools, where they learned to follow their curiosity,” Mr. Gregersen
said. “To paraphrase the famous Apple ad campaign, innovators not only
learned early on to think different, they act different (and even talk
different).”
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Google Founders Talk Montessori - with Barbara Walters
The White House announced that Clark Montessori High School is
one of six national finalists in the “Race to the Top High School
Commencement Challenge,” a public school competition to bring the
president to the ceremony.
Montessori Moves In: Method long popular in private schools becomes public school option
The Boston Globe, by Tracy Jan
Montessori education, a discovery-based method long popular in
private schools, will soon become an option for parents through the
Boston public schools, part of a national trend by public systems to
adopt the approach as a way of enticing middle-class families into urban
schools.
Good at Doing Things: Montessori Education and Higher Cognitive Functions
Steven J. Hughes, PhD, LP, ABPdN is Director of Education and
Research for The TOVA Company, and assistant professor of pediatrics and
neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Hughes
completed his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Minnesota
and his post-doctoral fellowship in pediatric neuropsychology at the
University of Minnesota Medical School, where he joined the faculty of
the Division of Pediatric Clinical Neurosciences in 2001.
"Good at Doing Things" from Steve Hughes on Vimeo.
Dr Steve Hughes: Montessori and the Future of Education
We also believe that the most innovative entrepreneurs were
very lucky to have been raised in an atmosphere where inquisitiveness
was encouraged. We were stuck by the stories they told about being
sustained by people who cared about experimentation and exploration.
Sometimes these people were relatives, but sometimes they were
neighbors, teachers or other influential adults. A number of the
innovative entrepreneurs also went to Montessori schools, where they
learned to follow their curiosity. To paraphrase the famous Apple ad
campaign, innovators not only learned early on to think different, they
act different (and even talk different).
Broward County to add more magnet schools to the district
The Miami Herald, by Patricia Mazzei
In an effort to attract more students to public schools and
keep them there, some Broward schools will be getting new magnet
programs, School Board members agreed in a workshop meeting Tuesday.
And, they promised, no existing magnet programs would be moved.
Magnet programs are intended to lure students to underenrolled
schools by offering specialized tracks in subject areas such as
performing arts and aviation. The county provides free bus
transportation to kids who live outside the school's neighborhood.
...
The well-regarded IB magnets, known as early years and middle
years IB programs, already exist at Wilton Manors Elementary in Fort
Lauderdale and three middle schools -- Deerfield Beach, Lauderdale Lakes
and Henry D. Perry in Miramar. They prepare students for the rigorous,
college-level IB diploma offered in four public Broward high schools.
Also very popular are magnet Montessori programs, which focus
on students learning at their own pace and are now offered at Sunrise
Middle and Virginia Shuman Young Elementary in Fort Lauderdale. Last
school year, Shuman Young had a waiting list of 700 to 1,000 students.
K-8
MONTESSORI MAGNET
To meet that demand, the district's plan will turn a new
Hollywood elementary school known as Elementary School C into a K-8
Montessori magnet -- something Board member Jennifer Gottlieb, whose
district includes the new school, has been pushing for.
"This is something that's going to really pull students back to our system,'' she said.
MPS panel moves to close 1 school, convert another to Montessori B
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by Erin Richards
A Milwaukee Public School Board committee Tuesday approved
significant changes at two schools that have suffered from low
enrollment and poor academic performance, voting to close one and create
a new Montessori program at the other.
In two 5-0 votes, members of the Committee on
Innovation/School Reform Board recommended closing Twenty Seventh Street
K-8 School at the end of this school year, and phasing out the
traditional K-5 program at Garden Homes Elementary School and creating a
Montessori program in its place next year.
...
Parents, students and teachers from the Montessori community in Milwaukee spoke in favor of a new program at Garden Homes.
Montessori schools, which favor an educational method that
emphasizes self-directed learning, have been expanding in MPS and serve
about 2,100 students.
Cleveland: Montessori High School students make 'dino' discovery
WKYC Cleveland
It's the school field trip of a lifetime for most students.
This summer, students from the Montessori High School in University
Circle went to Mongolia to look for dinosaur bones. They went with
paleontologists from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to excavate
in what's called the "Dragon's Tomb in the Gobi Desert." "My plan was
to find a whole skeleton. We didn't find that but we did find a very
nice skull," says Dr. Michael Ryan, of the Cleveland Natural History
Museum. They found the skull of a Saurolophus, which was a plant-eating
dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago. They also found a bone bed
that had been untouched by poachers. This area has been nearly destroyed
by illegal poachers, who sell dinosaur bones on the black market. "It
was amazing. I always loved dinosaurs and always dreamed of finding
them," said 16-year-old Maria van Heeckeren. Ten students went on the
trip. It cost about $7,000 each, so the school helped raise money
through fundraisers and donations. The skull is expected to be shipped
to Cleveland by March, and the students will continue to research it
with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The National Education Report
The Montessori Foundation has been featured in an episode of
The National Education Report, hosted by well known commentator, Hugh
Downs, for National Public television in the United States. It will air
later this year. The show briefly introduces Montessori education and
the work of the Montessori Foundation.
Introduction to Montessori and the Montessori Foundation
The kids who scampered about construction zones in the San
Lorenzo slums of Rome gave the work crews fits. Then the builders heard
some woman doctor was recruiting students for a new school. They begged
her to enroll the troublemakers in the Casa dei Bambini...
Taming Montessori - Education Week
By Linda Jacobson
A century-old educational system that eschews rote learning and regimentation
finds its public school programs under pressure in an era of high-stakes testing.
