The Montessori Method
Education for Peace
At the turn of the 20th century a woman graduated from the University of Rome as a doctor of medicine. The first in Italy. She would go on to work with "the hopeless". Institutionalized children with significant medical and cognitive support needs, as well as impoverished children in an urban setting. Using what she learned working with these children she forever changed our approach to early childhood education.
What Maria Observed
Dr. Montessori's most basic and transformative discovery was that children love to learn. She observed that all children learn by playing and use their hands to understand. Using these observations she created her famous 'method'. Many people believe that the beautiful wooden materials she created are what makes Montessori special, but at Midlothian Montessori we believe that the materials are a very small part of what makes this method so special.
Dr. Montessori believed that:
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Each child is a whole person deserving of respect and autonomy.
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Education should "follow the child" not the other way around.
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Children want to learn and our job as educators is to nurture that love of learning.
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Children are our future and education is the key to peace.
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Children learn best when they are free to move around, make choices, and follow their interests.
Areas of the Classroom
Each authentic classroom will have five areas of learning:
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Caring for self, environment, and community.
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Sharpening all five senses.
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Language
Phonics based instruction prepares children to be strong readers.
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Hands on materials build gradually from concrete to abstract.
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Through geography, history, nature, and science children learn their place in the world.
Primary
Help me to do it by myself.
In the primary classroom children develop independence and self regulation. They develop their sense of self and gain a lifetime love of learning.
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Students work uninterrupted for long periods called "work cycles" and during that time may choose to work on a single activity, or complete many. They may move around the classroom choosing anything that they have been introduced to.
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Through careful observation of each individual child the teacher works to prepare the environment with lessons individualized for the current unique needs of the students.
Elementary
Help me to think for myself.
At Midlothian Montessori School our elementary students learn how to ask deep questions about themselves and the world. Materials continue to gradually become more and more abstract as children explore the decimal system to one billion and beyond. Literature is heavily emphasized as children cross from learning to read to reading to learn. Students spend significant time collaborating in social groups exploring their shared values of justice, fairness, and morality.
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Work cycles continue to allow freedom within limits with children directing their own learning under the watchful eye of their guides.
