Meeting changes and updates

Sunday, February 17th there will be a meeting at 3:00 at United Methodist Church on Broadway with the Montessori Board members.

Our next regular meeting will be Wednesday, February 20th at 3:30 at First Lutheran.

All are welcome and please bring a friend!

Alicia

Blending Thoughts

Hi,
It seems that we are moving ahead with a primary classroom blending Montesorri and Waldorf. So, before we meet to discuss that with the Montessori board, I think we should brainstorm what that could look like. I was having a difficult time envisioning it, as the philosophies are so varied, but then someone presented this idea...

Perhaps Waldorf curriculum (involves much more teacher direction) could be utilized in the morning and the afternoon could be reserved for Montessori curriculum involving more student-directed choice or the afternoons could be reserved for projects, etc. (reflective of "unschooling").

This is would make sense with brain research (I believe) as the time in the morning, students are more able to focus on direct instruction, etc. Then, they would have the opportunity to choose their activities/progress at their own pace in the afternoon when they might need more flexibility. Of course, the afternoon "works" could also include Waldorf projects/handworks too.

I think it is a great idea, but I'd love to hear other ideas as well.

Thanks,
Alicia

Name Chatter

Wow, the cool thing about the internet is that it teaches you how to use itself. So, I have placed a "shout box" to the right of the posts here. They are also called tag boxes or chatter boxes, etc. I had never heard of or used one before so this is actually a bit of an experiment, but what in this process isn't. Luckily we are all self-actualizing, life-long, reflective learners. It's like we all went to Montessori or Waldorf school. Anyway, hopefully this will work out well. My greatest fear is that it somehow will mess the entire blog up, but it doesn't seem to be yet, so I'm crossing my fingers on this.

The purpose here is to have a continuous discussion about a name. The group decided to table a decision on a name for the time being as nobody (including ourselves) was overly enthusiastic about the names we were suggesting. So, PLEASE help us out by lending us some of your creativity and responses to suggested names.

To use the Name Chatter box:
1)Enter your name and message at the bottom of the box. (I just ignore the URL, but if somebody knows that that is a bad idea, please let me know)
2)Click Shout!
3)Enter security code when it appears.
4)Click Submit

It is actually extremely easy. Have fun!

Thanks again!
Alicia