Deconstructed?

Introductions Please!

I should begin by introducing myself.  For 10 years my students have called me Ms. Meg, short for Megan Trezise.  I am an AMI Primary trained teacher who trained under Nimal Vaz at the Montessori Education Center of Arizona.  I also hold an Arizona teaching certificate and a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education.

I have been blessed to gain teaching experience in an AMI private school and now in Arizona's only public Montessori school that is free of charge for children age three through 8th grade.  Currently, I serve as the school's Montessori Instructional Coach.  I have been part of a teaching team of three teachers and next year I will lead a team of nine primary teachers!

I titled this blog Montessori Deconstructed for a simple reason.  We all leave Montessori Training glowing with enthusiasm, swimming in information, and completely blind to the realities of the classroom!  I was blessed to be the assistant of my mentor teacher, an AMI Directress with over 18 years of experience at the time.  I soaked up all of her information on classroom routines and procedures, classroom management, parent management, record keeping, and the all of the zillions of other things a teacher has to do beside present beautiful Montessori lessons! 

I was very fortunate to have my mentor.  Most trainees don't have that gift, so my intention is to deconstruct the start-up of  a Montessori classroom into manageable bits so a new teacher doesn't get buried in the details and run over by the children!  If you are a veteran, you are probably like me, always seeking refinements for an established community. 

Getting Started

You have finished training and secured a classroom in a school.  Depending on your setting you will need more or less material support from your parent community.  I like to call this part Classroom Logistics. 

•  Snack 
• Your parents will most likely need to provide class snack for the children.
• Will you rotate through the class by day or week?
• I preferred a family bring snack for the week.  When you use this option, a family might only have to bring snack twice a school year rather than once a month. 
• Send an email reminder and shopping list the Friday before the snack is due.
• An example shopping list might be:  1 Large Bag of Apples, 1 lb. of Cheese, 2 Boxes of Whole-Grain Crackers, 1 Small Jar of Peanut butter
• How complex or involved will your snack be?
• In my opinion, simple is better.  When your snack is comprised of cracker, fruit/or veg and cheese or peanut butter, your children will be able to do all of the preparation.
• Keeping it simple also makes making your snack calendar easy breezy!  There are tons of free calendar templates online you can type in your snack for the month to email to parents.
• Here is an example of an old one from my files:

I will break for now.  I would love your feedback as I develop this!  Thanks!