How Can Montessori Teachers Meet The Needs Of So Many Different
Children?
by Tim Seldin
President of the Montessori Foundation
Information provided
by: www.montessori.org
Montessori teachers do more than present curriculum. The
secret of any great teacher is helping learners get to the
point that their minds and hearts are open and they are ready
to learn, where the motivation is not focused on getting good
grades but, instead, involves a basic love of learning. As
parents know their own children's learning styles and temperaments,
teachers, too, develop this sense of each child's uniqueness
by developing a relationship over a period of years with the
child and her parents.
Dr. Montessori believed that teachers should focus on the
child as a person, not on the daily lesson plan. Montessori
nurtures and inspires the human potential, leading children
to ask questions, think for themselves, explore, investigate,
and discover. Our ultimate objective is to help them to learn
how to learn independently, retaining the curiosity, creativity,
and intelligence with which they were born. Montessori teachers
don't simply present lessons; they are facilitators, mentors,
coaches, and guides.
Traditionally, teachers tell us that they "teach students
the basic facts and skills that they will need to succeed
in the world." Studies show that in many classrooms,
as much as 40 percent of the day may be spent on discipline
and classroom management. Montessori educators play a very
different role.
Wanting to underscore the very different role played by adults
in her schools, Dr. Montessori used the title "director"
or "directress" instead of "teacher."
In Italian, the word implies the role of the coordinator or
administrator of an office or factory. Today, many Montessori
schools prefer to call their teachers "guides."
Whatever they're called, Montessori teachers are rarely the
center of attention, for this is not their class; it is the
"Children's House."
Normally Montessori teachers will not spend much time working
with the whole class at once. Their primary role is to prepare
and maintain the physical, intellectual, and social/emotional
environment within which the children will work. Certainly,
a key aspect of this is the selection of intriguing and developmentally
appropriate opportunities for learning to meet the needs and
interests of each child in the class.
Montessori guides have four principle goals:
Montessori teachers rarely present a lesson to more than a
handful of children at one time, and they limit lessons to
brief, efficient presentations. The goal is to give the children
just enough to capture their attention and spark their interest,
intriguing them enough that they will come back on their own
to work with the materials.
Lessons center around the most CLEAR and simple information
necessary for the children to do the work on their own: the
NAME of the material, its place on the shelf, the ground-rules
for its use, and some of the possibilities inherent within
it.
Montessori guides closely monitor their students' progress,
keeping the level of challenge high. Because they normally
work with each child for two or three years, guides get to
know their students' strengths and weaknesses, interests,
and anxieties extremely well. Montessori guides often use
the children's interests to enrich the curriculum and provide
alternate avenues for accomplishment and success.
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