albums

[Rose-Roget]

I see this concept when I look through Montessori sites. What exactly is a Montessori album? Is it the specific lessons, progression/curriculum a teacher follows? Should every Montessori teacher have an album?

[MattBronsil]

Originally Posted by Rose-Roget

I see this concept when I look through Montessori sites. What exactly is a Montessori album? Is it the specific lessons, progression/curriculum a teacher follows? Should every Montessori teacher have an album?

Ah...albums. Here's my math album, just to give you an idea of how much work they are:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...a&id=723050289

Yes...it's a big thing of lessons as well as articles and papers on Montessori or related subjects.

[Drummer's Wife]

My albums explain every detail of each lesson (and include illustrations). They were a lot, a lot of work, to say the least. I am AMI trained (0-3), and we had to write them ourselves (as opposed to having the pages printed out for us).

Every teacher should have albums - but they won't necessarily refer to them often or even keep them at school.

[Rose-Roget]

Thanks! Wouldn't it just make sense that they would refer to them? I mean, after all that work - why just abandon them? It's not a single subject of focus, like a dissertation might be - aren't they meant to be used?

[Rose-Roget]

Matt, that album looks like a lot of work! Did you have to do one for language, culture, etc. also? I also peeked at some of your other pictures - those kids look like they enjoy school way too much. Are you actually teaching them anything?

[mamadebug]

I have AMI training for 3 - 6 years old, and each of my albums look similar in size to Matt's album. We had to make one album each for Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Math. The albums we were required to make included 2 or 3 ten+ page papers on what ever area the album was in, write ups (2 to 5 typed pages) on each material in that area and an illustration to go with each write up (no photos or anything - hand drawn only). The albums were a tremendous amount of work.

I was taught that we should have them in the classroom and refer to them. But, when I did my student teaching, one of the head teachers I worked under got really upset and told me I was cheating when I tried to refer to my album. Perhaps it is a style issue? Although, in keeping with the Montessori philosophy, I would think they should be kept accessible to the teacher for reference when needed.