I am a director of a public Montessori school. I am currently teaching a 9-12 class, which isn't my level (I'm 6-9 trained), but my 9-12 teacher moved across country to be with her husband for a job transfer in April, so I took over her class for the last 2 months of school.
The school is 2 years old, so we have a large portion of students who were not in Montessori since preschool, which of course would be the ideal.
I have a group of about 8 boys, who want to talk to each other all day long. I can give them choices, get them interested, but the bottom line is that there is NOTHING more interesting for them, than socializing. Of course, the ideal Montessori classroom says that students may work with whomever they'd like. I know that there are many schools who say not to take students unless they received Montessori early on. However, we are a public school, and though we counsel parents on what would be the best fit for their children, we cannot "kick them out."
I have a friend whose daughter goes to an AMI school, and the director's philosophy is "Montessori is right for every child, but not every family." Of course, this angers the parents, because it assumes that, if it's not working for the child, then there is something "wrong" with the family situation that hinders the child from flourishing.
The solution my former teacher used for these group of boys is to choose specific works for students to do each day. She would create a list of possible job ideas, and highlight them. The students would do them in any order they wish, and at their own pace. However, even that didn't work for these boys, who are like magnets to each other...so she separated them during the day, so that they sat in places without their friends...and this was no easy feat as there are 8 of them who are so tight that they don't ever want to separate from "the pack." Choosing all their work and separating them is so un-Montessori to me, and yet, it was the only thing they could do do keep their focus on work. There has often been talk about distractions in the environment...well, what if the students are constant distractions to each other? Especially 6 of the eight boys are NEVER silent.
So, I tried to have them choose their own jobs, and they had difficulty. I ended up having a class with 75% of students choosing their work, and 25% of students who I chose their work and chose their seats. It doesn't feel good to me, and yet, it feels better than leaving them floundering and without direction, and constantly following them around and monitoring them to make sure that they are engaged in purposeful activity.
Next year I will have two 9-12 classes, and I will separate them into two groups, to make this group smaller. I even had them all choose a research project based upon interest, but these students didn't care about the topic of research...they cared about who they were working with, and even went so far as to forgo an interesting topic if their friends were doing something else, because the need to be with their peers was much stronger than their other internal needs.
Does anyone have any good insights on this matter? I am curious to see if anyone has any feedback, especially anyone whose dealt with elementary students, who are much different than primary students. Thanks you for listening!
The school is 2 years old, so we have a large portion of students who were not in Montessori since preschool, which of course would be the ideal.
I have a group of about 8 boys, who want to talk to each other all day long. I can give them choices, get them interested, but the bottom line is that there is NOTHING more interesting for them, than socializing. Of course, the ideal Montessori classroom says that students may work with whomever they'd like. I know that there are many schools who say not to take students unless they received Montessori early on. However, we are a public school, and though we counsel parents on what would be the best fit for their children, we cannot "kick them out."
I have a friend whose daughter goes to an AMI school, and the director's philosophy is "Montessori is right for every child, but not every family." Of course, this angers the parents, because it assumes that, if it's not working for the child, then there is something "wrong" with the family situation that hinders the child from flourishing.
The solution my former teacher used for these group of boys is to choose specific works for students to do each day. She would create a list of possible job ideas, and highlight them. The students would do them in any order they wish, and at their own pace. However, even that didn't work for these boys, who are like magnets to each other...so she separated them during the day, so that they sat in places without their friends...and this was no easy feat as there are 8 of them who are so tight that they don't ever want to separate from "the pack." Choosing all their work and separating them is so un-Montessori to me, and yet, it was the only thing they could do do keep their focus on work. There has often been talk about distractions in the environment...well, what if the students are constant distractions to each other? Especially 6 of the eight boys are NEVER silent.
So, I tried to have them choose their own jobs, and they had difficulty. I ended up having a class with 75% of students choosing their work, and 25% of students who I chose their work and chose their seats. It doesn't feel good to me, and yet, it feels better than leaving them floundering and without direction, and constantly following them around and monitoring them to make sure that they are engaged in purposeful activity.
Next year I will have two 9-12 classes, and I will separate them into two groups, to make this group smaller. I even had them all choose a research project based upon interest, but these students didn't care about the topic of research...they cared about who they were working with, and even went so far as to forgo an interesting topic if their friends were doing something else, because the need to be with their peers was much stronger than their other internal needs.
Does anyone have any good insights on this matter? I am curious to see if anyone has any feedback, especially anyone whose dealt with elementary students, who are much different than primary students. Thanks you for listening!
. I'm a former high school teacher, who is new to Montessori concepts (my oldest will be starting in the Children's House in the fall.). But, I know how hard it is to deal with a "pack" in the classroom, so you have my complete sympathy!
Well, you can tell how much my mind is still in the traditional school mode! 
I'm hoping my experience as a M mom will help un-doctrinate (hey, why can't I make up my own word?) me from traditional educational thought patterns! 
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