DON’T FORGET THE SURVEY!
3
Sleep tight...
5
Row, row, row...
6
Common Core...
... the importance of
... on over to River
... explained by our
an early & consistent bedtime for our
Crew for Spring
Break.
very own Upper El Guide, Deanna Peake.
children.
the 2014 FEBRUARY ISSUE
RIVER CURRENT A MONTHLY PUBLICATION FROM RIVER MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL
Message from our Executive Director Dear River Montessori Families,
Parent
UNIVERSITY Community Conversation Meetings are a dedicated time to talk with River’s Montessorians about supporting children in their growth and learning! Come ask questions, give and share perspective, meet new people, and get a little support in the process. Each meeting is hosted by our administrator and/or a guide and includes a loose topic for inspiration and time for agendafree questions and discussion.
International Montessori Education Week February 23 – March 1, 2014 Please join us in celebrating the 107th anniversary of Montessori education! We are so honored to be able to bring authentic Montessori to the public sector to reach children who would otherwise be unable to access the benefits of a Montessori education.
• Third Year’s Move-Up Meeting! Our third year students are heading into their next plane of development… come and find out about the great experiences in store for them in Upper El. Monday, February 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Here’s the latest from The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector’s 2013 Survey of Public Montessori Schools. Here is what we learned about Public Montessori Schools last year:
• Community Open House — a time for the community at large to get a look at the Montessori classroom, play with some “works”, and learn more about the Montessori Education. Our Montessori Guides will be available to assist in understanding the environment and to answer questions about Montessori philosophy and how the classroom works. RMCS students will be on hand to welcome guests and give lessons to our guests so they can try some of our special Montessori learning materials. Our own RMCS parents will answer parent questions and speak to how RMCS serves their children well. Let us know if you’d like to help with this special event! Bring a friend or neighbor and show them around our beautiful classrooms! Thursday, February 27, 6:30 p.m.
• There are 439 Public Montessori School Programs in the US • 137 of those programs serve adolescents • 112,486 students are enrolled in Public Montessori School Programs
FEBRUARY 20 Vulnerability Creates Success
Community Conversation Meetings are held just before the Foundation meeting.
RMCS will be celebrating Montessori Education this year with a few special events: • A Petaluma City Proclamation of International Montessori Education Week! Join us on Feb 3 as the city of Petaluma acknowledges the great history and contribution of Montessori Education!
Peace, peace, Kelly
MONTESSORI
Matters by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Forbes Contributor January 2014
The Future Of Education Was Invented In 1906 Wired has an excellent-yet-frustrating story on what they call “A Radical New Teaching Method” that is transforming education. Of course, as the article itself says, there is nothing “new” about this teaching method: let kids figure things out on their own, and they’ll not only learn better, but be more passionate. The frustrating part of the story is precisely this: they try to connect age-old insights about education to, somehow, a story about techno-utopianism and the internet and technology transforming schools. The great part is the story of José Urbina López Primary School, a very underprivileged school in Mexico where an enterprising professor helped his pupils be among the best in the country by utilizing student-directed methods. This story is inspiring and even, at times, moving. But here’s the thing: there is nothing new about it.
“the future of education is here. it’s got nothing to do with laptops.” 2
The piece makes a big deal out of Professor Sugata Mitra, who is famous for the “hole in the wall” experiment: leaving a computer out in an Indian slum for kids to try out, and discovering that the kids figured out how to use it and taught themselves things. I’m sure Mitra is working on cool things, but there is nothing new about the fact that kids will instruct themselves. In fact, the future of education was invented in 1906. That’s the year Maria Montessori, who was the first female medical doctor in Italy, opened her revolutionary school. People who talk about Montessori education often talk about some of the specifics–no grades, child-
size objects, students choose their own activities, the same set of materials in every classroom, etc. but that’s missing the point. Montessori education was so groundbreaking because it was the first (and, to my knowledge), scientific education method. By which I mean the following: every other education method is based on an abstract model of the child and then derives education methods from that. Maria Montessori, a doctor and a researcher, went the other way around: she experimented with methods and, based on the results, built up a theory of the child, which she then tested and refined through experiment.
continued...
CONSISTENT BEDTIMES PROVE IMPORTANT
Ever had a bad case of jet lag? Check out the following link from NPR on how late or irregular bedtimes are likely to create behavioral issues in children. Children who have irregular bed times are more likely to have behavioral issues than children who have a regular bedtime routine. A survey of 10,00 children showed that irregular bedtimes are linked with difficulties such as hyperactivity, acting out and being emotionally withdrawn. Researchers think inconsistent bedtimes probably affect young children like jet lag. http://www.npr.org/2013/12/16/251462015/why-a-regular-bedtime-is-important-for-children
“Our principal concern must be to educate humanity — the human beings of all nations — in order to guide it toward seeking common goals. We must turn back and make the child our principal concern. The efforts of science must be concentrated on [the child], because he is the source of and the key to the riddles of humanity. The child is richly endowed with powers, sensitivities, and constructive instincts that as yet have neither been recognized not put to use. In order to develop, he needs much broader opportunities than he has been offered thus far. Might not this goal be reached by changing the entire structure of education?” -- Dr. Maria Montessori, Education and Peace ...continued The reason why everything is the way it is in a proper Montessori classroom is simple: it has been shown through repeated experiment to work, in countless classrooms, across cultures, etc. It’s precisely this culture of experimentation, of scientific evaluation that is so sorely missing in our centralized, bureaucratized education system, rather than any one specific method or habit. Meanwhile, it’s because of this scientific character of Montessori
education that it produces such excellent results, results that are validated again and again. Dr Angeline Lillard’s work has shown how the most recent science backs up Dr Montessori’s findings–as well they should since they were drawn from experiment. The future of education is here. It’s got nothing to do with laptops. It was invented well over a century ago. What are we waiting for?
P a re n t
UNIVERSITY Our January Conversation, Life After RMCS: An Alumni Panel, was a lovely meeting of students and families discussing the strengths of the child who completes the elementary plane (through 6th grade) and moves onto traditional middle schools. Many questions were addressed regarding emotional, social, cognitive, and academic experiences. A great way to see how RMCS students transition well after our Montessori Elementary program!
February 20 Vulnerability Creates Success
March 20 Book Review: Montessori Madness: A Parent to Parent Argument for Montessori by Trevor Eissler
April 17 Bring on the Learning Revolution!
May 15 The Happiness Advantage
STUDENT
POEM Sophia Martinez (sixth grade student)
Moon Bright, Beautiful Glowing, Moving, Changing Le Voyage dans la Lune Luna.
3
THE RIVER
Wish List Bookcases
SHIP
Shape
Armoires TV cabinets
Housekeeping, Reminders, Community Work Days
wall cabinets
Arrival, Dismissal & Traffic
Shed
CAR-LINE & SHARING OUR LOT
Pool Table
Car-line is the best approach (pun intended!) for self-reliance and safety. And it is
Plants & Trees
speeding up – in a good way! Our elder students who volunteer as Montessori greeters and safety-patrol allow each child the experience of entering school safely and independently and the bonus is that it is very efficient. The car-line moves quickly in the morning when the children can apply social skills in a natural setting when
CALLING ALL
Volunteers
we look every child in the eye and let them know how happy we are to see them. In the afternoon things move quickly after the first minutes to catch up from the initial cars which line up before the car-line opens. Reminder: Please park in the back of the building if you are walking to pick up your
Music Performers French
horn,
trumpet,
child. Be sure to avoid parking in Cypress School parking in the front of the buildsitar,
ing. They need these spots for their transportation vehicles.
drums, electric guitar – what talent and passion can you share with the children?
Carpet Samples
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DILIGENCE
Attendance Awareness
Someone to request the retired carpet samples from carpet stores (we use them for classroom, PE, and other activities!)
Peace Garden Check out the design on the tree and let us know you’d like to help!
4
Please remember the importance of Signing-In if you are late or are picking up your child a bit early. We are legally obligated to have this to document attendance and late arrivals which is then audited to ensure funding for RMCS.
Way to go Parents! Notifying the school of absences/late arrivals and completing Independent Studies when applicable (One day minimum, arranged in advance of absence.) This has a direct impact on our funding from the State.
NEWS & UPDATES ABOUT OUR AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM
Rowing with River Crew Need care for Spring Break? River Crew is here for you! Sports Camp and Leadership Camp can’t be beat…sign up today! www.rivermontessoricharter.org/river-crew.html
2013•2014
BOD CHAIR
Julie Parnow, Community
Don’t Miss River Crew Spring Break Camps: March 10 – 21
TREASURER
SPORTS STARS CAMP AM SESSION
IT TAKES A LEADER PM SESSION
Explore the science of sports! Sports science and nutrition will teach youth the physics behind athletic skills with hands-on, fast-paced activities. Youth will learn new skills and discover how nutrition fuels the body which leads to improved athletic success.
Taking the lead! What makes a good leader? What experiences have young people had with good and poor leadership in their school, home or other settings? Youth will learn important leadership lessons in a fun, interactive session.
Guest instructors TBA
Guest speakers TBA
Tim Lohrentz, RMCS Founding Member SECRETARY
Ginny Hautau, Parent MEMBER
Norman Lorenz, M.Ed., Community MEMBER
Julie Petersen, Community MEMBER
River Crew Wish List:
Milagros Ott, Parent
Kick Balls & Coloring Markers MEMBER
Carolyn Duffy, Parent
“The prize and the punishment are incentives towards unnatural or forced effort, and therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them.” -- Dr. Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method
WELCOME TO OUR COMMUNITY
Our River Heart
Meeting Dates
BOD NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, February 11, 2013 at 6:30pm Meetings are typically held on the
Please help us welcome two new angels to the River Community of Families — students Alethea, Renika and their parents. Elly and
2nd Tuesday of each month, but please check the RMCS web site for any changes or additions.
Antonius welcome new sibling, Lysander. Montessori Guide, Janel and her husband Enrico welcomed baby Simona June to their family.
March 4 April 8 May 13 June 17
5
RAISING TOMORROW’S
Thinkers Brain Research, Parenting Articles & Food for Thought
Wave of Change:
Montessorians Go With the Flow of Common Core by Deanna Peake
Deanna
Peake
Elementary
is
an
Upper
guide
at
River
Montessori Charter School. She has worked at charter Montessori schools her entire 12 year career as a guide. She holds Bachelors’ degrees in English Literature and History from UC Berkeley, primary Montessori
and
elementary
credentials
from
the American Montessori Society (AMS) and a California State Teaching Credential
and
Masters of Education from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. She has served as a Support Provider for
the
Beginning
Teachers
Support and Assessment (BTSA) program for several years and currently is an instructor at Saint Mary’s College.
6
Change can be hard. You can probably relate. Just when you’re feeling competent with routines and procedures and your workload is feeling manageable, the company switches to a new operating system. All previous files need to be converted, new procedures followed, and all current input processed a whole new way. It’s back to the bottom of the learning curve, and a whole lot of work. I hear you. After eleven years in public Montessori schools, I’m finally fairly confident walking that fine line between the “Montessori way” and the mainstream California State Standards and testing expectations. And, what do we do? California goes and adopts the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Oh my! Should I be worried about transitioning to CCSS? How much will I have to modify my Montessori method to meet these new expectations? How much work will go into revamping the already modified version of my Montessori curriculum? Most of all, how will this possibly help the children? I say, “Fear not!” The fact is, the more I dive in and examine the intent behind these new standards and the learning and teaching strategies, the more strongly I believe that Montessori parents and guides, as well as Montessori students, will find themselves very
comfortable with the CCSS. What teachers everywhere are understanding more clearly as the Common Core tide rolls in is that the transition to CCSS means making shifts in instruction, in learning and teaching practices, more than it means teaching new or different content. Kindergarteners still need to know the long and short sounds and common spellings of the five vowels. Third graders still need to write complete paragraphs and identify nouns in sentences. Fifth graders still need to add and subtract fractions with different denominators. And so on. The biggest changes show up in how teachers present the information and how students are expected to participate with it and demonstrate understanding. The creators of the CCSS hope to promote deeper knowledge, reflection, and interpretation of subject matter with the implementation of these new strategies. According to Bay-Williams, McGatha, Kobett, and Wray, in Leading in the era of Common Core State Standards: A toolkit for mathematics coaches and leaders, seven major “shifts” in classroom practice must take place in order to effectively cover CCSS and prepare students for the new assessments, and presumably, therefore, for college and life in the 21st century.
Are you wondering what these “new” practices, these shifts, are? Here we go: Shift 1: From same instruction toward differentiated instruction. Oh. Montessori guides have been adapting lessons for small groups, working with the strengths of each child, creating individualized plans, and implementing whatever strategies were necessary for success for over 100 years. Shift 2: From students working individually toward community of learners. Oh. Montessori children have collaborated to “hear, share, and judge reasonableness of strategies and solutions” since the first classroom opened. That’s what they do best! Shift 3: From mathematical authority coming from the teacher or textbook toward mathematical authority coming from sound student reasoning. Maria Montessori told us guides (in so many words) to get off of our pedestals and come down to earth where the children are, listening and discussing, rather than purporting to know all the answers. Let them be the experts. When we’re at our best, we do that. Shift 4: From teacher demonstrating ‘how to’ toward teacher communicating ‘expectations’ for learning. Hmmm. One guide at River explained to me that a favorite teaching strategy is to present a problem to the children and allow them to reason out how it might be solved. If they don’t discover the way to the answer, she then gives support. I believe we called that a constructivist approach in my cognitive development classes. Shift 5: From content taught in isolation toward content connected to prior knowledge.
This makes sense. Instead of jumping around from one isolated idea to another, follow a sequence that builds on previous lessons, like the one inherent in the Montessori materials, which children can see, all laid out in order, on their math shelves. Shift 6: From focus on correct answer toward focus on explanation and understanding. I’d like to think we always focus more on the process than the product. Have you ever had incorrect doubledigit multiplication problems come home with your child that the guide had not marked up with red pen? That’s probably because your child was learning the process by using the checkerboard and discovering WHY you put that little zero in the ones column… Shift 7: From mathematics-made-easy for students toward engaging students in productive struggle. Especially in the Upper Elementary, our fearless leader, Kelly Mannion, has often reminded us that struggle is not a bad thing. Cognitive development experts know that students only rise up to the next level of thinking and, thus, learning, if they reach a state of disequilibrium, a point at which they experience discomfort and challenge. Montessori showed us that students who were challenged to discover answers on their own achieved far greater learning than those who were merely given facts. Teachers all over the United States are working to implement these strategies in their classrooms in order to promote the kind of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity (the “4 Cs”) required of successful people in the 21st century. The Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) has initiated a plan
to support districts and schools, like Old Adobe and River, in implementing “21st century teaching and learning practices”, as presented by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21). Their framework presents ideas such as “deeper understanding and higher level thinking”; “project-based learning”; “promoting global awareness”; “building students’ financial, civic, health, and environmental literacy”; “building real-world life and work skills such as the ability to work independently, manage time, interact with diverse individuals, work in teams, manage projects, produce results, and lead others.” (“Focus on 21st Century Skills”, SCOE Bulletin, April-May 2013, p2.) The bulletin proclaims, “It [P21] opens doors to new ideas about how instruction is delivered, how disciplines interact, and what students need to learn beyond core content.” Perhaps River will be able to share some of our ideas with other schools in our district and county! So, should I be worried about adopting these “new” practices and the CCSS? Of course not. I’m thrilled! Yes, there will be paddling upstream, for River and for all public schools, as we translate our curriculum into the new language of CCSS, learn the expectations and implement some new routines, and take on new assessment processes using computer technology, but this is work that feels like it’s taking us in the right direction. The goals and strategies of CCSS align well with our Montessori principles. Public Montessorians everywhere can teach more authentically, by letting the children lead, as they were trained to do, knowing that our goal of selfdirected, critically-thinking, globally aware citizens is shared by our governing bodies.
References: Bay-Williams, J.M., McGatha, M.B., Kobett, B.M., & Wray, J.A. (in press). Leading in the era of Common Core State Standards: A toolkit for mathematics coaches and leaders. New York, NY: Pearson. “Focus on 21st century skills.” SCOE Bulletin. April-May 2013.
3
GRATITUDE Many Thanks All of YOU! Please don’t miss our Volunteer Appreciation Event: Friday, February 7, 2014 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
River Montessori CHARTER SCHOOL
February Calendar FEBRUARY 3 Pizza Monday City Proclamation for Montessori Education Week, City Hall, 7:00 p.m.
Leea and Friends
FEBRUARY 4 Pasta Tuesday
for new refrigerator!
FEBRUARY 6 Burrito Thursday
Dedicated RMCS Board
FEBRUARY 7 Volunteer Appreciation, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
for time, labor, and love during monthly meetings as well as an intensive full-day retreat in January.
Inspired RMF Board & Committees
FEBRUARY 10 Pizza Monday FEBRUARY 11 Pasta Tuesday BOD Meeting, 6:30 p.m. FEBRUARY 13 River Coffee Social, 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Burrito Thursday
for enthusiastic and tireless commitment and efforts to raise funds and build relationships
FEBRUARY 14 No School, River Crew open.
through some fantastic events!
FEBRUARY 18 Pasta Tuesday
Chad Taylor for volunteering his time with electrical issues in River.
RIVER
Montessori C H A RT E R S C H O O L 3880 Cypress Street Petaluma, CA 94954
FEBRUARY 17 No School, River Crew open. FEBRUARY 19 Tuolumne & Kaweah field trip, 1:15 - 2:45 p.m. FEBRUARY 20 Burrito Thursday Community Conversation, 6:00 p.m. River Montessori Foundation Meeting, 7:00 p.m. FEBRUARY 21 River Montessori Foundation Walk-a-Thon. FEBRUARY 24 River Montessori Education Week Begins. Pizza Monday FEBRUARY 25 Pasta Tuesday FEBRUARY 27 Burrito Thursday River Montessori Open House, 6:30 p.m.
www.rivermontessoricharter.org
ADDRESS LABEL HERE
4 8