Technical Guidance

/ Eat the Rainbow Please don't go chasing the rainbow when it next rains as I don't mean literally. What I do mean is eat a variety of coloured veg and fruit because eat colour will provide you with a different micronutrient for your body! / Compliment fruit with a fat Fat helps absorb the nutrients in food but will also help keep sugar levels normal. (See Fat Blog) e.g Apple with Nut Butter / Stay Hydrated Hydration is key for our bodies to be working at optimum try drinking 2-3L of water a day. Top Tip - carry a big bottle around with you... the more you drink, the lighter it gets! / Supplements If you're worried about not getting all your micronutrients you can buy supplements like multivitamins to help your body - I use the ones from Holland & Barrett (full blog coming soon) / Keep a Varied Diet   Keep your diet varied so your body doesn't get used to what it's eating. Our guts need a variety of bacteria which we will get from having a variety of fo...

Are you planning on graduating this semester?   If so, don't forget that your classes need to be completed by November 30th!  Our graduation ceremony is scheduled for December 7th at 7 p.m. at the Rhodes Conference Center in the Oak Grove Center.  The cost is $10, which includes your cap and gown, tassel and up to 8 invites.  **The last day to pick up your cap and gown will be November 30th from the West Campus** 

We are half way through the Fall 2017 semester! So exciting to see all the classes being completed! We have a fall graduation date -- Dec 7th! Stay tuned for more details to come! 

�� the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience. �Maria Montessori The Advanced Montessori Method, p. 89. Children in the second plane of development (ages 6�12) are in a period when they are fascinated by knowledge understanding, and moral understanding, or what Montessori referred to as �culture.� (Grazzini) Their independence matures from �I can do it myself,� which predominates the first plane, to �I can think for myself.� Being able to think for oneself is the very basis of developing one�s own personal moral code of conduct. As the elementary-age child learns to think for himself, he seeks to understand the natural world aro...

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, �Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.� To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother�s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers � so many caring people in this world. � Fred Rogers It seems that the world has experienced many natural disasters this year. We have had raging wildfires in British Columbia, Alberta, and the western United States; devastating earthquakes in Mexico; severe flooding around the world, and an onslaught of hurricanes from Harvey and Irma to Maria. As we experience the effects of these disasters, either personally or through news stories and images, we must consider their impact on children. This certainly includes children who live in the affected areas, but children who are not personally affected may also have concerns as they become aware of the disasters and the damage they cause. C...

Preventing conflicts is the work of politics: establishing peace is the work of education. �Maria Montessori Education and Peace, p. 24. Can you imagine if we all just came together and concentrated on that which we have in common, rather than on our differences? We would find peace. That�s the hope and message of the Sing Peace Around the World Campaign , held annually to coincide with the United Nation�s International Day of Peace (or World Peace Day) . Montessori Peace Education: Singing Peace Around the World on World Peace Day On September 21, schools around the world, Montessori and non-Montessori alike, will gather at their assigned times to sing Shelley Murley�s song, �Light a Candle for Peace.� The song moves around the world throughout the day, starting with children singing in New Zealand and ending 24 hours later with the Hawaiian Islands. When Murley began the project in 2009, approximately 80,000 children from over 35 countries participated. Last year, Sing Peace Around ...

We have all been there. All of a sudden, the noise level in the classroom gets so loud, you wonder how anyone can possibly concentrate. Normally, it just takes a quick walk over to the �noisy table� and a quiet word to help the students settle back down. Now, however, it seems like the whole class is noisy. What can you do? My favorite way to quiet and bring calm back to a disruptive environment is to not do anything at all. I don�t mean I ignore the situation; I meant that I allow my own calm presence to set the tone. I started doing this as a public high school teacher over 20 years ago. I had a particularly boisterous twelfth-grade literature class right after lunch that really had trouble coming in and settling down. Instead of getting mad or angry, I would calmly pick up my book, sit down at my desk, and start reading. After a few minutes, the students would realize that I wasn�t trying to get their attention, and they would all start to quiet down. It worked like a charm! It kept...

Education, therefore, of little ones is important, especially from three to six years of age, because this is the embryonic period for the formation of character and of society, (just as the period from birth to three is that for forming the mind, and the prenatal period that for forming the body). �Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 221�222. Where does the Montessori method begin? In The Absorbent Mind , Dr. Montessori tells us that �The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.� (p. 4) But, Dr. Montessori did not begin developing her method with infants. She began with children who were between 3 and 6 years old. In the early 1900s, working parents had little choice when it came to childcare. Children who were 7 years old went to school. This meant that children 6 years and younger were left alone, caring for younger children for 8�10 hours each day. Montessori�s first school, the Casa dei Bambini, in the slums of San Lorenzo, proved to have horrendous cond...

**All students MUST retest! You will not be allowed to register until you have completed retesting!**   Walk in Registration for the fall semester will be  July 11, 12 and 13  9:00 - 1:30  Oak Grove Center  Room 4449

In the second plane, the children complete the foundation of their social selves. Through their reasoning minds and powers of imagination, they explore their universe, their community and their own place in social life. �Lillard, Montessori Today, p. 114. Before having the freedom to explore outside the immediate Montessori community, students must demonstrate responsibility within the Montessori environment. This freedom begins with choosing one�s own work during the day, working independently, and being a contributing member of the collective classroom community. Contributing members of any community help nurture and maintain the community. Within the Montessori environment, elementary students become responsible for the environment by learning to care for and maintain the classroom. Since the sensitive period for order occurs during the first stage of development, maintaining the classroom�s beauty and order no longer comes naturally. Instead, it must be modeled and practiced until ...

Congratulations on all of your hard work.   As of last night, our semester has ended.  You will not be able to log in to your account.  Every student needs to retest before July 11th, when our Fall semester starts back.  Call 734.7770 to set up an appointment with Susan or Nicki.   Hope you have a great summer break.  

The Montessori teacher�s specific responsibility is to aid human development through awareness of the children�s needs at each stage of self-formation. Through this approach to their education, the children can pass onto each successive plane of development well prepared for the challenges ahead. �Lillard, p. 114 Work journals in the Montessori elementary classroom can be a hotly debated topic. What do they look like? Who is responsible for them? Who decides what work is included? Somewhere along the way, we have lost the meaning of the work journal and turned it into a work plan . Keeping a journal involves more than a student making a list of what he has accomplished during the day. It provides him with an opportunity to reflect on what he has learned. Written after the fact, a journal shows the reader where the student has been instead of dwelling on where he must go. As such, the work journal is an assessment tool rather than a planning tool. Studying Montessori Today, Chapter 7: ...

**ATTENTION GRADUATES***  The last day to pick up your cap and gown is June 9th at the West Campus!