Field Notes

New Haven School Wins Magnet Prize

Charter Operator Gearing Up in SE

Seldin Parenting Book Due in December

Springfield, MA, Moves to Open 2^nd Montessori

Independent Centenary Celebration in SF Jan. 6

Montessori Week Plans Activities

Sri Lankan School Gaining Support

Texas Montessorians Plan Session Nov. 11-12

Exhibit: Five Stops and a Home

Tomorrow’s Child, M Vie for Parents’ Eyes

New Haven School Wins Magnet Prize

 The Montessori Magnet School of Hartford, CT, won the top award for Montessori schools at the Magnet School of America conference last spring.

The Eugene Uram Montessori Distinguished Magnet School of Merit Award was presented to Principal Tim Nee along with a check for $2,500 from the Juliana Group.

Nee said the award will be applied to the purchase of a van for the school’s “going out” activities.

He said the award was given in recognition of the school’s excellence in student achievement, involvement of parents and diversity.

“Our kids have done very well on standardized tests,” he said. “All classes and groups made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) last year.”

The school developed an innovative parent information program that brought parents and children to the school for a meal, a student activity and parent education. Nee said the events would draw 125 parents to the school.

The school’s 330 students, from age 2 1/2 through sixth grade, come from 25 different school districts. About half come from Hartford, the others from suburbs.

A second Montessori program, North Shoreview Montessori Music and Art School of San Mateo, CA, was recognized as A School of Excellence.

In 2005, three Montessori programs earned School of Excellence distinctions:

Peabody Montessori in Alexandria, LA, Poe Montessori Magnet School in Raleigh, NC and S. D. Spady Montessori School in Delray Beach, FL.

Juliana founder David Lerch has been a leading advocate for, and consultant to, magnet schools for many years.

Eugene Uram was a founding member of Magnet Schools of America and an advocate for public Montessori programs in his home district of St. Louis.

The award is open to schools that are members of the Magnet Schools of America. Director Robert Brooks said he did not know how many Montessori programs are members.

INFO: www.magnet.edu

Charter Operator Gearing Up in SE

An initiative to establish a chain of Montessori charter schools is emerging in the Southeast.

Kimberly Hardin-Morey, who operates ABC Montessori in McDonough, GA, has created Ace Education Project which, she reports, has already won a charter contract for a school in Aikin County, South Carolina that would open in 2008. She is in negotiations to open a charter school next year in Henry County, Georgia.

“Our long range plan,” she said, “is to set up and manage as many Montessori charter schools as possible.”

The model she describes is flexible, with Ace operating some schools and consulting on others. She says that Ace will only do Montessori programs.

“We are looking at the issue of teacher training,” she said. “We will be working with the International Montessori Council on that.

“We will be recruiting and training quality teachers. We won’t be doing the training ourselves but we will make sure it is being done properly.”

Seldin Parenting Book Due in December

A book about “the Montessori inspired home” by Tim Seldin is scheduled for publication in December.

How To Raise An Amazing Child: The Montessori Way To Bring Up Caring, Confident Children is being published by DK Press.

According to Seldin, “it was written for parents of young children, most of whom may not even be thinking of a Montessori school at this stage.”

INFO: www.Montessori.org

Springfield, MA, Moves to Open 2nd Montessori

Springfield, MA, moved quickly in late August to create a second public Montessori program with the reassignment of Analida Munera, principal of Alfred G. Zanetti Montessori School, to begin a new program at German Gerena Community School.

Sandra Wyner was named acting principal at Zanetti. She was a Montessori mentor and a professional development specialist at the school.

Superintendent Joseph P. Burke said., “I am intending to create a full Montessori program at Gerena and Analida has agreed to undertake that challenge. It will be great for the city of Springfield.”

Munera guided the transition of Zanetti to a Montessori program beginning in 2000.She said she expected Gerena to open pre-school and kindergarten Montessori classroom in September 2007.

Independent Centenary Celebration in SF Jan. 6

Three San Francisco area Montessori educators have planned a regional Centenary event for Jan. 6.

The celebration/symposium, “Lasting, Proven, Successful...Montessori Works! Celebrating 100 Years of Montessori Education” was developed by Eulalia Halloran, who works for the San Francisco school district, and Bay Area school operators Hannelore Engelman and Mary Beth Ricks.

Among the presenters will be child development scholar T. Berry Brazelton.

The purpose, according to Halloran, is threefold: a celebration, “an opportunity to look at where Montessori can go and where it has been” and to present Montessori education to the local educational community.

“We want to take the Montessori principles that everyone agrees upon and apply them to some of the issues in public education today,” Halloran said.

According to Halloran, the event will include a presentation on Montessori history by Tim Seldin of the Montessori Foundation and one on research by John Chattin-McNichols of Seattle University.

“Every city with a substantial Montessori population should be looking at celebrating this somehow,” Halloran said. The session has no official organizational sponsorship. It is being run through the local Lippmann Educational Foundation.

The event will be held at the UC-San Francisco Mission Bay Conference Center with an evening session planned with Brazelton for Jan. 5.

Info: www.montessoriworks.org

Montessori Week Plans Activities

Several initiatives in celebration of the Montessori Centenary are being planned through the Montessori Education Week committee.

Plans for the week of Feb. 25 -March 3, 2007 are part of a significant expansion of the annual event, according to Rosann Larrow, the event chair.

Among the initiatives:

• A draft of a declaration recognizing Montessori Education Week that local educators can take to governors, legislatures and local officials

• The creation of a Montessori Centennial pin

• A Historical Centennial Calendar

• A Montessori Education Testimonial web page

• A “pass the ‘Moment of Peace’ around the world” activity for Friday, March 2, 2007.

INFO: Rosann Larrow, (330) 929-5581, rlar...@gmail.com

The Montessori Education Week web page: http://home.neo.rr.com/larrow/index.htm

Sri Lankan School Gaining Support

An ambitious initiative to sustain a new Montessori school in tsunami and civil war damaged Sri Lanka got a boost when a West Coast community college honor society adopted the project.

The California-Nevada unit of Phi Theta Kappa will dedicate the year to supporting the Bridge2Peace project that built a Montessori school serving 60 students in Lunugamvihara, Sri Lanka.

The school and project grew from the passion of two women following the December 2004 tsunami.

Bernadine Anderson, a native of Sri Lanka, operates the Farmington Academy in Farmington, MA, and La Petite Fleur Childrens House in Ratmalane, Sri Lanka. Her dream had been to create a school that would bridge the divide between Tamil and Singhalese that has kept Sri Lanka in civil war. The staff of her Sri Lankan school shares the dream,  with all eight members volunteering to take a harrowing drive to the school to support the teacher, Ms. Malika. Liesl Nugara  makes the trip from the school in suburban Columba to oversee the program and do parent  educaiton.

Amali Tower is a recent UCLA graduate. She has known Anderson since she was a child and has worked in international development efforts serving the needy in the U.S., Thailand and South Africa.

They began talking within days of the tsunami. With help from supporters of Farmington Academy, a non-profit was created and provided base funding.

In March 2005 after much preparation work, Tower traveled to Sri Lanka to accept from the prime minister a grant  of a three-acre plot of land on which to build the school. With pro bono donations from a local architect and contractor and funds from supporters in the U.S., the school opened in March 2006.

Substantial support will be needed to maintain and grow the school into the elementary and high school program that Anderson envisions. Its new facility could house 120 preschool and elementary students if funds and staff were available.

Tower took her passion for the project to several groups in Southern California, including the honor society of Irvine Valley College, the community college from which she graduated.

The Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Irvine, which in previous years had raised only a few thousand dollars for its projects, was, according to advisor Kurt Meyer,  won over  by  Tower and convinced the 81-school California-Nevada regional group to take on the effort.  Doing so will include several efforts, including fund raising to directly support the project and sending community college students to Sri Lanka for a summer of helping children in the school and learning about the local culture.

Help is still needed, especially in the form of financial support and volunteer teaching, according to Tower.

INFO:

bridge2peace.org

Bernadine Anderson at 860 677-2403

Meyer regarding the Phi Theta Kappa involvement by e-mail, kme...@ivc.edu

Texas Montessorians Plan Session Nov. 11-12

Educators at Lake Waco Montessori Magnet School in Waco, TX, have organized a session for Montessori administrators and teachers in the state for Nov. 10 and 11.

The goals, according to Robin McDurham, a middle school instructor at the school, are “to share information on curriculum alignment, integration of TEKS/TAKS budgeting, school district requirements, scheduling, teacher training, administrative issues significant to public Montessori, sources for materials and methods for individualization of the curriculum, Montessori advocacy and other pressing issues facing public Montessorians today.”

Pre-conference activities begin 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at the school with a full day of workshops and networking Nov. 11.

McDurham said accommodation will be made if educators from outside Texas indicate an interest.

INFO: Public schools bulletin board at www.amshq.org

Exhibit: Five Stops and a Home

An exhibit documenting Maria Montessori’s life and work will visit five North American cities before coming to rest at a permanent museum home in St. Paul in October 2007.

The International Montessori Museum for Research and Development is a joint endeavor of the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota and the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association. The goal, according to a statement from MTCM is “to  compile a comprehensive exhibit on Maria Montessori’s life and work to advance the public’s awareness of world-wide Montessori achievements–past, present, and future.”

The  first stop will be at the AMI-USA Centenary refresher course in San Francisco Feb. 16-19. The second will be at a NAMTA conference in Houston March 29-31. Other stops are being planned for Toronto  and  New York.

MTCM is well along with plans to build a new facility in St. Paul that will house the museum. It has also pledged to “catalogue and document the exhibit contents as well as becoming a depository for future artifacts and documents.”

Thomas Muller, CEO of DS Möbel, a German furniture manufacture, has played a key role in the development of the exhibit.  The grandson of one of the original manufacturers of Montessori materials and furniture early in the twentieth century,   he helped organize a celebrated exhibit of historical Montessori materials and furniture at the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin in 2002. 

Muller has agreed to fabricate and donate period materials and furniture as well as manage the exhibit fabrication and design.

The exhibit, according to David Kahn, executive director  of NAMTA, will communicate “the  importance of indoors and outdoors as a seamless experience.”

“This is a great opportunity,” he continued, “to make a physical expression of Montessori’s work, but what is more important is the permanence of the research behind the exhibit.”

According to the MTCM statement, “This process of collecting photos, artifacts, furniture, architecture, etc. and building context around a biography that is a compelling story to be told is intended to recreate the scientific and social process whereby Montessori made her great discoveries.”

Tomorrow’s Child, M Vie for Parents’ Eyes

The first full year of coexistence for two parent-oriented Montessori magazines begins with both publishers cheery.

Tim Seldin’s Tomorrow’s Child has a 15-year history and, according to Seldin, has an increasing number of subscribers for the 2006-2007 school year.

Michael Jacobson, publisher of the year-old M: the Magazine for Montessori Families, says his publication has now been embraced by more than 500 schools.

Both publications are signature items of larger enterprises.

Seldin’s reach includes books, a bookstore, workshops, courses, videos, conferences, consulting and a nascent school accreditation program.

M is part of the Montessori Initiative, which includes work to promote student recruitment, parent education, international development and financial partnerships for schools—including purchasing programs with Staples and insurance policy discounts. It is also partnering with a program housed at the United Nations that will make postage stamps commemorating Maria Montessori available for bulk purchase.

Both magazines highlight features that provide fundamental information about Montessori education. In Tomorrow’s Child it includes the regularly reprised Montessori 101 and in M it is a set of inserts called “portfolios” that are also distributed by Nienhuis.

Despite speculation that there is not a market for two such magazines and widespread reports of an uncomfortable relationship between the magazines, both publishers sound upbeat.

“I don’t think we make it hard for each other,” Jacobson said. “We have a common goal —to educate parents in a language they understand.”

Seldin, who has frequently written in online forums that Tomorrow’s Child is the “non-profit, independent” publication, noted, “The international Montessori community is very large. There is room for two such different points of view. Just as some readers prefer Time magazine, and others Newsweek, there will always be a market for Tomorrow’s Child. So, speaking for the Montessori family journal that started it all, we wish the folks at M-the Magazine well. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.”