Diary Of A Montessorian- Day 4.

Day: Thursday

Date: 23rd July 2009

Children: 5 years old

Record: I was not feeling well yesterday and even today. Before I retire for the day and take another good sleep tonite, let me jot this post first.

All the children went for a trip to National Science Centre, except one.

I am in charge of preparing the outdoor structured play today, took out the toys, cones and hoops, and wiped the slides dry.

The toddlers were in the classroom with S. They kept putting things into their mouth: eating playdough, dried pasta and small toy teddy bears. S practised writing his names on the line and the names of flowers he painted previously. He also needed a lot of practice with number writing.

S and I played in the garden and had snack before line time. Lunch at 12pm was pasta and stew. He didn’t eat much at the table with less company from friends.

Diary Of A Montessorian- Day 3.

Day: Wednesday

Date: 22nd July 2009

Children: 3 1/2 – 5 years old

Record: I had breakfast with the teachers at about 8.15am. Only two children in the classroom today. N followed my instructions on completing two worksheets diligently today. His pencil grip was also good today, refusing to be guided by me in writing the numbers.

I showed A how to arrange the knobbed cylinders and knobless cylinders. N tried to join in but didn’t have the patience to complete the activity.

I directed him to the transferring with tweezers activity, but he chose to work with the small buttoning frame instead, something which he was not yet ready for. I asked him many times if he was certain that that was what he wanted to work with. He was very determined. As predicted, he had troubled with the buttoning and started to make whinging sounds instead of using his words to ask for help. I moved out of the environment, listening from out of the corner of the classroom, hoping that he would ask help from A, who was busy tidying his work (a long time to put away the coloured knobless and knobbed cylinders).

Instead, N instructed A to do the buttoning for him. I had to interrupt as they would be late for playtime. I asked N to put his name near the work and finish it after playtime and snack.

After snack time, I gave A a language worksheet to complete and return to N to finish the buttoning activity. I helped him to button it by holding his hands and emphasising on pincer grip.

N did not seem to learn that he was not ready for certain exercises and chose an open-end zipping frame, which he had difficulties again to close the zip. I sat on a chair at a corner of the room, waiting for him to walk to me and ask for help. Or even better go to a friend to ask for help. But he failed to do either. I even hinted at A to tell N to ask help but N refused to walk and ask. N put the unfinished work back on the shelf several times and tried to take a piece of paper to draw a sun. I had to tell him repeatedly to put the paper back and return to the dressing frame, stressing on the importance of finishing a work cycle before starting another one.

Finally I had to show him how to finish the zipping dressing frame as it was already time for lunch. Before going for lunch, N had time to draw a sun and remembered to put his work in the folder instead of scrunching his work and throwing it in the bin. He reminded himself “It’s beautiful work. It’s beautiful work.”

I am hoping to increase the children’s independence in the classroom by reducing the amount of adult involvement in the environment.

Diary Of A Montessorian- Day 2.

Day: Tuesday

Date: 21st July 2009

Children: 3 1/2 – 5 years old

Record: I arrived at school at 8am and had breakfast with the other teachers. Another new child aged 3 1/2 years old just join the environment, and he usually comes after 9 pm.A co-teacher supervises him since he is her key child.

No extra curricular activity today.

The first child came in at 9.05 am. One child was absent. I revised care of self, how to cough, sneeze and blow nose with group presentation. After that, they helped to pluck the dried flower petals into a container. I would like to make potpourri with them.

A showed deep interest in reading the insects’ names from the Insect poster. I plan to introduce blue series to him for next reading activity.

B can write her name in quarter-inch line space. She completed writing names on a worksheet with almost nil guidance.

C was practising pincer grip with the tweezers and small pegs. Suprisingly, he was able to cut along the line today.

Children continued with work cycle until 10.30am. It rained heavily during playtime, so children played with play dough and participated in a short music and movement session. Had snack at 11am and continued with playdough and Jolly Phonics until 12pm. They enjoyed lunch today and I’m pleased that B remembered to set up the table. She has stopped requesting to eat food from home and had been enjoying the school’s food with joy.

Children went home at 12.45pm.

Diary Of A Montessorian- Day 1.

This is a 5-day-record of my working hours as a Montessorian in a kindergarten in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Day: Monday

Date: 20th July 2009

Children: 3 1/2 – 5 years old

Record: I arrived at school at about 8.05 am, had an instant breakfast and started to prepare myself and the environment for the first day of school week. The fresh flowers that I hoped to keep fresh a little bit longer withered in the fridge during the weekend. In conjunction with the theme Botany for this term, I introduced fresh jasmine, lotus, chrysantemum, rose, hibiscus, allamanda and ixora last week. The children were also shown how to water a potted money plant using a plastic jar, pebble and sponge.

Since introducing the concept of ‘leader’ in the classroom last week, I was pleased that A asked “who is the leader today”. It is a positive sign that one of the children had the sensibility to ponder upon the leader that day and how to line up when it’s time to do so.

B managed to construct a maze with the number rods today, with minimal help. She told me that she had done this with the long rods before and didn’t know she could do the same with the number rods. I showed her how to walk into the maze and build a pink tower in the middle. C was very attracted to the activity and had to be coaxed to ask B if he can join B in this group activity. B declined his offer gently.

A attempted to make a mask today. It was almost complete until he cut out of the paper into two pieces as he tried to cut the eyes out. I suprised myself by showing him a safer way to cut the eyes, nose and mouth (basically by mirror folding the parts). He was thrilled as he cut out the mask independently with brief instructions from me. I was happy for him. Nowadays, he comes to school with an idea of what to produce spontaneously. Last week, he drew, wrote and cut out an apple seed. His work were mostly displayed in the classroom, as suggested by him.

Today I used food colouring to paint flower pictures on paper for the first time. The outcome was similar to water colour. The colours looked different between wet and dry. The older children enjoyed it. One of the prerequisite skill for this activity is fine muscular movements and a small paintbrush with soft sharp edges must be used, not the flat brushes.

After that it was play time and today was sand play day. Snack time at 10.55am.

Mandarin teacher came at 11.10am. Had a brief circle time after that, Jolly Phonics next with another teacher and lunch at 12pm. Their last lesson, BM was at 12.30pm.

After my lunch time with the teachers in school, I started to prepare for tomorrow’s lesson and set up the other new classroom.

Went home at 3.30pm.

Appreciation Day at SEGI.

SEGI college released yet another exciting event this month.

Calling all early childhood professionals to SEGi College for an adventure in creativity.

On Saturday 25 July, we have put together a fun filled day of workshops and events, specially designed to help you support children’s learning through creative ways. Treat yourself to this whole day celebration, organised in appreciation of Early Childhood Professionals.

Our esteemed speakers  are :
Ms Puspa Sivan, Founder and Director of Parent-Teacher-Child Learning School International, who has 32 years of experience in early childhood training, administration and working with parents, infants, preschoolers and children with special needs in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the region. Puspa was awarded the prestigious ‘Academic Teaching Award’ for best teaching practices by Ngee Ann Polytecnic, Singapore She is currently the Consultant for World Bank on an early childhood project in Indonesia. Puspa’s session will help participants to become creative teachers, who are  more proactive in using the valuable resources within our rich immediate environment to touch the hearts and engage the minds of young children.
Mr Victor Tan, who has over 30 years of involvement in music education and development of children. Victor has been active in parental workshops, teacher training programmes and music camps for children of different ages. Victor’s sessions will feature both familiar and new songs. Experience how music and movement can help children learn about quantity, develop a sense of direction, improve language skills and foster total character building.
Mr Tan Keng Sun, the founder of GENIOart ,as well as the developer and designer for the AV+S ( Audio Visual+Sensory ) programme for children. Keng Sun’s sessions seek to reawaken participants to the true essence of art in the early years. Participants will appreciate their role in bringing forth the artist in every child.
Dr Diana Lea Baranovich, who has over 24 years of experience as a classroom teacher, school psychologist, fine-arts curriculum specialist, diagnostician and trainer. She is currently a full time Senior Lecturer, Research Supervisor, and Student Teacher Supervisor at Universiti Malaya in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling.Diana’s sessions will have participants playing with sand, water and other authentic materials from nature, building castles in the sky, dungeons down below and dwellings on earth. This will lead naturally to an exploration of language and literature, science and social studies.

Diary of a Montessori Directress.

I could not really find an occasion to mark for writing this entry. My only intention is to provide a platform for teachers/guides/nannies/childminders to share their teaching experiences in a week, and to give other non-teacher readers (parents, caretakers, nannies, grandparents, students, general readers) an insight into the working week of a Montessori teacher.

Starting from next Monday (20 July 2009) until Friday (24 July 2009), I would be writing about my teaching and planning experience for the whole working week. I am welcoming comments or replies from readers and would like to extend an invitation to Montessori teachers to write and share their own teaching experiences here. Anonymous requests will also be  accepted.

If you would like to participate in this ‘Montessorian’s Diary’, please email me at enbarani [at] gmail.com, (Replace [at] with @). I will moderate the entry before publishing it in my blog. Pictures or any other images would be a bonus. After you’ve emailed me the entry, I will briefly edit and publish it here.