Early Childhood Education Mountainside Montessori

Early Childhood Education Mountainside Montessori

You cannot start at a better place to explore early childhood education. Helping a child learn and
develop, understand the world around them and where they are going is an enormous
responsibility. The Montessori Method for education is an ideal solution. View their website
and take a few minutes to browse through everything. https://mountainsidemontessori.com/.
You will be amazed by what you will learn, so imagine what your toddler or kindergartener can
achieve once you look at their curriculum. This is a model for early childhood education.
Starting children out as toddlers, when they are so inquisitive and energetic makes good use of
all that energy to give them something to learn about and think about. Actor, director and
philanthropist, George Clooney went to Montessori as a toddler and look where he is now. Even
at that tender age, children soak up knowledge that can remain with them all their lives. Start
them out young and eager.
Like many Montessori schools, Mountainside does more than just learn in the classroom. Their
campus offers agricultural education and in 2016 added pigs, goats and chickens that the children
help care for and learn about. Students in Toddler, Primary, Elementary and Adolescent classes
all take part in doing some chores and learning about the farm. Its an opportunity to get outside
and explore nature and have some fun. Students are not restricted to a classroom all day. They
are free to explore.
This method of early childhood education is helping children learn good study habits at a young
age will stay with them all their lives. Now is the perfect time to get them in school. This will
give them a model to follow and that is how they learn by developing their own lessons. Watch
the videos and see how our students progress and even help each other. That is why there are
three age groups in each class. Older students can help the younger ones and they build bonds
by working together.
Mountainside Montessori is a beautiful school with exceptional leadership and teachers that care
about early childhood education and work together to make sure each student succeeds. Here is
our website again: https://mountainsidemontessori.com/. Contact us today for a tour.

Teacher Training for Montessori Schools

Teaching is a noble and respected profession and we need well educated and dedicated people who want to educate our children.  Montessori has schools all over the world on six continents, but you need to have a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree to get started and then will need to add some specialized Montessori classes as well.  There are lots of ways to get started.

Go and visit a Montessori school and make an appointment to talk to the administrator.  Ask for advice and see if you can get a tour.  Perhaps you can volunteer at the school and see what you think of it.  Go ahead and dream about it a little.  Don’t let anything stand in your way of fulfilling your dream of being a Montessori teacher.

The American Montessori Society has a wealth of knowledge for those who are interested in becoming an Administrator, Guide or Teacher in one of their schools.  Learning their teaching methods and guidelines is very specialized.  For important information and guidelines about this go to this site https://amshq.org/Teacher-Resources/Become-an-AMS-Montessori-Teacher-or-Administrator.  Read through all their top line categories for valuable information and resources.  You may even find scholarships, job openings and other incentives.

Montessori for Everyone http://www.blog.montessoriforeveryone.com/teaching is a great blog with resources for everyone. You can even check them out on Facebook.  Have some fun reading the blog and gaining some more information.

Think of how happy and excited you will be when you are finally fully qualified and can apply for a job in the area of your choice. There are thousands of opportunities all over the world.  Visit Mountainside Montessori near our nation’s capital, for some great information about their school and students and interviews with teachers and parents and tons of great information.  This is a great school in Marshall, Virginia.  It’s a great school and you will love the beautiful campus.  Just imagine working at just a beautiful school.  You can find them here.  https://mountainsidemontessori.com/faculty-staff/.

An Overview of Mountainside Montessori

There are so many questions about Montessori Schools, what they are and how they work.  There are also many resources and answers on the internet, so take a look at some of them and see which appeal to you.  Finding a definitive answer for everyone’s question is not easy because we all see things differently, but here is a good example from Wikipedia.  It also contains a lot of resources and explanations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori education.   Let’s do a comparison of some highlights about Montessori and traditional schools.

            Montessori                                                                              Traditional                              

No set lesson plan.  Children determine direction                  Lesson plans are pre-set per grade.

Children set own schedule.                                                     Teachers work within a time frame.

Students explore and discover                                                Education plans adhered to.

Concrete ideas                                                                         Abstract Ideas

Reality structured                                                                   Role playing and fantasy

Students Order and Responsibility                                         No sense of order for students

Child oriented environment                                                    Teacher oriented

Teachers as guides only                                                          Environment controlled by teachers

Freedom of movement and expression                                   Teacher controls activity

Disorderly conduct is teachers fault.                                      Punishment for disorderly conduct

These are basic ideas that are compared and there are many more ideas to compare.  One good resource is http://www.montessoriint.com/the-montessori-method/comparison-between-montessori-traditional-education/.  It is evident that the Montessori model is much more geared to freedom for a child to learn at their own pace and that traditional schools are more structured, which is what most of us are accustomed to seeing.  Each family needs to decide which method is most suited to their personal goals.

Montessori classrooms are designed in three-year age brackets, such as age 6-9, rather than one age traditional per class.  This allows older children to help younger ones and for them to interact together freely.  Neither do they emphasize textbooks, homework or grades. Students are responsible for their own progress.  Visit our website at https://mountainsidemontessori.com/ and look through our wonderful programs and videos to get a true picture of our school, teachers and classes.

These are some very innovative and interesting ideas to consider when deciding about your child’s education. You will want to be an active participant in which ever choice you make, so get as much information as possible.

Community Breakfast (by Courtney, 8th grade student)

201709_CommunityBreakfast_5

September 21 was International Peace Day and the adolescent class had their first Community Breakfast of the year. Although we had a smaller crowd than expected, it was a good experience. Read more

Highlights from our 4H Show & Sale Weekend

The adolescent students, ten in all, raised hogs, lambs and goats, to participate in this livestock event. It is the culmination of many months of hard work. Read more

Adolescent Adventures (by Mason, 8th grade student)

 

img_5696Since there was no school on Monday because of Columbus Day, the first day of the week was on Tuesday instead. Everybody got to school and got off to a good start. All of the chores were done and everybody got to work. An exciting part of today, however, was meeting the baby goats that had been born just this past weekend. I cannot exaggerate how much our classroom loves baby goats. Who doesn’t? They’re cute, furry, and always fun to play with.

Read more

Adolescent Odyssey

On the final leg of their Odyssey trip, the adolescent students attended a “Small Ruminant Field Day” at Virginia State University, Randolph Farm in Petersburg, VA. They were by far the youngest farmers in attendance and gained quite a few glances upon entering the Pavilion. They patiently sat through some lectures on processing regulations. They enthusiastically participated in the breakout sessions on “How to Make Quick and Delicious Goat Cheese” and “A Small Ruminant Carcass Fabrication.” After lunch the students visited the displays and demonstrations on Body Condition Scoring and Market Readiness, hoof trimming, drenching, and vaccinations, as well speaking with some of the scientists who are heading up the scientific research at the University. The professors and other attendants were very impressed with the Montessori students who were engaged, knowledgeable, polite, and wise beyond their years.

Adolescent Odyssey

Sustainable Agriculture in Action

At Mountainside, the students run a small chicken operation, and work hard to sustain its economic viability. They sell eggs to the parents and feed the chickens scraps from their lunch boxes. They do basic accounting to track their profits and, in some months, their losses.

These chickens have enriched our lives and provided many educational opportunities for our children. They also work much better than speed bumps as they free range around the parking lot! Read more

Pesto in Progress

It began with Miss Joya lovingly planting some basil plants over the summer with her children. She tended them regularly, a true testament to exactly how much time she spent in her classroom over the summer months. By the first week of school, they were just exploding.

Since our school mission includes sustainable agriculture and free play in nature, we thought it would be a great idea to involve the students in some way. Here is how it went: Read more

The Benefits of Having Chickens

These chickens have enriched our lives so much since they came to our school. To begin with, the children hatched them out in their classrooms, carefully monitoring the temperature and checking the humidity of the incubators. They candled them and got to see through the shell the living, moving embryo contained within – an embryo that is similar to a human’s for a period of time. That was an amazing lesson! They got to witness the tiny chicks’ great effort to get out of the shell, and what happens if they cannot.

The children displayed tremendous empathy when one chick struggled to survive for the first 24 hours. They organized heat lamps, shavings, water, food, and shelter as the chicks grew. They built a small fenced area for them to run around in daily. It was great. Read more