Program Specifics

Our training materials allow dedicated adults to learn to provide a complete prepared Montessori environment for children ages 3 to 6. These materials also provide the base for providing a Montessori education to younger and older children. To be completely prepared to support children of other age groups, mentors will need to do additional study on the developmental needs of these groups as well as the curriculum materials they need.

The complete program consists of 8 learning modules grouped by areas of the Montessori classroom and specific mentor preparation. While each module is organized to provide all an educator needs to master that area, essential training in the role and practices of an effective Montessori mentor are provided in the first two modules. All but one module includes the following components:

• 3 DVDs providing 3 to 4 hours of instruction for each area
• Manual providing information, resources, and exercises needed to master the area
• Color over-sized chart giving an essential overview of that skill or curriculum area
• Handouts and online extras that offer the support of a learning community and structure for mastering the content

The Phonics and Spelling for Everybody module offers a CD of printable learning materials and 2 DVDs.

Video and Overview Charts Provide the Program Core

Video instruction, supplemented with print materials that provide essential overview, creates the core of our program. After over 26 years experience training educators and other instructors, it is clear that most adults learn best by seeing demonstrations and then, when possible, practicing what they have seen demonstrated. For this reason, we highly recommend obtaining access to a Montessori classroom for practice time. However, it is not essential and we provide practice alternatives as well. Because our training programs are products you purchase, the extensive materials demonstrations are yours to keep. Even if your initial learning does not include classroom practice time, you will be able to expand your presentation expertise by reviewing the programs when you do have hands-on materials to use. We have also found that video presentation of Montessori principles, and especially the principles for choosing which exercises to present and when to present them, is extremely effective for providing confidence and mastery of these concepts.

Print materials are essential to give an overview of each area and how they are related in the child’s experience. We have found that our oversize charts are hugely popular with even very experienced Montessori educators. These overview diagrams help mentors to understand the flow of one area of exercises better than they ever have before. They are also extremely effective to help trainees understand the way exercises in one area prepare children for success in another.

Our manuals go beyond the essential information needed to master the content of an area. We include practices that diligent educators use to make the internal shifts in perception needed to actually become a Montessori mentor. Our program gives you the resources you need to completely reorganize your approach to education. Many trainees have given feedback that only after using these materials have they finally truly understood how to provide Montessori education. See and hear what one Montessori innovator had to say about our program. (Scroll down and view video.) More importantly, these materials give you the tools to move beyond the education models learned in your own childhood and authentically put Montessori principles into practice with your children or students. The manual in each module is not a Montessori curriculum album. For a discussion of that tool, please see the discussion below.

Why do you use the term mentor and not teacher?

There is a long tradition in Montessori education of avoiding the term teacher because the role of the adult in the Montessori classroom is so different than the role of a teacher at the front of a traditional classroom. Those leading Montessori classrooms have been called Directresses, Directors, Guides, and Educators. We use educator sometimes but now usually avoid the others because they tend to be confusing in American culture. Guides frequently conduct tours in museums or outdoor expeditions and Directors usually have very hands-on responsibilities that frequently involve telling performers exactly what to do. We chose Mentor because it is a short word with no associations we consider to be in conflict with the adult role in the Montessori classroom. Mentors prepare experiences, orient people new to an environment, and give guidance as needed but usually only as needed. This fits with the role we help educators take on in their classrooms.

Do you provide certification for Montessori educators?

No. After sharing experiences and learning from educators in many disciplines, we have embraced a recommendation approach to qualifying educators and many other professionals. Though there are many, many excellent certified Montessori professionals, we have not found that any Montessori certification or credential guarantees excellence. Without exception, we have found the best way to find an excellent Montessori mentor is to go with the recommendation of those who know them. At this time, we are focusing on providing materials educators need to become excellent. In the future, we will have ways to help new Mentors secure a professional recommendation.

Won’t I need Montessori certification to lead a classroom?

The short answer is, “no.” The good answer is that it depends upon which Montessori classroom you mean. If you want to work in a particular school, you need to consult with the head of that school about their requirements for staff members. A small percentage of the Montessori schools in the U. S. are affiliated with organizations that also certify teachers. An even smaller percentage of these schools will only hire staff members who have a Montessori teaching certification from their affiliate organization.

The American Montessori Society and Association Montessori Internationale are the largest and most widely respected of these certifying organizations. We highly recommend you become an individual member of both of these organizations as well as The International Montessori Council and International Montessori Society. All 4 organizations provide invaluable professional education opportunities and the only requirement for individual membership is to pay an annual membership fee. The journals and publications that you get with your membership are essential for your ongoing development as a Montessori educator. The conventions they offer are also excellent professional development resources.

We have limited experience with Montessori educator requirements in countries other than the U.S., however you should gain valuable information about local requirements by meeting with the heads of schools in any area in which you wish to teach. Public Montessori schools are usually charter schools which tend to have requirements for teachers that vary from state to state and even from charter school to charter school. Again, your best bet is to visit and ask for information.

The great majority of Montessori educators who lead classrooms are in that position because they were the best qualified person available when there was an opening at the school. Our experience shows that a recommendation from another Montessori professional is one of the best possible assets for being hired. Lacking that, staff members are hired most often because they are able to demonstrate their ability to lead a class. In established schools, new hires usually will work in a classroom with an experienced educator for at least a year before taking over responsibility for a classroom.

If I have no experience, how can I demonstrate my ability to lead a class?

Our short suggestion is to create a portfolio that includes video content. Aside from the schools that require certification from a specific organization, our research indicates that most schools will hire a teacher with a well-crafted portfolio demonstration of expertise over someone with a certification alone. The one exception is if the school has an established relationship with the teacher training program granting the certification. This is why it is essential that you meet with the person who hires staff at any specific schools that interest you.

Aren’t there any requirements to do your program?

In our experience, taking responsibility for your own learning is one of the best indicators that you will do the work it takes to master a subject. This is in harmony with our philosophy of how all learners should be treated, not just children. If we require you fill out answers to questions or create specific materials or curriculum albums, we run the very real risk of doing harm. If these activities are not in harmony with your learning style, you will complete the requirements resentfully at best and while actually blocking your learning of the material at worst. If we place requirements on you such as coloring in line drawing illustrations of materials, or some other time consuming album creation assignments, we also risk taking up your time with activities that will not really help you master the material at all.

We use our expertise in what is most useful to most adults by creating products we believe give you what you need to learn Montessori. Then we leave the responsibility for learning with you. Your purchase of the program is a commitment to your own learning. We do our best to provide you the level of support you need – and not intrude on you by providing more than you need.

The only requirement to obtain the program is to buy it. If you choose to interact with us online, in a mentorship program, or in a future recommendation program, we will provide appropriate requirements for those additional aspects of the program. If you are committed to becoming an accomplished Montessori professional, we believe you can do so with the program products alone. If you need more support, we will do our best to provide it or help you connect with someone who can.

Don’t I need to create Montessori albums for each curriculum area?

Again, the short answer is, “no,” but the good answer is only if you want to make them.

(A description of traditional Montessori Albums is below.)

Our suggestion is a pretty radical recommendation to skip them entirely – at least in the form they usually take at this time. Here are just some of our reasons for this unorthodox approach:

• Most students no longer write the descriptions of the exercises and so their value in mastering the material in the beginning is limited.
• The value of these notebooks in helping mentors know when to present each exercise is small.
• With notable exceptions, most mentors do not use them very much once they complete their training.

For most exercises, it is seldom useful to write out all the steps of a presentation. Even for more complex Practical Life, Math, and Geometry presentations, a brief outline that does not include complete sentences is usually the most useful notes format. The idea is to get the lesson presentation into your head and provide a reference material to refresh you on the tricky details. A formal write-up, especially written by someone else, is seldom effective to accomplish that. Long, elaborate entries for all exercises, even the simplest, are the reason most Montessori albums are so big no one even wants to pull them off the shelves, much less look up a presentation detail of a complex math lesson.

Again, our approach to this comes out of our deep commitment to let you make decisions about your own learning in line with the level of responsibility you are capable of carrying at this stage of your Montessori training. For those who feel these notebook reference materials would help them learn, we are in the process of creating a resource with suggestions on how to create them. It will direct you to collections of Montessori albums online and suggest specific entries from each that are worth including in your own albums. All the resources we will be recommending are free, other than your printing costs, except one that provides some coaching along with the actual album content. Look for this to be available late Spring 2010.

What is a Montessori Album?

Briefly, these are usually loose-leaf notebooks with write-ups and illustrations for each Montessori material. More extensive volumes include a separate article for each exercise presented with each material. More typically, one or two exercises with each material are written up in detail and other options are included in brief descriptions as extensions or variations.

In training programs today, it is common that students are provided the written material for these large volumes (typically 4 to 7 giant loose-leaf notebooks) and then add their own illustrations or sometimes color in illustrations provided. Some training programs provide published manuals for students to cut up and assemble into albums. A few distance learning training programs provide complete albums with illustrations as a primary way of teaching the presentations. The core of our complete Home Study Program is over 30 hours of video information because the more complex presentations are very difficult to learn from any book format.

Do your DVDs show actual classroom footage?

For the most part, they don’t. A few segments were filmed with children in a Montessori school in 1986. Most of the presentations are given for the camera only. A few lessons were presented to an older child who wanted to help and was coached to provide some specific instruction examples. The video presentations are a combination of material filmed in 1986 (used to train educators in several schools since that time) and supplementary segments created in 2008 and 2009. The original 1986 material was actually the second phase of a training project. After several problems occurred filming children receiving actual lesson presentations, we switched to the format used in most of the program.

While some useful interactions came up in actual lessons, there were too many limitations. The children tended to be self-conscious about the camera and staff members became concerned about the children’s feelings about being filmed. In addition, with a child present, the trainer was not able to explain the different responses children tend to give in a particular lesson. The trainees found the format of the trainer alone most useful because they were given more information about the range of ways the lessons were typically received. When tapes of actual lessons were used, the staff members found themselves less confident and prepared to handle the variety of responses the children gave when they began giving the lessons themselves.

Please note that the 1986 footage was used because of the complete classroom and materials available to us at that time to which we no longer have access. We currently work with a variety of schools that help with our training materials but do not necessarily have available all the materials we wanted to include in this program. The production values are less than ideal but we decided the segments were too valuable to exclude based on that or some bad hair and nail choices of the ‘80’s.

How is your program different from other Montessori training programs?

Our program is different in four primary ways:

• The entire program includes over 30 hours of organized video presentations you purchase and keep.
• The printed support material provides a unique way of tying the entire curriculum together.
• The program is mastery-based and allows you to evaluate your own level of mastery.
• Support beyond the video and print materials is customized to your needs.

How are your videos different from others available?

Our videos are sequenced to support mastery of an area or a mentor skill set and they are used together with our print materials to achieve mastery. They provide complete, detailed segments of lesson presentations that are designed for the thoughtful Montessori educator. Trainees are encouraged to evaluate different approaches to preparing the environment, sequencing, and presenting lessons. From first viewing, they are encouraged to think for themselves and make decisions. Our program guides mentors in making decisions in the classroom in the context of constantly reviewing and updating those decisions based on observations of their students’ work.

The more complex presentations are given for every area and allow the trainee to view and then practice the lesson as many times as necessary for mastery. Simpler presentations are also included and used to help mentors understand the work that comes before the actual lesson presentation. The video instruction gives the background and details needed to actually set up each area of the classroom, rotate and update materials in it, and choose an appropriate sequence of presentations for each child. Scenarios are also given so that the new educator has specific phrases and strategies to use in the classroom guidance interactions that happen between lesson presentations.

Are your overview charts available separately from the Home Study modules?

No. Our research to this point indicates that they really are only useful when they are summaries of the extensive overview information given in the videos and manuals.

How is your program customized to my needs?

First, you can choose what you learn and when. Though we encourage everyone to purchase the first two modules because they lay the foundation for the curriculum areas, what you buy and when is up to you. For those who require just a little guidance beyond what is in each module, we will soon offer  reports with suggestions on how to best use the program in different circumstances. (We expect to have the first of these available Spring 2010.) Beginning February 15, 2010, extra support will be available through online resources such Twitter and Facebook. Eventually, we will have more structured support for groups of trainees who would like to interact with others online. We will also be offering email support programs and mentoring programs beginning in March 2010. Because our basic program is so economical, each educator can start from there and then add whatever additional support he or she needs.

Detailed information about each module is available at these links:

Montessori Training Program Introduction & Mentor Preparation Home Study Course

Montessori Classroom Management, Leadership, and Preparation Home Study Course

Montessori Practical Life Curriculum Home Study Course

Montessori Sensorial Preparation Curriculum Home Study Course

Montessori Language Curriculum Ages 3-6, Home Study Course

Phonics & Spelling for Everybody I Montessori Language Supplement, Home Study Course

Montessori Math & Cultural Subjects Curriculum Part A, Ages 3-6, Home Study Course

Montessori Math & Cultural Subjects Curriculum Part B, Ages 3-6, Home Study Course