Montessori 101: The Montessori method

Here is the second in the series:

Montessori-101-The-Montessori-method

Thanks again to Jocelyn Scotty for these articles!

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

Video: Dr. Montessori- Worth Sharing

Here is an excellent little video about Dr. Montessori that you can share with parents, friends or those who simply would like to know more about Dr. Montessori and her work. Enjoy!

MARIA MONTESSORI: HER LIFE AND LEGACY - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

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Hoping for a Joyous New Year!

Dear UMA Community,

Trudy and I want to wish you a blessed and joyous new year, 2009!
For all of us, the world economy is in trouble, the hope of peace is still illusive in several corners of the world and perhaps some of our loved ones and friends are going through difficult times. What better reason for us to renew our imagination and practical ways to seek a world, full of children and adults, who will carry out the great ends of humankind: to act justly, promote peace and to pursue life and the best it has to offer!

Blessings to you and yours...

John and Trudy Coumou Shepard

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

Sensorial Project

Jennifer Brazier, co-director of The Clarksburg Children’s House – A Montessori Preschool in Glen Elk, WV, shares her original project for the Sensorial area of the classroom.

Thank you Jen!

Download the "Whole and Half" pdf for this presentation.

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

New Fall Series on Distance Learning

For the beginning of the Fall School season, we are offering our students and those interested in taking our online course, a series on "Distance Learning Best Practices", plus other assorted tidbits, helps and hints.

So to start things off, here are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

First, do you have the time to devote to an online study course? Many think that the convenience of online work means less hours required to complete the same amount of work in a classrooom setting. Online class work takes the same, if not more time initially, than an onsite college or vocational class. An online course may save you commute time plus you get to choose your own hours. But typically, students don't weigh the temptation that comes with online work. Let me put it this way. We say to ourselves: "There is often something else more pressing, I can fit in my online studies when I have nothing better to do, I am not facing a strict deadline with my teacher or evaluator,...," and the list of excuses builds from there.

And if you are starting out new to online distance learning, the style of course work, emails, working with an email program on your computer, time between sending a lesson and the response time,... all this and more can add minutes if not hours to your weekly work schedule. Add to that family time, socializing, meals, and the vast minutiae of stuff that enters our day to day living and online time for homework and lessons can easily be forgotten or thought to be not as pressing as other demands.

Here is UMA's suggested TIME REQUIRED to complete UMA course work:
10- 15 hours per week. This is equal to a 9 credits course load at a university or college.

Okay. That's the start to this series. More later.

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

Six Food Mistakes ( courtesy NYTimes)

UMA is now back blogging again after a long summer sojourn and infrequent blogging throughout the summer. So to start things off, I have posted a recent NY Times article on food mistakes parents often make with their children:
Six Food Mistakes Parents Make...

Enjoy!

John and Trudy

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

Link to Enviroblog

Regarding environmental issues and how they may impact you and your family, go to:
http://www.enviroblog.org/

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

Interesting link on The Child and Brain Research

Here is a link to an interesting conference and other information regarding the child and brain research:

http://www.edupr.com/

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

A Sensorial Exercise w/Knobbed Cylinders

UMA is developing more video tutorials for UMA students. Here's a sample:

Enjoy.

A blog of the United Montessori Association- Montessori Distance Learning - Montessori Teacher Certification

Some thoughts from Dr. Montessori

I thought these random thoughts from Dr. Montessori might be of some help:

"Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."

"The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.'"

"If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men."

"Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world."

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."

"The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil."

"One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child."

"That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life."

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