Welcome to India

   This week we began our culture/history theme of the Mughals and India.  My co-teacher happens to be from India, so she is - of course - quite knowledgable of the region and its history.  She spent her weekend preparing the classroom, decorating much of the room with clothes and other interesting items from India. 
   On Monday we had the students gather in the other classroom while we got ready the materials for a special Indian welcoming ceremony.  She had a tray with 2 small homemade oil lamps and rose water, and she handed me garlands she had made from streamers wrapped together.  We had the students line up outside the classroom and enter one by one. 

As they entered, my co-teacher first sprinkled the rose water on them, then swirled the candles around in front of them.  After that I placed the garland around their necks.  As the students entered they saw a classroom decorated with beautiful objects from India.
Once they had all entered and sat down on chairs that had been lined up near the computer to watch a short video, my co-teacher gave them an explanation of the greeting, and answered questions they had.  The students watched a short video on India that showed different images with accompanying music.  Following this short video clip, the students asked questions about India. 



Later on throughout the day, the students were encouraged to explore the culture shelves which contained many beautiful objects from India.
One particular thing the students were encouraged to try was the "Indian mouth-freshener" - a combination of spices that leave a nice taste in your mouth, however it is an acquired taste. 

Indian mouth-freshener

On the shelf, she also had common Indian spices on a tray, and in bottles - all with nice labels.
The wall next to the culture shelves is decorated with beautiful Indian clothes.

It takes a lot of work, but the children are so much more engaged when you take the time to "prepare the environment."  I was quite impressed by all the effort my co-teacher put in, and wanted to share this lesson with all of you. 

The Classroom

My coteacher and I had two weeks before school began to thouroughly prepare our classrooms.  Because the main classroom we are working from is a tight fit, meaning that not all the appropriate sections will fit in that classroom, we decided to utilize the classroom right across the hall.  After getting feedback from an experienced coworker, we decided to have the geography, culture, history, science, and language sections in one classroom, and the geometry and math materials in the other classroom. 

Last year was our first year as Montessori teachers, so our classroom dramatically changed from the previous year.  Such was this case this year as well- furniture was moved around, materials added to the shelves, new ideas implemented.  Our newly-acquired awareness of the importance of the prepared environment made us quite particular, but also at a loss at times because we are still fairly new to Montessori. 

The following are photos of our main classroom.  We give culture lessons here, and the students conduct their research, do their reading and writing here as well. 

This is a photo of our classroom library, showing the comfy bean bags for students to feel comfortable. 

This is our circle area, even though we have "big" kids (ages 9-12), we still have circle as it is a nice way to begin the class, and a more unified way of sitting rather than in desks or tables.  I feel the circle is much more intimate, the children are all sitting next to each other and everyone is facing one another.  Everyone is literally at the same level: seated on the floor, including the teachers.  If you'll notice on the shelves, we have our culture and science sections.  We were just studying a mini-theme of Ramadan, including the phases of the moon.  Our next theme will be of the Mughal empire in India.

The photos from the language section did not turn out, so I will post those later.

The follow photos are taken from our other classroom:

This is the math section, with all math materials on surrounding shelves.  You'll notice there are still empty shelves, we are still in the process of acquiring all materials. 

Here is our geometry section.  As you will notice, again our shelves are bare: materials are so expensive!  But our generous parent teacher organization allocated $2000 for math and geometry materials.  However, fellow Montessorians will all understand that that is not nearly enough, but it's a start! 

This is student seating, and the teacher's desk in the back.  The shelves along the wall are for art materials.

Welcome to our classrooms!  Now, we have 17 students, and are thinking of changing it around, as 17 do not fit in our main classroom at the same time, so we are trying to figure out what to do.

Preparing the Environment, Part 1: Lessons Learned

It being the week before school starts, my co-teacher and I are scrambling to "prepare the environment" and get the two classrooms we will be using ready for the students when they arrive on Tuesday, September 1st exactly at 8:20am.  We have both finished our Montessori classes and are full of enthusiasm, ideas, and newly-found wisdom that we did not possess before training.

When I first began my teaching, I was sort of thrown into an upper elementary classroom (mixed ages, grades 4-6) without much to go on.  However, zeal can go a long way, even if there is limited knowledge to accompany it.  I plastered the high classroom walls with commercially-designed posters about the 6 writing traits, along with color motivational posters encouraging students to "Respect Each Other" and to "Be Responsible."  I made sure all the walls were properly decorated, including pictures for the first theme of the year: astronomy.  I arranged the desks in neat rows, four by four, and got ready the worksheets I would need for the first week.  I made sure there was a "Writing Center" and a "Reading Center."  I reserved a small wall to the side of my white board for the rules the classroom rules the students would come up with themselves and then sign their names to.  That was two years ago.

The Montessori classroom is quite different from the classic conventional classroom (in a good way).  First of all, there is an emphasis on creating a calming, welcoming atmosphere that is child-centered, not teacher-centered.  The environment should be beautified with things such as plants, cultural items, a nice lamp, decorative art, etc.

There should be minimal to no commercial posters, the walls should be left for the students' work or that small painting you bought at Cost Plus World Market (for example).  Would we as adults want our office covered in multi-colored of bulletin boards bordered by rainbow butterflies, along with cheap commercial posters urging us to "Do your Best"?  Especially for younger children, the colors are actually distracting and do not lead to a calm environment. I would say that the same goes for older students.  Myself, as an adult, I find too much visual stimuli distracting.  Sitting here in this coffee shop near my home, the wall across from me has more than 50 posters advertising various singers, shows, etc.  I have not read or noticed a single poster.  The other wall, however, has paintings sparsely displayed for sale.  They are much easier to see, because they are not a sea of images, but just four or five.  It is easy for my eyes to focus on the individual paintings.

Our current classrooms have no posters, and only one teacher-created bulletin board - the other bulletin boards are open for posting student work.  We also have potted plants and decorative times, such as a small reading lamp that has a stained-glass shade, as well as cultural items for our shelves.  Once it is clean and organized, I will be taking photos and posting them. It's a shame I have no photos from my first classroom to compare to this year.  But, oh how I've learned.