Today is the travelling day to Holland. Tomorrow I will visit the Montessori School in Houten (Utrech). I Don't know what to expect about this experience but I'm sure that it will be really exiting to see how this methodology works in a school. 

I have read a lot about Montessori methodology and I had an specific topic about it in one of my subjects at the University but I haven't had the opportunity to visit a Montessori school with the whole method implatnted.

I'm really interested about how they organize the classes, how they cope with different level students in the same classroom and only one teacher for all of them. I'm curious about how teacher explain the contents and when, about how the children decide what to do in each moment, about the materials they Have.

Tomorrow I will answer many of these questions

Today has been my first day in Montessori School of Houten. The day started with a warm wellcoming from the teacher of groups 6,7 and 8 (9, 10 and 11 years old children) Cathelijne (thank you very much).

The first thing they did was a work-time. In this moment, each student works by itself in the task they decide. They must do some works about Maths, Language, Natural Science, Reading and Geography and they organize their time as they want. I could see some of them workin in maths, other in language or Science... I asked how they choose their tasks and a pupil explained me that they have commited to get some goals in each subject, and they must do 3 sheets of exercises during the week to get it. They have packs of sheets with activities on them about the topic they're working with and they choose the most challenging for them. When the think they have completed the goal, they show their work to the teacher and she signs their comminments as a proof of their good job. All this evidences are kept in a personal porfolio. Every child was working quietly with their tasks in a very autonomous way.

After that, they should start to work in pair or group tasks, but they were passing national tests to check ther progress (something compulsory to every school in Holland). For this reason, some of them used the chromebooks to do the tests and some other kept on working individually. During this period of time, I asked them about how do they feel with this methodology and they liked a lot.

In the next moment, the teacher explained new maths contents to the children. They met in a desk in the middle group by group. In this meeting, teacher explained the new contents and helped them to decide what were the most important goals they should try to achieve. They grouped the pupils according to their levels, not to their ages (for example, in the 8th group there were six 11 years old, one 10 years old and one 9 years old).

They ended the day class with the creative moment. They had been studing about "The blue period of picasso" and they were make their own "master pieces" with white, blue and black oil paints.

As yesterday, they started with the individual work and the National tests. During this time, I tried to learn about their program and the materials they use. First thing I got surprised with was when I noticed how structured this method is. Every content is planned annually and are compossed by many goals that children must choose in order to get the general content. Children that work together in the same class and group can consider important different goals to get the general aim of the topic, so you can see children trying to get the same goal through different ways. I specially apreciated the flexibility of this model, because it adapts to the children step very easely. For example, there was a boy who was expected to do the periods (something like packs of contents) 13, 14 and 15 in maths, he was doing the period 16 because he had an special hability with maths and I had already finished his target periods. 

About the materials, I could apreciate a consistent method. Language materials are based on word pieces (to make pairs, relate them, spell them, separate in syllabes...) and sheets of activities. I maths they use manipulative materials which basis is the relevance of the positional values of cyphers (they relate ones, tens, hundreds... to colors and all the materials use this structure). They use perforated boards and many models to represent the decimal system.

After this, they started to work in their pair works. Some of this works consisted on games, competitions, creating surveys, completing stories...) They cooperated with pupils from their own groups. Something I liked a lot was that they had the chance to move freely  and meet in the place they feel confortable (even in a common area outside the class). The teacher usually goes to check what they were doing, but, in general they were doing what they were expected to do.

Next moment was a language moment in wich the teacher dictated sentences using the vocabulary they had been woorking with the last days, she alternated one sentence from each group, so they all had enough time to copy it.

TOPO moment was a warming up video to each group to introduce some geography contents they were going to work the next week. They must complete some geography activities during the week but they can shoose the moment to do it.

They must choose a foreing place (somewhere they have visited or they would like to go) and talk to the class about it during no more than 10 minutes. They are given an outline with the things that they must talk about (cultural facts, popullation, climate, nature...).

They end the week by cleaning the class themselves. They share the responsabilites to tidy everything up and prepare the class for the next week.

As a conclusion, I can say that, Montessori methodology is a very useful way to work in a school. It gives students many opportunities to a personal development reinforcing their autonomy and responsability. I have really enjoyed with my experience and I only can say thanks to the people in Montessori School of Houten.