Rebecca Katzenmeyer was our final speaker. She is a
Montessori teacher. They use very little technology in the
classroom.
She talked about
Montessori. She was the first female doctor in Italy and focused on
pediatrics. This was a big deal at the time, and needed permission
from the Pope to practice medicine. That lead her to advocate for
women's rights. She was forced into exile for opposing the Italian
government. She studied teaching up until her death at age 81.
The environment of
Montessori were designed with specific guidelines. She used calming
colors and not things that distracted the child. Things were neatly
arranged and like a spa and not like a traditional classroom. It
needs to be safe, healthy and clean. Calm and kind adults serve as
adults. The activities are accessible and are arranged from simple
to complex. A variety of living and nonliving things serve as a
point of interest. Any child that is in this environment can travel
from city to city and have familiarity.
How do they
prepare for literacy?
They set up the
environment to teach themselves to read. Who taught us how to speak?
We learn this from our environment. They give them a lot of
different vocabulary.
They introduce
scrubbing and polishing. They all help prepare for writing.
They use sound
cylinders for shaking and listening.
They
have “I spy” baskets. This is what they use in place of the tech
gadgets. They use them to think more precisely about things. It
allows them to take ownership of these materials.
They develop
writing before reading, and they separate the materials. The
materials are specific in the classroom. The three materials they use
are metal insets, sand paper letters and the moveable alphabet.
They also use the
whole word approach. They feel like they are reading but they are
really matching pictures to words.