Teaching Positive Discipline At The Montessori Event of 2019

Almost annually for the past 20 years, I have been making the trek to the Annual AMS conference. Every time I go, I come back more inspired, more connected to colleagues, more supported and ready to strengthen my practice of Montessori pedagogy with what I have learned.

This year the above was true with one additional change. I had the privilege and honor to present Positive Discipline to other Montessorians. The proposal was submitted and accepted almost 9 months ago and we (my presenting partner Ines Oldenburg and I) have been planning and practicing the activities. We knew before going there that we should plan for around 200 attendees. When we arrived, the room started filling up and within minutes there were no more seats and people were standing along the wall sitting on the floor in the front and even behind us. We ended up with over 300 people at the workshop. My biggest A-HA was that Montessori teachers from all over our country are hungry for a different way to handle the misbehaviors of children.

Every year, AMS invites famous people who are experts in their field to deliver the keynote lectures. In the past, we have had stalwarts such as, Fred Rogers, Maya Angelou, Jane Goodall and Bryan Stevenson, just to name a few. This year our first keynote was one of my long-time heroes, Daniel Goleman. Goleman is author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence. He has studied emotional intelligence and helps support the Montessori philosophy of teaching to the whole child (not just teaching academics). His study has shown that great leaders may not have been the top of their class with GPAs or SATs, but those who could delay gratification, control their emotions, and empathize with others. These are all the skills that we teach to children even as young as 3 at SMA.

Cognitive Control is when we or children have inhibitory control. According Goleman we (as Montessori schools) teach this automatically by having only one of every material and a child may have to wait until it is available or wait for snack because someone is still setting it up. We increase executive functioning naturally by expecting children to put away one piece of work before they can take something else out. The Montessori environment is naturally designed to help children develop and strengthen their emotional intelligence!

There were so many more positive things at this conference and it is my goal to be able to take the entire teaching staff next year!

A Montessori Moment: The Multi-Age Classroom

Montessori classrooms offer incredible advantages to students who are able to benefit from being surrounded by peers who are both older and younger. This unique set up allows younger children to seek help from their peers through direct questioning or observation, and gives older children an opportunity to be a teacher or leader in his or her actions. At Southwest Montessori Academy we are lucky enough to witness the usefulness of this set up every day in our classrooms. Please continue reading to see one example of how children use this set-up to grow as individuals.

In our classroom one fine morning a student (let’s call her Nina) was waiting for a lesson from a teacher. The teacher was busy with another student, so she asked an older student, Sam, to help Nina. Though Sam was interested in the request, he was also not quite sure he could help as he had not done that work in a while and he was planning to do something else.

First Sam said, “I don’t think I can because I have not done that in a while.” As he said this, his eyes were focused on the work and he became quiet. It was obvious he was pensive and mentally working through his options. Then he said, “Maybe I could just help her get started and Nina can come get me if she has more questions. I can try to help her.” The teacher thought this was a reasonable plan.

Sam started helping Nina and you could see his shoulders go back in confidence just a little bit, and it was clear he was holding his chin just a little high. After he showed the lesson, Nina began working independently to repeat the work as Sam had, while Same then chose a challenging work for himself, which he had been avoiding thinking it was too hard. 

This story exemplifies why a multi-age classroom is beneficial for all. Sam’s level of self-esteem and confidence was raised because he got to see how capable he really was and Nina got a new lesson even though the teacher was busy. The effect of helping or teaching someone builds confidence and independence.