The Pilot: At New Montessori School, Creating a Community of Learners

Feature Article in The Pilot Newspaper, October 19, 2018

By Mary Kate Murphy, Staff Writer

There are no desks in the classrooms, fewer chairs at the tables than there are children — and there’s not an iPad or Chromebook in sight.

In a class at Moore Montessori Community School, students might be sprawled on the floor fitting puzzle pieces — a knob representing each state’s capital — into a map of the United States. But there are only a few of those puzzles to go around, so another student might be slicing apples or cheese for snack time while someone else uses 3-D letters to spell out words, or works with an abacus-like tool to learn decimals and place value.

Who does what at any given time is generally up to the students.

Students’ executive function skills — their ability to set goals and work through multi-step processes to attain them — are tested at the start of each year. Throughout the day, the teacher and assistant in each classroom monitor them accordingly.

“The idea is that the children are making choices all day long, and making good choices is something you have to practice,” said Katherine Rucker, Moore Montessori’s founder and head of school.

“Some children get to choose where to sit to do the work, and some children can map out their whole day. All the children will someday be able to independently follow a weekly work plan they developed with their teacher.”

To read complete article: https://www.thepilot.com/news/at-new-montessori-school-creating-a-community-of-learners/article_1e33490e-d3d5-11e8-b662-035deaca8223.html