I, Dr. Robin Howe, would like to invite you to join the 18th cohort of “You Can Teach It All” a program developed by my colleague and friend, the late Dr. Michael Dorer. 

When I completed my Montessori Elementary training with Dr. Dorer more than 15 years ago, I, like my colleagues in training, was overwhelmed with the vast amount of information we were expected to share with students. While this was before “You Can Teach It All” was formally created, Dr. Dorer shared the strategies for managing the curriculum that is outlined in this course. 

Based on the work started by Dr. Michael Dorer, I will be leading you through this course. We will have four live sessions throughout this eight-week course.  

There is no one time when you must be online live. The work will unfold week-by-week. Optional discussions will be offered a few times during the course.

Many elementary Montessori guides find the instructional process to be intimidating, even baffling. The curriculum seems daunting and intellectually challenging, even for the adult. The guide finds him or herself caught between a variety of challenges:

Should I follow each child’s interests? How should I group the children? What about the widely different ability levels?  What about choice? I just can’t get it all done! Too little time!

Too often, guides are exhausted and frustrated by what can seem like an impossible task: covering the entire elementary scope. There are some reasons for that. 

The guide may: 

• be simply attempting too few or too many lessons. 
• be offering too much detail.
• be caught up in a drive for mastery.
• be lacking clear guidelines and expectations.
• be teaching reactively rather than proactively.
• be teaching as though it is a Children’s House, presenting to one child at a time.
• have poor, inadequate, or no lesson planning.
• be caught up in overly detailed records.

The Results?
 

The results can be devastating for teachers, and by extension, for schools. Extreme cases may well lead to burnout or leaving the profession. Some teachers proclaim that Montessori simply will not work with this age or with “these children.” Some guides split children in ways that do not guarantee offering every child the whole curriculum. Others resort to non-Montessori instructional aids, such as card-based directives (task cards), worksheets, work plans, workbooks, or textbooks. 

Does this describe you or a colleague? Are there some parts of it that apply to you?

The good news is that there are some solutions, many of which will work. You can teach successfully, offering elementary Montessori children the whole curriculum. Of course, implementing these solutions will require some changes in how you operate in the classroom.

In this course, I will lead you through eight steps that can be taken to allow you to teach it all successfully. This will be an overview. 

In brief, these are the eight steps that can transform your teaching practice to successfully teaching the entire curriculum.

1. A curriculum plan
2. Weekly lesson plans
3. Designated Days
4. The Great Period
5. One lesson per group, per subject, per week.
6. Open Lesson Policy
7. Focus Groups in the Afternoon
8. Guided Discovery

Join me. This course may make all the difference in your work as an elementary Montessori teacher/guide. 

For more information on group pricing, please email Kristi Antczak @ [email protected].