To many elementary Montessori guides, the instructional process is 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 which can be taken to allow you to teach it all successfully. This will be an overview. 

In brief, these are the eight steps which 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