Time. It’s one thing many of us say we don’t have enough of. It’s finite, yet also unlimited. Thinking about the time that has come before today is, in many respects, incomprehensible – just as it is to think of time far into the future. Children know now... it takes years for them to understand yesterday or tomorrow. They truly live in the present moment, which is something many adults strive to do.
It can be said that time is an artificial construct. It is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries and so on. In other ways, it provides the structure we need to manage our lives. School years mean something different than fiscal years or calendar years. Within each of these “years” are other divisions of time. In schools, each year brings new classrooms and students as well as different aspects of the basic subjects taught there. Continue reading
Last year at around this time, National Poetry Month led to an impromptu celebration of 
Schools are interesting places. When I was in school, students remained many steps removed from the adults in the community. A distance was set by the adults, and it was not crossed. Not so today. Research shows time and again that building relationships between teachers, families and students is the best way to support learning.
Much of what we learn in school is memorized, tested and forgotten. Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children must experience learning through multiple senses; sensory experiences are crucial in the earliest years of development. She developed materials that you will find in most Montessori schools. These materials allow children to explore a concept through their hands, their eyes and language. They provide more than one pathway to learning. 
One of my favorite thinkers, Daniel Pink, has just released a new book: 
Montessori education is unfamiliar to many. Some think they know what it means, but when the topic comes up, they often say that Montessori schools are loosely structured environments in which children can do whatever they like. The teachers are in the background, and kids move freely through the environment. Where is the truth in these statements? 
New math. Digital literacy. Executive function. Soft skills. None of these things were “things” when we were in school. Education seemed straightforward to us. We were taught something, memorized it, shared it on the test and moved on to the next topic. Most of us had no clue as to how rules of language, math or science came to be. We accepted what we were taught. The end. 