Susy

Posted on 10/22/09

Hello!

I am in a CMTE 6-9 training program, and I am completing my
6-9 internship in a public Montessori school. It is a real
challenge, and I am looking for some words of wisdom. To
give some background - the school is in transition from a
Montessori school pretty much in name only to an authentic
Montessori program. About 15 teachers in our school are in
this training, including the entire 6-9 team (5
classrooms). (I am "co-teaching" with another intern, and
we are both certified teachers.) Therefore, we are really
just figuring out how this all works as we go. We also
must teach the school district's reading and math programs -
or at least give the tests on their timetable, and give
grades. And in my classroom, all 4 of our 3rd years are
new to the school (and to Montessori) while our 11 2nd
years had a more traditional class last year with very
little independent work - so most of the class is in
transition, too. (Our first-years came up through the
school's established Montessori 3-6 program and do pretty
well.) And we have a couple of notable behavior issues.
Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us!

So I have a few questions that I'll throw out there:
1) How can we help our 3rd years work productively and
independently? They are used to doing worksheets with the
teacher pretty much standing over them.
2) How do we handle balancing the child's choice of work
with making sure they do what they have to do for the
weekly test? (We have to give the weekly reading tests
mandated by the district.)
3) How do we keep the noise level down? (That one might
be universal!)

I would love to hear from anyone who's been in a similar
position, if only to hear that it gets better and that I'll
make it through the year!

Thanks!

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