Montessori Blog

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast The notion of flexibility without compromise seems, at first glance, contradictory. Like many terms used in Montessori circles that are joined together and also seemingly paradoxical, such as freedom and responsibility, structure and choice, and follow the child vs order and procedure, there is an endless […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast There are very few topics in the elementary classroom that I hear more about than the continuous struggle about how to manage pencils.  Never mind the colored pencils, that’s a whole other topic! Today we will just stick to regular lead pencils that the children use, […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast Peter Piché is MACTE-credentialed (Primary, Elementary I–II,) Montessori educator who founded and designed the Secondary I Montessori program at Montessori Community School in Durham, North Carolina, after attending Great Work’s Orientation to Montessori Adolescent program. In addition to getting his professional leadership coaching certification from the […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast Jess is an Elementary Lead Guide and poet in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked with children of almost all ages in a variety of settings to facilitate holistic growth and the building of a strong and supportive school community, and has also consulted for the WNYC […]

  Affiliate links may be used in this post at no cost to you. Learn Libre (formerly known as Montessori Laboratory) is a Montessori science program designed to help educators and caregivers nurture and encourage their students’ interest in the magnificence of the universe. Learn Libre was founded by Zoe Rising and Rich Worley who […]

by Letty Rising     Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast The world is rapidly changing all around us. When I think of the Timeline of Humans, and just how long it took for change to take place from the beginning of human life until now, it’s easy to see that the amount of transformation the […]

by Letty Rising Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast   Confidence is considered an essential trait that we hope for all children to develop. When we think of a confident child, we can imagine a child who throws up a hand and takes a risk to answer a question they may not have the answer to, […]

by Letty Rising     Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast   The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ― William Arthur Ward I came across this quote recently, and it prompted me to think about the variety of methods we use to teach children.  Sometimes it’s […]

by Letty Rising     Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast   It’s feeling like summertime across much of the northern hemisphere, and while some of you might be in the throes of lazy summer days, sipping iced tea on a lounge chair by the pool, many of you are starting to break into a sweat […]

by Letty Rising     Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast When considering elevating your teaching practice, there are really two major paths towards self-improvement. One is external feedback from colleagues who can let you know if you’re on the right track or might need to make some adjustments.  The other is self-reflection. The great thing […]

by Letty Rising     Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast   In Montessori training, most of us have been cautioned about offering praise to children.  This flies in the face of what many of us grew up with, as it was implicitly communicated that praise was to be used as a measure of counteracting the […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast I once gave a workshop to a group of parents, and when I talked about how elementary-aged children are knowledge-seekers who are interested in knowing about everything, I saw flickers of joy and delight on their faces as they imagined their children absorbing the totality of […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast I remember the first month of my first year of teaching.  I was at a school that was not only new to me but a new school altogether.  We had two modest classrooms that were located in a church, with the hopes of one day being […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast At the time of this writing, it is springtime in parts of the world, which often tends to be an extra-tired time for teachers.  However, even if you are in the Southern Hemisphere and are entering into the fall months, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re […]

by Letty Rising   Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast Throughout the history of education, there are initiatives, movements, and even sayings that come and go. Some of them stick and become interwoven within the fabric of education, and some fizzle out after a while.  Examples of recent buzzword terms and concepts that have been all […]

by Letty Rising Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast Maria Montessori observed that human beings did not possess the same kind of instinctual behavior that other animals do.  Instead, she observed in people from various cultures throughout the world what came to be referred to as Human Tendencies.  These Human Tendencies are a driving force that […]

by Letty Rising Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast   One of the hardest aspects of guiding a Montessori classroom is helping the children understand how to balance freedom with responsibility.  In fact, this very concept is often woefully misunderstood!  It often is the tendency that beginning teachers will veer in one direction or another favoring […]

by Letty Rising Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast When considering both the hallmarks and benefits of the Montessori elementary classroom, one of the first things that generally comes to mind is the idea of freedom to choose work.  This is one of the aspects of a Montessori environment that sets us apart from other pedagogies […]

by Letty Rising Follow the Trillium Montessori Talks podcast   While many teacher training programs do a brilliant job at introducing the Montessori materials, it can often be the case that whatever is offered as the approach to writing with elementary children isn’t as robust or comprehensive. As a result, teachers often enter the class not […]

by Letty Rising   When the topic of Montessori education comes up with people who know a little bit about it, often what is described is a 3-6 classroom. After all, this is the age of development where Maria Montessori started her work with the children in Rome when she was fresh out of medical […]