The Elementary Montessori Course is not all about theory and lectures, taking notes and learning concepts.
It is also about applying them in an actual environment by attending supervised practice.
Every day, after the lectures were over, we would divide into groups and enter Montessori classrooms, where we would “get our hands dirty” and handle actual Montessori materials.
Learn how to present the Montessori materials
Even though India’s temperatures were not so friendly in the afternoon, our main goal was to master every presentation from the hand-outs, not only for the exams but also for our future work in our own classrooms.
So, every day we would man ourselves up, drink lots of water and went to practice.
Because we were a large group (almost 90 people), we had to divide into 3 smaller groups (Red Group, Green Group and Blue Group) and do our practice into 3 different environments.
One of the environments was set up especially for us, with the actual materials from our hand-outs, but the other two were actual environments of children from Pebble Creek School, and some of the charts and nomenclature materials were quite different.
That was a little confusing at first, but in time we managed and things started to run smoothly.
Experience how the child faces the Montessori materials
What I think was more valuable than the actual handling of the materials was the patience we developed.
I remember how, after the lecture of the Cube Root ended, which was somehow a little more challenging to understand only from theory, all of us raced to the assigned environments to grab the material and practice right away, while the information was still fresh in our minds.
Even though we were aware that we shouldn’t run on the stairs, we would speed up our walking and we would look behind to check if somebody else was also coming for the material.
It was even funnier when we reached the material, started working and realized that this is exactly what children do in the classroom: if they have their mind set up on a certain activity, they would do anything in their power to grab the specific materials and work.
Another thing that came to my understanding was that when you are not confident about a presentation, you tend to avoid doing it. Exactly what children do when they don’t understand a concept and avoid working with a specific material.
I admit that I am a shy person who was always afraid of trying something new and making a mistake on the way. But, by attending the supervised practice, I starting asking my classmates for help and realized that the feeling you get when you finally understand how things work and how easy it all becomes after, is truly fulfilling.
This feeling is exactly what we should aim for our children to get, after every activity!
Share your skills in order to become a better Montessori guide
Last but not the least is the strong bond we made by all working together and not being part of the same small group every day.
We noticed how different people have different skills in different areas and how we can grow together by asking questions and listening to different points of view.
Even though sometimes we had our differences, at the end of the day we would always meet halfway and accept each other’s opinion.
And I truly believe that helped us a lot on our way of becoming the best Montessori guides for our children!