You Might Be A Montessorian | Katy Wright | TEDxCarrollCollege

Summary

In the TEDx talk 'You Might Be A Montessorian' by Katy Wright, an impassioned advocate of Montessori education, she shares her transformative journey from skepticism to embracing Montessori teaching methods. After discovering its profound impact on her son, Wright pursued Montessori training and recognized its advantages over traditional education models, emphasizing individualized learning and development. She champions integrating Montessori pedagogy into public schools, citing its potential to enhance educational outcomes, especially for diverse and low-income students, thereby questioning why this effective methodology isn't more widely adopted.

Highlights

• Montessori education is based on human development, promoting individualized instruction and self-paced learning. 🌱
• Katy Wright discovered Montessori through her son's preschool, leading to a transformative realization of its benefits. 💡
• Teachers often face challenges due to traditional education constraints, while Montessori offers a methodology based on natural development stages. 🔄
• Integration of Montessori methods in public schools could potentially bridge the educational achievement gap. 🌉
• Despite misconceptions, Montessori is not just an alternative but a scientifically backed educational approach. 🔬

Key Takeaways

• Montessori education emphasizes individualized learning based on human development, contrary to the traditional one-size-fits-all method. 🍎
• The methodology encourages a love for learning by catering to each child's natural development pace, enhancing executive functioning skills. 🚀
• Montessori's multi-age classroom setup fosters inclusivity and diversity, pivotal in understanding diverse perspectives. 🌈
• Teachers gain tools to tailor education to individual needs, facilitating self-paced and student-directed learning. 🎓
• Despite proven benefits, Montessori isn't widely embraced in public education, raising equity and access issues. 🔍

Overview

Katy Wright, in her enlightening TEDx talk, delves into her journey from a traditional teaching background to becoming an advocate for Montessori education. Initially unfamiliar with this innovative educational approach, she stumbled upon it when enrolling her son in a Montessori preschool. This eye-opening experience transformed her teaching philosophy, prompting her to pursue Montessori training and eventually incorporate its principles into her educational practice.

Wright highlights the profound impact that Montessori education can have on children, contrasting it with the limitations of traditional classrooms. Montessori emphasizes self-paced and individualized learning, allowing children to follow their natural development paths. This approach not only nurtures a love for learning but also develops essential skills like executive functioning, which are often overlooked in conventional settings.

Through anecdotes and research findings, Wright passionately argues for the inclusion of Montessori methodologies in public schools. She discusses its potential to reduce educational disparities, especially among low-income and minority students, and encourages a shift towards training teachers in these methods. Her talk is a call to action for systemic educational reform, advocating for a model that truly supports and understands individual learning differences.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Background The Introduction and Background chapter delves into the traditional model of education, likening it to a factory setup where students are expected to learn at the same pace within the confines of grade levels. The chapter raises critical questions about the efficiency and relevance of this approach in modern times.
• 01:30 - 04:30: Discovering Montessori Method The chapter titled 'Discovering Montessori Method' explores the challenges of meeting educational standards that often do not align with human development. It highlights the Montessori approach, characterized by individualized instruction, as defined by Merriam-Webster. The author reflects on their previous ignorance about the Montessori method despite holding a bachelor's degree.
• 04:30 - 07:30: Montessori in Public Education The speaker begins their journey with Montessori education when someone recommends enrolling their preschool-age child in a Montessori preschool. Initially, there is a misunderstanding about Montessori being religious, but upon investigation, they learn that it's not the case. They delve into exploring the Montessori method, which emphasizes personal development, although details about the method are not elaborated in the transcript.
• 07:30 - 10:30: Montessori Teacher Credential Program The speaker reflects on their experience with Montessori education, specifically how they enrolled their son in a Montessori preschool. Although expensive, the speaker found value in the method as they observed the children, aged three to five, fully engaged and concentrated in their activities. The speaker, who was a second-grade teacher at the time, was impressed by the calm and quiet environment of the preschool, in contrast to their own teaching training where they hadn't heard much about the Montessori approach.
• 10:30 - 13:30: Benefits and Advocacy for Montessori In this chapter, the author discusses a personal experience with Montessori education. During a visit to their son's Montessori classroom, they recount an incident where they excitedly rushed to praise their son's work, only to be gently reminded by the adults in the room that they had interrupted an important learning process. The environment was meticulously designed to foster concentration and practice focus, demonstrating the impact and benefits of the Montessori method on their child.

You Might Be A Montessorian | Katy Wright | TEDxCarrollCollege Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] [Music] if you've ever wondered why do we still have a factory model of classroom education if you've ever wondered why don't we make kids learn things at the same pace as each other in grade levels
• 00:30 - 01:00 if you've ever wondered how are we supposed to meet the needs of each student like our education standards asked us to while making them learned in ways that are not matched up to human development if you've ever wondered these things you might be a Montessori in Montessori and here's the merriam-webster definition huh individual instruction I really didn't know anything about Montessori I had a bachelor's degree and a
• 01:00 - 01:30 postgraduate elementary teaching credential and I really didn't know anything about Montessori education then I had my first son when he was preschool age someone I knew said oh you should get him into a Montessori preschool and I said oh no I don't want a religious school and this person laughed and said no it's not a religion check it out so I did this was before Google Montessori method stresses the development of a
• 01:30 - 02:00 child's own initiative huh sounds good right why did I not hear about this in my teacher credential program so I got my son in to a Montessori preschool it was expensive worth it but expensive I was a second-grade teacher at the time and I would go visit my son's Montessori preschool and I would stand their jaw dropped watching all of these three four and five-year-olds totally concentrated and engaged in whatever they were doing it was quiet hushed the first time I
• 02:00 - 02:30 went to visit I ran over to my son and said oh my gosh that's so good adults came running from the corners shashi me pushing me back to the doorway where I could stand and watch that's it just watch I had committed the gravest of errors I had interrupted children as they were learning to experience concentration they were learning how to concentrate in the environment was set up so they could practice it I couldn't believe the way this method was affecting my son through flexible
• 02:30 - 03:00 seating choice of activity self-pacing my son was given the opportunity as a three-year-old to develop his executive functioning skills can you imagine how giving all children this kind of executive functioning practice would affect mental health statistics what if a child's natural state is to love learning and if a child's not loving learning there's not something wrong
• 03:00 - 03:30 with a child there's something wrong with the learning environment this is what I should be doing in my second-grade classroom I thought why didn't I learn how to do this in my teacher credential program how do I get this and then I went back to my school someone told me that we had public elementary Montessori classrooms in my school district what I've been teaching here for years why have I never heard of this I asked an administrator about our public elementary Montessori classrooms oh you don't want to do that once you
• 03:30 - 04:00 get in you'll never get out that sounds scary is it a cult who was Montessori Maria Montessori first female doctor in Italy that's cool not a cult she based her education methodology on human development like let's teach kids things when they're most sensitive to learning them second language acquisition easiest to learn implicitly before the age of 10
• 04:00 - 04:30 she was nominated three times for a Nobel Peace Prize okay that is cool I'll start a Maria cult President Woodrow Wilson thought about making Montessori education our national public education pedagogy back in the early 1900s but a guy named Kilpatrick at the Teachers College distant so she went back to Europe a lot of private Montessori schools opened here though maybe it seems like a cult cuz it's named after a person nobody accuses me
• 04:30 - 05:00 of being in the Fahrenheit cult when I tell the temperature outside or being in the Tupperware cult or in the ferris wheel Ian's cult here's some other things that are named after a person and we don't think it's a cult I wouldn't mind having a national public education methodology pedagogy based on human development even if it was named after a person so I said if there's ever an opening in our districts public elementary Montessori classrooms keep me in mind and then I went back to trying
• 05:00 - 05:30 to steal things from my son's Montessori Preschool to implement in my second-grade classroom things like decluttering the environment and making everything accessible to the students so they could be independent and practice their executive functioning skills things like checklists to allow students to self monitor and self pace and self reflect things like record-keeping charts so I could try to individualize instruction for my students not just differentiate but individualize
• 05:30 - 06:00 differentiation is better than just making everyone do the same thing at the same time whether it's too hard or too easy but individualization is the best if you're like doing math first thing in the morning go for it you want to practice math facts with your big buddy sure you're a first grader and ready and want to learn long division okay and you get to stand up and stretch and get a drink whenever you want you get to practice your self-regulation skills so
• 06:00 - 06:30 I was teaching second grade trying to differentiate instruction for my students feeling like I was reinventing the wheel see every year my students came to me in second grade with reading and math levels that ranged from pre-k to 8th grade and I was given second grade materials so I was constantly begging and borrowing and stealing other grade level materials to try to meet my students needs every teacher I knew was
• 06:30 - 07:00 doing this that's why we get into this job we want to meet our students individual needs meet individual needs that's what our state and national education standards asked us to do so teachers do everything they can to try to do that including making their own materials on their own time and dime buying materials from each other stealing things from their sons Montessori Preschool good public school teachers are doing everything they can
• 07:00 - 07:30 to try to make their students individual needs what would it be like if our teacher credential programs actually gave us those tools see teachers have to have I had to have behavior programs and class management strategies to try to control kids who are doing work that's either too easy or too hard that's what I learned in my traditional teacher education program how to make a classroom of kids do the same thing at the same time oh and how to write lesson plans we did a lot of that too but I'll
• 07:30 - 08:00 come back to that in a minute so years later when my boys were 10 and 12 I got a call you still interested in teaching in one of our public elementary Montessori classrooms um yeah I started training that summer my friend was driving me and on the way he said so what's up with this follow the child thing in Montessori and I said I don't know I came out of that two-year
• 08:00 - 08:30 Montessori teacher credential program like I was like this solves all of our problems in public education we all know that children master skills within an age range not at an age when you take your child to the pediatrician they give you age ranges to give you an idea of when your kids should master stuff so why do we do it differently at school we all know that children learn certain things more easily at certain times we could all have bilingual kids if we
• 08:30 - 09:00 taught second languages in the early years but no we wait until high school wouldn't it be nice if our public education system was set up based on human development that I learned is what Montessori education is it's a methodology a pedagogy of Education that is based on how humans learn it is not a system for training young children emphasizing free physical activity and
• 09:00 - 09:30 it is not practical play I was beginning to understand why I really didn't know anything about Montessori education before how about this definition so I came out of my Montessori teacher credential program and began shaking the shoulders of everyone that I knew why are we doing this in public education and then I calmed down kind of and I
• 09:30 - 10:00 began an inquiry into why we aren't doing this for every student and every teacher in public education that's right this is about the students but it is also about the teachers in my Montessori teacher credential program I was given the tools in training I need to be able to individualize education for my students and training and how to allow the students to self monitor and self pace and self reflect so they owned their own education as a public
• 10:00 - 10:30 Montessori teacher I have a multi age classroom and I have my students for three years and I have a range of hands-on materials in every academic area that meets skill levels from pre-k to 8th grade so my students don't have to wait until the next grade level if they're red to learn something I have all of these tools and the teacher next door to me doesn't that is not fair for the students and for the teachers this is an
• 10:30 - 11:00 equity issue Union people can we get on this please and how would being in a multi age classroom affect students understandings and compassion for diversity age is a type of diversity too right I had been a public school teacher for a decade and then I went to a monastery teacher credential program and it changed my life my life's mission is now to increase free public access to this
• 11:00 - 11:30 methodology because it works for students and for teachers and I have gotten every kind of response Oh - sorry that's where you just let the kids do whatever they want uh no Montessori that's an alternative form of Education it's not right for all kids alternative how is individualization not right for anyone oh we can't promote a program a program it's not a program it's a
• 11:30 - 12:00 methodology a pedagogy of Education based on human development do you know how much money school districts could save just in curriculum adoptions alone if we went all Montessori the curriculum is the standards Montessori is the methodology that allows students to meet those standards and that's when I realized people just don't know like me before people just don't have accurate
• 12:00 - 12:30 information about this so back to those lesson plans that was all we did in my traditional teacher education program right lesson plans but what if we already knew how children learn concepts that children learn best through hands-on materials moving from concrete to abstract understanding but not just any hands-on materials you have to do it right in math you have to use a
• 12:30 - 13:00 manipulative or hands-on material consistently over a long period of time and you have to use the material to move the student from concrete to abstract understanding and don't use teddybear counters and randomly colored things it messes them up and you have to explicitly explain the relationship between the material and the concept to the student the lesson plans for introducing students to concepts are already written I got them in my Montessori teacher credential program I didn't have to rewrite and reinvent everything I give the lesson to the
• 13:00 - 13:30 student and the student is the one who uses the material and repeats and explores alone and with peers until the concept is mastered these students are making the transition from distributive division to group division I can't lesson plan when that's going to happen it's different for each student that I learned is what follow the child
• 13:30 - 14:00 means in Montessori I knew that the public education world is starting to take note of Montessori education there's a school district in South Carolina that has gone all Montessori a five year study of their program has shown that this methodology bridges the achievement gap for low-income and minority students another study of Montessori middle school students reported that they had significantly higher intrinsic motivation while doing school work than their traditional school peers and I
• 14:00 - 14:30 could go on this should be public education we should be training our teachers this way we already have an infrastructure for public education set up in this country we don't need to reinvent the wheel let's just train our teachers this way why should only people with money or who win a lottery be able to get this I became a teacher because I want to facilitate children's learning I went through two teacher education
• 14:30 - 15:00 programs one of them gave me the tools and the training that I need to do that if you know which one you might be a Montessori --an [Applause] [Music] you