It’s an old game in Montessori teacher education programs: can you give your “elevator speech about Montessori,” that brief explanation…
Teacher Talk: Misconceptions and the Elevator Speech
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All Planes
Teacher Talk: Eye of the Storm
The month or so between Halloween and the Winter holidays is, for many teachers, a time of chaos and unpredictability. Schedules are…
The Sensitive Periods
“At such a time everything is easy; all is life and enthusiasm. Every effort marks an increase in power. Only when the goal has been…
Grace and Courtesy: Teaching Manners Matters
Emily Post once wrote, “ Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners,…
Difficult Conversations
Something is going awry. A parent has raised a concern about (enter any number of possibilities here: your teaching, your classroom, the…
You don’t always get what you want…
We are hard-wired to want to protect our children, to care for them and to want to keep them from suffering. When our babies cry, our…
On the Autumn Rush
It’s halfway through October, when school routines feel a little more settled and we’re starting to feel more at ease. Just as the air…
Biophilia: Stop reading this and go outside
It seems like every morning, I’m being recommended readings on children, youth and anxiety. And I guess I’m not surprised to see so much…
Grace and Courtesy and the Adult
“The vision of the teacher should be at once precise like that of the scientist, and spiritual like that of the saint. The preparation…
Chaos and Dancing Stars
When the classroom isn’t yet normalized but your teacher planner says it’s October.