Cuentos del Caribe: Cross-Country Montessori

Friday, April 13, 2012

Cross-Country Montessori

In mid-March, Marina (school director), Isabel (school coordinator) and I traveled to the east to do a teacher training in Montessori at Elisa’s school in the Miches area. The trip took the three of us about 10-12 hours by bus away from Mao, to the capital, and then finally out east. It was a part of the country that neither teacher had been to before, and it was great to see Elisa’s community, teachers, and work she has done there. She had asked our school director to share the Montessori work and didactic teaching materials projects that we’ve been doing this year with her school in a morning training session and an afternoon material-making workshop. Plus, she wanted to film our training and workshop for her teacher training video project - so exciting!

And so, the three of us traveled from Mao to Miches and did just that. Getting there took a little while, but everyone had a good time - my teachers taught some sign language to fellow travelers on one of the bus rides. During the training and workshop it was interesting to work with other Dominican teachers, and refreshing to hear new ideas and perspectives on education, be they negative or positive. Not to mention, my teachers did such a great job leading the event! Less than a year ago we were conducting the same Montessori training at our own school (Marina as a facilitator and Isa as a participant), and now both were leading the training to other teachers. (Ahem, Sustainability? Is that you?!) After the trip, both of my teachers were talking about how they want to continue exchanges and teacher-to-teacher trainings like this, specifically with two special education schools in our province - which is probably the best outcome that I didn’t expect.

We were able to share Montessori with a group of interested teachers at Elisa’s school, and then (somewhat unexpectedly) I saw just how far my school has come in terms of Montessori knowledge, our curriculum and what our students do on a daily basis while at school. Over the past year alone, so much has been added to IDENE’s classes thanks to our teachers’ interests and creativities. Although it has made for a pretty busy two years, I’m glad to have been here and able to support their ideas, collaborate and work with them. Someday very soon, I know I will miss hearing “Emma, what do you think about...?” or “Emma, I need some help with...” and even large groups of people gushing “Emma is an artist!!” when I draw stick people and lopsided flowers. :)

On that note - below are the photos from our Miches Montessori teacher training and workshop (presented materials are same/similar to pictures in the previous post). Just traveling cross-country, dropping knowledge and going home again - how we roll.