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Greetings!
The Harvest Moon shone bright over the skies recently, and I found myself wanting very much to connect to the outdoors. As the calendar year winds down, the warm sunny days, and cool nights of October seem to quickly succumb to winter.
However, the rhythm of teaching is in our favor. The school year is officially underway! We have dozens of charming faces and disarming personalities to keep us fresh, while Mother Nature is cycling to the end.
October ushers in a new population of children, and teachers begin to find their rhythm. The new child, who began the year crying for his parents, is now feeling comfortable and secure. The new parent, who began the year worrying, begins to feel that important sense of trust in us that we all relish in a parent/teacher relationship. The beginning of school is a gift of renewal and exuberance, at a time when the natural world is becoming more quiet and subdued.
I hope that you are finding this new school year to be a gift. Teaching is meant to be a vocation of passion and joy, and in each year we can find renewal in the children we serve. Montessori said, "to keep alive that enthusiasm is the secret of real guidance, and it will not provide a difficult task, provided that the attitude towards the child's acts be that of respect, calm, and waiting, and provided that he be left free in his movements and experiences."
May you have a peaceful autumn!
Sincerely,
Julia Preziosi
CMS President
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From a Montessori Dad
By: Damian Billy
Montessori education provides children with not only an
excellent academic base knowledge, but also other equally important non-academic qualities. In the next few issues of the CMS newsletter, we will be highlighting those qualities from the viewpoints of various Montessori parents. The first one comes from Damian Billy, who found that the Montessori education his three children experienced, prepared them for life beyond academic excellence.
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As the proud parent of three Mercy Montessori graduates, I have seen firsthand the academic benefits of a Montessori education. I have watched them grow from wide-eyed three-year-olds sitting in their morning circle to confident public speakers at their Eighth Level History Day presentations in Columbus. In their morning circle they learned to care for their environment by washing the dishes, for example. Unfortunately, this dishwashing skill did not transfer to our home as I had hoped as they grew older. Their History Day presentations were on a topic that they selected, researched, organized, and presented themselves before a group of knowledgeable judges - talk about a proud moment as a parent!
I have also seen other benefits, perhaps best described as personality skills, of a Montessori education:
- being a self-starter
- being self-motivated
- having an innate desire for learning
- being independent as well as being able to work in groups
- and being comfortable around adults
Montessori children use a weekly work sheet on which they plan and track their tasks under the watchful eye of a Montessori trained teacher. This allows the children to learn to set and accomplish goals, manage their time, as well as pursue a study topic that is of interest to them. This encourages their innate desire for learning, but all within the structured learning of a Montessori environment.
Full article >>>
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Save the Date for the CMS Annual Spring Conference and Gala Celebration!!
With Dee Coulter, a nationally recognized neuroscientist educator, as our featured keynote speaker.
Join us in the evening after our conference for a Gala Celebration - details coming soon!
We hope you will join us at the 2013 CMS Spring Conference; together we can celebrate 50 years of Montessori Education in the Greater Cincinnati area!
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Nature Excursion
By Becky Monohan, M.Ed.
I recently experienced once again the power of nature. I and 34 other urban folks hiked in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We hiked to an elevation of 6,593 feet by taking the Alum Creek trail. At some points during the hike up the mountain, the trail is very rocky and there are steel wire hand rails to steady yourself along the assent. This was my third time up this particular mountain. Our destination was Mt. LeConte Lodge. This is a series of rustic cabins that were built in 1926, prior to the park establishment in 1934. The beauty and stillness of the silence are an amazing way to spend 2 days. The Lodge boasts that "When night descends, you can wrap the silence around you like a cloak at LeConte Lodge. The only noises disturbing the stillness are the sounds of nature: nocturnal creatures going their way, the rumble of thunder or breezes rustling through treetops. It's a place where the visitor easily bonds with the environment" (2012, www.lecontelodge.com).
I observed the most interesting phenomenon while there. Our group of 35 ranged in age from 6 months old to 65. Most of the group has been hiking atop Mt. LeConte yearly for their entire lives, and their families did it before them. Our family has had the opportunity to hike with this group 3 times. Here is what I observed. There was a group of children that bonded once they were on the trail. The children grouped themselves, and hung out together the entire time. One group was a group of teenage high school girls. Typically, high school girls are just finding their independence; they are deciding where they are in life and who they want to be. Friends have become more important than family and their friends define who they are and what they stand for. According to the developmental theorist Erik Erikson, "adolescents are so uncertain about who they are, they anxiously tend to identify with in-groups". They can "become remarkably clannish, intolerant, and cruel in their exclusion of others who are 'different'"(Crain, 2011, 291). These 6 girls did not really know each other all that much, if at all, at the beginning of the hike. Yet once they hit the trail and hiked to the top of the mountain, and were enthralled by the beauty and simplicity of our environment, the girls were tight-knit friends.
Full article >>>
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A Peace Pole Ceremony
Submitted by Lisa Dieso, M.Ed.
 On September 21st, the students at Northern Kentucky Montessori Center held a ceremony to unveil an American flag and a Peace Pole. Families were invited to attend the ceremony where the children sang songs and honored every country in the world. Parents and faculty members recited the names of every country while the students held flags.
The United Nations chose September 21st in 1981 to be the International Day of Peace. The UN General Assembly has declared International Peace Day as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated that International Peace Day "gives us a chance to reflect on the unconscionable toll-moral, physical, material---wrought by war. Those costs are borne not only by us today, but by future generations as well." While these are very adult concepts to contemplate, peace is discussed at NKMC in terms that children can relate to. Maria Montessori was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize during her lifetime. She recognized the importance of education to further understanding between cultures across the globe. She stated: "Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education."
Northern Kentucky Montessori Center is now accepting applications for the 2013-2014 school year. Limited spaces available for children ages 3 - 6, 6-9, and 9-12 in Montessori environments. Visit NKMC's website for more information.
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Save the Date for a Celebration: Montessori, Merlot, and Memories
The evening of Saturday, March 23, 2013, following the Cincinnati Montessori Society's 50th Anniversary Conference, we will host a gala event to celebrate our history in the Greater Cincinnati area. "Montessori, Merlot and Memories", will be an opportunity to spend the evening with friends, old and new, and share in the rich history of our Montessori community.
Held in the beautiful Metropolitan Club, at 50 East Rivercenter Blvd., in Covington, Kentucky, guests will enjoy beautiful views from the 19th floor, as well as fine food and music. Special guests, including some of the first members of the Cincinnati Montessori Society, will be present. We invite you to join us, along with your Montessori friends, spouse and significant others, for this very special occasion.
We will begin taking reservations in January, which are required, at $35 per person and include food, entertainment, music and one drink ticket. A full bar will be available.
We hope to see many of our Greater Cincinnati Montessori friends at this fun evening to help us celebrate another milestone for our vibrant community!
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 The Cincinnati Montessori Society is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together parents, teachers and schools in order to promote and support the Montessori philosophy. It is governed by a volunteer board of trustees of Montessori parents, teachers, students, administrators and others interested in supporting Montessori education. If you are interested in serving on the board or have talents to share, please contact us. Each year, as we vote in new board members, we examine how we are serving our customers and what else we can do to support and promote Montessori Education in Cincinnati. Your feedback is very important to us - comments, compliments and critiques! - What do you like and/or dislike about our service?
- What ideas do you have to make our organization better?
- What areas do you think are important for CMS get involved in?
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Executive Board Members
President
Julia Preziosi, M.Ed.
Vice President
Heather Gerker, M.Ed.
Treasurer
Susan Flaspohler, M.Ed.
Membership Secretary
Meri Fox
Recording Secretary
Valerie Dyas, M.Ed.
The Cincinnati Montessori Society is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together parents, teachers, and schools in order to promote and support the Montessori philosophy. It is governed by a volunteer board of trustees, comprised of Montessori parents, teachers, students, administrators and others interested in supporting this method of education.
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A Timeline of Montessori Education in Cincinnati
The Cincinnati Montessori Society would like to celebrate the diversity and history of our Montessori Schools. We invite all of our past and current member schools and training programs to create a poster of their school's history. These posters will be displayed chronologically during our annual conference on March 23, 2013 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center and will also be on display for our 50th Anniversary Gala at The Metropolitan Club in the evening. We hope that your school would be willing to participate to create a poster and share the history of your school or training program.
If you are interested in participating in sharing your school's history at our CMS conference please create a poster with the criteria listed here.
Member Programs: You are our history - Be part of our display!
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Win FREE CMS Conference Registration!
Here's how: 2. Post on our FB page a favorite Montessori quote or image 3. You're entered! Winners will be notified by Dec. 1st.
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Montessori Community Calendar
Professional Development Workshop Opportunities, Conferences, and more!
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The New School Montessori
submitted by Ann Baumgardner
With exploration as a tenet of Montessori education, The New School Montessori includes field study as an integral part of our curriculum. Kindergarten students are planning several trips this year to our temperate forest at Burnet Woods to observe the adaptive habits of plants and animals from fall to winter and from winter to spring. Lower elementary students will be visiting the Cincinnati Nature Center where they will learn about food chains, population dynamics, adaptation and changes. They will examine skulls and teeth of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores and will learn about nature's nutrient recycling, investigating the forest for evidence of decomposition. Sixth graders have been studying Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Karen Cushman's Catherine called Birdy. They were excited about attending the Renaissance Festival where that ancient culture was brought to life with actors dressed in period clothing, with jousting matches and with food representing the times. These students will soon experience the vitality of our modern day Washington D.C. on a five-day trip later this month. In preparation, they are learning about the legislative process, are getting familiar with the museums and monuments, and are learning how to read the city and metro maps. There is much to be learned and TNSM students are busy exploring their world.
If you're interested in exploring a Montessori education or have always wanted to see inside the Mitchell Mansion, we hope you'll visit us during our next open house on January 27 from 2-4PM. Teachers, staff and board members will be on hand to answer questions and share what a New School Montessori education has meant to them and to their families.
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Have Something to Share?
Are you a CMS member school? Does your school have an event coming up or other news to share? Tell us the exciting things happening at your school - we'd love to include it here!
Space is limited so contact us soon if you are interested. |
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Newsletter Staff
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