Baking Banana Cookies!

I spent a small fortune this summer collecting items for the classroom that would boost our food preparation area. I also wanted to take more control over doing birthdays, because we have so many food allergies and I want everyone to be able to participate. We hadn't yet tried to bake anything and were just starting to collect baking ingredients. All we had on hand was a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, and vegetable oil for the box of brownie mix that the October birthdays had decided they wanted to bake for next week's monthly celebration.

I noticed that there were still a couple of bananas left on the food prep shelf, that were already rather ripe when they arrived in the snack basket on Monday. They needed to be immediately used or pitched. I quickly went online and started searching out a recipe for something with bananas that didn't use eggs (egg allergy). It took me about ten minutes, but I finally came across a banana cookie recipe that I could adapt to our few ingredients. These are the ingredients that we ended up using:

2 1/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 very ripe bananas, sliced (ours were about medium-sized)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Children who were interested in helping had to wash their hands and put on an apron.

First, I showed them how to properly measure flour by leveling it at the top of the cup with a knife. They took turns measuring flour into the bowl. Next, they added the sugar and took turns stirring it all together as I added the salt. Meanwhile, another child was slicing our two bananas. Once the bananas were sliced, they took turns mashing the banana with a fork.

I added the oil and the vanilla and they kept taking turns mashing it all together with the banana.

Next, it was time to put it all together in the big bowl and stir until well blended. (At about this point in the process, one boy who was not participating looked at my assistant and said, "This isn't going to end well," as there were some minor difficulties and a little bickering while stirring.)

I love how they helped each other by holding the bowl, because that was tough to stir!

Once it was fully blended, they used the cookie scoop I had found at Savers last year (with four kid-sized spreaders!) to put the cookies onto the baking sheets.

Each batch was baked in the toaster over at 350 degrees for about 13-16 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. We left plenty of space between them, but found that they do not expand while baking.

We gathered together at the end of the morning to share our tasty treat. We practiced grace and courtesy at the same time. I went around with the napkins in one hand and the plate of cookies in the other hand. I asked each child if they would like a cookie. They were to respond "Yes, please," or "No, thank you." I also said to each of them, "You take the one you touch," to avoid that lovely habit of young ones to touch a bunch of them until they find a huge one. They were to place the cookie on their open napkin and then wait until everyone was served prior to eating.

As we sat there eating, the kids spontaneously burst into, "Thank you, Miss Coventry!" My assistant and I both said "Thank you" back to them for making the cookies for us. One of the kids also said, "Okay, on the count of three, we need to say Hip Hip Hooray for Miss Coventry, because she is the best teacher ever for letting us bake cookies!" 

After lunch, I chose two volunteers to visit the other classrooms and the office to share the cookies. One girl carried the napkins and the other one carried the plate of cookies on a tray. I was told that they were very polite as they approached each classroom. They also very matter-of-factly told each adult that they had to "take the one you touch." 

I can't wait to make something else and to back off even more from the process!

The Loft Proposal Meeting and Plans

Today was the big day for my little group who wants a loft back in the classroom! Today was the day they got to meet with the boss to make their case. I wish I could show you their pictures. One boy dressed with a tie and had a messenger bag as his "work bag," complete with special folder for his notes. He also brought two purple flowers to give to my boss. The other two children were also carrying themselves as important people. The youngest of the crew admitted to being nervous about meeting with her, but felt ready.

They couldn't wait for 9 o'clock to arrive. I finally had to set the timer on my phone and hand it to them to keep them occupied for the final 15 minutes. I printed each one of them their own copy of their proposal. At 9 o'clock on the nose, we went upstairs to her office. 

She was meeting with another staff member at that point, so we patiently waited in the entrance area. When she was ready a few minutes later, she gathered them in the board room. They had formal introductions with handshakes, and the meeting commenced. Each one was taking their own notes (mostly scribbles, of course) and had a chance to speak.

I had to return to my classroom, as there were 17 other children present today. A half hour later, my threesome returned, with a drawn plan from which they were to create their own model.

They sought out materials in the classroom that could help them. Yesterday, they were trying to "build" it out of the golden beads and bead bars. I think the gold color reminded them of the color of the original loft. You can see the red counters next to the picture. They were using the dots to outline the shape on the table, so that they could draw it.

I think it is time to dig out some of the other art materials, so that they can create a true three-dimensional representation of the loft they wish to build.

Part of the meeting also consisted of lessons in taking turns while speaking, allowing others to share their opinions, and brainstorming in a group. All of these are amazing lessons. Remember, these children are only 4 and 5 years old.

I'm very proud of my kids and can't wait to see where this whole project goes!

The Loft Proposal

I have so many stories from my classroom that I want to share and I am so far behind! But this one had to take precedence, as it was one of the greatest experiences, yet.

At our old facility, from which we moved in the summer of 2011, I had inherited the room that had the loft. I was so excited when I saw that classroom on my interview tour. I remember telling my parents that I would love to have that room, but wouldn't hold my breath. I was ecstatic. I loved using it. I would get a birds' eye view as I observed the children moving around the classroom. Children used it when they didn't feel well, or just wanted to get away for a bit. We were devastated when we couldn't bring it to the new facility with us. 

Here is a picture of it after we had moved everything else out of the building:

Many of my students last year had been in that old building, and of course would ask for it. They were sad, but gradually accepted that it was gone. One of them was actually proud because his father had taken it to be reused elsewhere. This year, I am down to just a handful of kids who were in that building. Today, out of the blue, one of those boys asked me why we didn't have the loft.

"Well," I replied, "When we had to move here, [the boss] said we couldn't have it anymore for many reasons. Besides, where would we put it?"

He looked at me with a deadpan expression and said, "So, get rid of the SmartBoard!"

I swear I didn't put him up to this, as I know many of my readers know how I feel about the SmartBoard. And ironically enough, had the loft actually come with us, that's precisely where it was designated to go had the giant SB not arrived. Oh yeah, here is the monster-sized thing:

This is actually a picture from BEFORE the giant arm came out from the top, that is used as the projector. But, I digress...

Anyway, so I told him if he was really concerned about it, he could go ahead and talk to The Boss about it. He recruited one of his younger friends to go with them. The office staff later told me that they came in very serious and demanded to see The Boss (only using her proper name). With hands on his hips, he told her that we needed our loft back and wanted to know what to do. She asked them to draw a picture and to leave it for her later. They returned to the room to let me know.

I happened to have this picture on my computer still, so I opened up the file so that they could see it to draw it. He then used it as a talking point as he gathered other students around him. He told them how every part of it worked, all of the shelves and tables and what-not that had been around it, and how wonderful it had been. He also started listing reasons why we should get it backed and called it his "Business Meeting."

So, I offered to transcribe their reasons and tried to play Devil's Advocate as I came up with more questions for them to solve. When we were done, I typed it up. We printed it out. The little group signed it and then delivered it to The Boss for her to peruse. She told them that she would look it over and then meet with them later. They are determined to meet with her at 9 am, so I hope she does!

Here is what they had to say:

REASONS WHY WE NEED THE LOFT

1. It was very quiet up there.
2. We have tables and knee tables, but we need more room to work with more people.
3. You can put knee tables under the loft.
4. If it is too sunny and you forgot your sunglasses, you can work in the shade under the loft.
5. When it is so hot, you can get cooler under there.
6. It was so quiet up there, that you didn't need to come down to turn off the lights to tell people to be quiet.
7. It was so nice up there. You could see everything in the room and see all the people. You could pick your work without having to walk around. You could look, see what the work was, and then pick it out to take back to the loft. You didn't have to walk and walk and walk and make your legs tired.
8. The bench was up there. You could take a book and just turn the pages. No one interrupted you like down here.
9. I think it would be nice and quiet and not disturbing like down here.
10. The loft was so relaxing.

 HOW WOULD YOU GET THE LOFT? 

"How big is the box?"

WHO IS GOING TO BUILD THIS?

[The custodian.]

HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR THE LOFT?

• Doing jobs, like cleaning works. 

• Collect all of the money at my home.

• Chiropractic job

• Go to all the classrooms to clean all of the works. ("You guys realize that we're going to have to be at school for a long time to get all of that cleaning done, right? We may have to sleep here!")

WHERE WOULD THE LOFT GO?

~~Take down the SmartBoard.  It doesn't work, anyway, so we don't need it.

~~We can move the language shelves, put up the loft, and then put the shelves back under the loft.

~~We cannot block the bathroom, the exit door and the door you come in.

So, there you have it. I'm particularly fond of the sunglasses reason, myself.

Trying to get a loft into the classroom is going to be a difficult task. There are so many factors that must be taken into consideration, such as space, cost, and insurance with liability. We may be able to come up with some kind of a compromise. And honestly, my classroom isn't really loud this year. I think they just are in love with being able to turn off the lights to ask everyone to use quieter voices. ;-)

I love these guys.

I will keep you posted! 

Reflections on the first month of school - Meet & Greet and phasing in

I had hoped to write this post at the official end of September, but life got in the way.

We have had four weeks of school. The children come back in stages, starting after Labor Day. The first Tuesday is a sort of "Meet & Greet," where the new children come in for a half hour with a parent. They get to find their cubby, bring in their supplies, and start to explore the classroom with my assistant. I answer the parent's questions, and ask a few of my own. My three big questions? 1-Is your child potty-trained? 2-Does your child go to After School Care or Parent Pick-Up? 3- Does your child have any food allergies? The rest I can usually figure out for myself.

Parents are often so overwhelmed with their child starting at a new school, that they often are stumped for questions. I talk about the general flow of the school day and some of the materials in the classroom. I start to talk about a lot of Montessori philosophy, that explains why we do the things that we do. I know that a lot of it is foreign to the generalized idea of what preschool is all about. I observe how the child is interacting with the environment upon his first experience in it. I also pay close attention to how the child interacts with his parents. A lot of information can be gleaned in this initial half hour, even if I am talking to the parent.

On Wednesday, just the K's come in. This year I have six. Two girls and four boys. One is already 6. Three more will be 6 very shortly. The other two turned 5 over the summer. This is a bigger range in age and ability than I have had in a while in my K's, but that is okay. This year, they got to pick out their journal notebook and folder and go to the school library to choose books for our classroom shelves.

Our Wednesdays are always half days in the classroom. Everyone goes home at lunchtime. Those who stay at school either go to After School Care, or to an enrichment class, which is for an extra fee. We have offered classes such as yoga, karate, Drama Kids, violin, sports camp, and more. These start up in mid-September, and about a third of the children participate.

Thursday is the day the the Extended Day 4's join the class. It is also our first full day of school. I have 14 Extended Day children this year, so 8 4's. They also had the opportunity to pick out their journals and folders.

Friday is the day that the half-day 4's join us. Many of them were in the classroom the previous year, so they already have a good idea what is going on. You always have a few new ones, as well. These 4's are the ones who still nap in the afternoon or who are brand new to Montessori. They have the option of moving up to full day later in the year. I only have one who is a half day 4 year-old, and he still hasn't yet turned 4.

Monday is when "returning" 3's join the class. These are the children who attended our toddler program. That means they are at least familiar with the classroom environment and have seen our faces while walking through the hallway.

Tuesday is the first day that all of the children are present for an entire day. This is also the big day of the crying. You may get a few tears on that Monday, but most of them are already used to leaving their parents. That Tuesday is always a hard one. But, the children get over it and engage in the classroom activities. Over time, the crying ceases completely. It just takes some time. I will post more on that later.

Within the following week, almost all of our specials have started for the school year. By October 1st, they are all in place. Everyone knows where everyone is going. Routines are established. The magic is well under way.

Other schools handle their first few days differently. I know my previous two schools did it differently. One had children come for a shortened day in small groups for two days. I believe there were four groups in all. For the next two days, the class was split in half, again for shorter days. And then they all came for their normal schedules. Another school had all of the children start their regular schedule on the very first day of school.

What does your school do? What have you seen work and not work?

Montessori A to Z: E is for Environment

The child's classroom learning environment is essential in the child's education. The job of the guide is to arrange the environment in such a way as to facilitate the child's independent learning. Sometimes the task can seem a daunting one, as the building you are able to use does not seem conducive to Montessori learning. Other times you are lucky enough to be able to design a building to fit Montessori ideals. Whatever kind of building you have to start, remember that Maria started in the slums of Rome. If she can make that work, surely you can make yours work, as well.

Child-friendly environment


To make your classroom a child-friendly environment, you need child-sized furniture. Children need to be comfortable to learn, so provide tables and chairs at their level. When setting up activities on a shelf, make sure the highest shelf is still accessible to your smallest student. A child needs the confidence to be able to independently reach the materials, without risk of dropping from it being too high. Anything that the children are to be able to access should be within their reach. Having to ask a teacher to reach something eliminates that factor of independence.

Provide comfortable floor areas. If carpet is not an option, use a large area rug. Comfortable pillows or cushioned chairs in the reading corner encourage children to nestle with a book. Work rugs help to define the child's workspace on the floor, allowing for organization of materials as well as reassurance of ownership over that work at that time.

If sinks and toilets are too tall for a child to comfortably reach, provide a small stool or steps to enable the child to safely reach them.

Use the furniture in the classroom to provide natural walkways. Check the flow of the classroom. Do you have an elongated "runway"? Children who cannot yet control their bodies will feel invited to take off in flight. Put a plant or a small shelf or table in the path to curb those fast movements. Observe the flow of the children and tweak as necessary. You are trying to encourage careful movements.

Appropriate materials


Children should have access to the entire spectrum of the Montessori curriculum. How you allow children to explore it is going to depend on your own interpretation of the philosophy and training. Some believe that a child can take out any activity and the teacher needs to scale the lesson back appropriately. Others do not allow children to touch a work until he or she has had a lesson on it.

Montessori materials should make up the bulk of your works. Some areas, such as language, require a lot of teacher-created materials. Be sure that your creations fall into Montessori guidelines and that you can justify their presence in the room.

Aim for as much wood and natural items as you can find. Do not fear glass. Children need to learn to be careful with materials. Plastic simply bounces and does not break. No lesson is learned when that drops. But a fragile piece of glass can shatter. The child will use more care in the future. Wood is much more attractive than brightly colored plastic. Children will be more likely to be drawn to it.

Decorating the classroom


Use a soft palette when painting the classroom walls. Avoid hanging lots of brightly items. If you choose to decorate the walls, use artwork that is hung at the children's level. If you display the children's artwork, make sure it is matted on a background and rotate it. I sometimes like to add an educational poster, depending on our topics of study. For example, while doing the human body, I put up a poster of a child with the basic parts labeled. It hung on the classroom door, at the children's eye level. When they went into the hallway to do their full body tracings, they could label their body according to the poster.

Use plants for decoration. They also serve a practical purpose of teaching children how to care for them and for providing oxygen and purifying the air. They are absolutely beautiful and make for cozy surroundings.

Avoid cluttered areas. I am extremely guilty of allowing my own things to clutter and to start to take over other areas of the classroom. I make a concentrated effort to reduce that on a regular basis. If children have clutter in their area, they will not take care of their things.

Remember that less is more.

Outdoor environment


The ideal outdoor environment has plenty of space for children to run free and to safely exercise those gross motor skills. They should also have areas where they can care for plants and animals. Allow them to explore, to find natural items such as seeds. Take walks. Embrace the outdoors and bring it inside as much as possible. Conversely, do not fear taking materials outside, as well. Think back to those original photographs of Maria working in her Children's House. Many children are stretched out in the garden with a rug and work.

Remember that the classroom is not about you. It is about them. Give them ownership of the classroom. Teach them to maintain it by helping you clean and straighten. You are guiding them in how to care for it.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I guess I should start feeling flattered. We have an epidemic in my room: a bunch of Mini-Me's.

Last week I was trying to finish evaluations of where children are with their sounds and letter recognition. I sat at my floor table with the box of sandpaper letters and my notebook, making notes as I turned around each letter. About fifteen minutes after I had started, a kindergarten boy pulled out a rug and placed it about five feet away from me. He brought the digraph sandpaper letters to his rug. Soon after he included the capital sandpaper letters. He made a little card with his name on it to give to children. (Sometimes I place a card that says "Please come to a lesson with Miss Coventry" next to a child. When that child comes to a stopping point or finishes her work, she can come see me for that lesson.) He started inviting children over to his rug, one by one, showing them the letters and making notations in his notebook.

This started on Friday and we thought it was cute and would be short-lived. Instead, it started to grow. By Tuesday, four Extended Day children had set up rugs with sandpaper letters, sandpaper numerals, sight words cards, etc. They were inviting people over for lessons and making marks in their notebooks. Some of them are completely overshooting their academic skill level, but that is okay. Should the child who is struggling through sounds choose those digraphs, he may learn some of them if that other child knows them. It's a new way of learning and teaching each other.

The other amusing aspect is how seriously all of the children are taking this. They are very respectful when they get their lesson invite and sit with their hands in their lap. They wait until the lesson is finished before returning to other activities.

I have always maintained that the children learn better from each other than they learn from me with a lot of things. For example, my teachers always tried to teach me how to tie my shoes with the bow-tying frame. I couldn't do it. And then one of my special boy friends taught me how to tie my shoes in about two minutes. I have had this happen in the reverse numerous times. I do lesson after lesson and the kids don't get it. And then they sit with their friends and are tying shoes.

This is why we use our three-friend rule in the classroom. I think I mentioned this once last year when this blog was hosted on my regular website. Before you ask an adult for help, you must ask three friends first. Chances are you will find someone out of those three who can help you. This removes the adult from the equation. It makes the children have to do some problem solving. And if you can teach someone how to do something, you have to really know it yourself.

It will be interesting to see how many little mimickers there are this morning....

Let go of your agenda

Even Montessori teachers have to adhere to some sort of agenda. We make plans about what we are going to teach our kids. We have certain requirements that we need to meet, especially when kids are moving on to public schools. And yes, we do need to answer to parents to an extent. That is the crappy part of the job. But the beauty of Montessori is sometimes you can just absolutely let it go.

My first major agenda change happened last week. I was all set to do my Extended Day sound of the week lesson. The kids had just came back from lunch, so they were still changing their shoes. Instead of us always tying the children's shoes, we encourage them to ask a friend. This is one of those skills that children always seem to learn better from each other than from an adult. I vividly remember the boy who taught me how to tie my shoes in Montessori kindergarten.

One of our boys learned how to tie his shoes at the end of last school year and has been very helpful with the other children. On that day, he was feeling a little frustrated with everyone asking him to help tie their shoes. He finally exclaimed, "Okay, everyone! You all need to learn how to tie your shoes!"

I quietly said, "You know, there are dressing frames over in practical life that will help you practice tying shoes."

The boy in question walks over to the bin and gets out the bow-tying frame. "Okay, everyone, watch me!" And he proceeds to give his own lesson on the tying frame. The kids were so excited that they wanted more dressing frames. I didn't yet have them all out, so I went to the storage closet and filled the bin. They gave each other lessons on the dressing frames for a solid 20 minutes. I did finally get around to my sounds lesson, but this somehow took priority.

Today there was a similar story. I did my sounds book and they brainstormed new words. They got out their notebooks to write some of them down. I noticed that the aforementioned boy and another one were doing more than just writing words in their notebooks. The second boy just recently started taking Chinese classes. He is madly in love with his new talent of writing Chinese characters and was teaching the first boy how to make some. He then started showing me some of them and I told him I could add some works to the shelf if he was interested. He got very excited.

I pulled out my laptop and showed him a couple of activities that I already knew. He helped to teach us how to correctly pronounce the Chinese numbers from 1-10. He commented that he wanted to know how to make more of the numbers, but hadn't yet gotten there at Chinese school. So, I hopped on YouTube and found a video about making numbers. I played it and asked him if that looked right. He said yes and got very excited to see how some larger numbers were made. One by one more children came around to watch. Some of them even grabbed their notebooks and were trying to make the characters. They also asked to watch a short video that taught them the color names in Chinese. We watched a few of them repeatedly. Have I maybe found a use for that damn SmartBoard? (Although my assistant and I agreed that we preferred the intimacy of using the laptop, instead.)

It was very exciting for me as well as the children. This is what I love about Montessori education. You follow the child and his interests. And you can learn from him just as much as he will learn from you.

When the kids make you cry....

Okay, coming on the heels of my conversation about full moon craziness, I am sure you think they were awful today. On the contrary. The kids had such a good day that I never even had that first circle to draw them in. I was paranoid that we were going to have a fire drill, so I snuck out and asked in the office. Thank God they said no, because I was content to let my kids work.

It is the sweetness of the children that touched my heart today and made me cry.

One of my kindergarten boys was trying to tell me about some big cushion that you blow up and when you sit on it, it makes a loud obnoxious sound. He couldn't remember its name, so I told him it was known as a whoopie cushion. So he and another boy started discussing different sizes of whoopie cushions that they have seen over their years.

Whoopie cushions are something that always made my father laugh. As is my habit these days, I said in passing, "My father always loved those whoopie cushions."

The second boy, whom I have known since he was a baby and who met my parents a few years ago when they visited, turned to me with a serious look on his face. "Is your dad still alive? Or did he die?"

"He died a few months ago."

"Oh yeah. He was sick, right?"

"Yes, he was very sick. He was in the hospital for seven weeks. Do you remember how much school I missed at the end of last year?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was at the hospital taking care of him. I stayed with him until he died."

"Oh yeah." And then his eyes lit up and he said, "I am glad he isn't sick anymore. Now you can stay here with us!"

I smiled and nodded and quickly turned away with tears in my eyes.

I hated being gone so much from my kids last year. I missed a full week in September when my grandmother died. I had a couple of sick days and an awful lot of CSE and CPSE meetings off-campus. I missed the day before Spring Break and the full week after, as Dad was in the ICU and had his brain surgery. I came home for a week and then took a long weekend to make sure he was settled in his LTAC facility. I stayed in NY for another two weeks, did conferences, and then left for the rest of the school year, starting on the Friday before Memorial Day. The following Thursday, June 2nd, their last day of school, my father passed away. June 3rd was the Moving Up Ceremony.

You and your children inevitably become very attached to each other. I have always loved how my class operates like a tightly-knit family. The children are affected when even one of them is missing. It is much more significant when one of their adults is gone, especially the one who "runs the room." I knew they had missed me when I was gone. But until that precise moment, I didn't know quite how much. And this was coming from one of my kids whom I saw frequently throughout the summer months.

Yesterday I was cleaning out my car. I reached under one of the seats and found a crumpled up piece of construction paper. I opened it up. It was a heart-shape with hearts and stars drawn on it that said, "I love you, Mr. Coventry." One of my girls, who was an Extended Day 4 last year and is a kindergartner this year, had made it. When I called my kids on the last day of school to wish them a happy summer, I was on my way up to Hospice. I told them to send my father happy thoughts of clouds, rainbows, flowers and anything else they could think of. I remember getting choked up as they called out his name to lift it up. That little girl made this heart picture for my father after I hung up with them. I will cherish it forever.

The Curse of the Full Moon

Do you suffer from the curse of the full moon? I do. I am suffering from it right now. The full moon peaks on October 12th (tomorrow) and the kids are intensely feeling it.

Some people think I am crazy. Others who pay attention will find that I am not crazy. I have paid attention to this phenomenon for several years now. And I can safely say that the crazy level of the classroom dramatically increases at this point every month. Try to document it sometime and tell me what you notice!

My class has been settling in quite well so far this year. That first full moon was right at the beginning of the year, so we didn't have a chance to experience its glory. Today, though, was a different story.

The energy level was higher. The general volume was higher. There was less focus and more messing around. I saw behaviors out of some of my children that I have never seen before. There were plenty of moments of saying (thinking) "Who are you??"

At the same time, I realized that I needed to take a step back and forget about my own expectations. I had to remove myself from situations and "trade kids" with my assistant. Remember what I posted the other day about the kids being happy? For the most part they were. When I took a moment to step back and look at the whole picture, again they were involved in activities that made them happy. Sometimes what seemed like inappropriate behavior was actually something worthwhile that needed to be tweaked. It's all about perspective.

It just requires more effort during that full moon.

H is for Happiness

Maria Montessori said something along the lines of the true test of success in the classroom is the happiness of the children. I think that is something that we as adults often forget. We get so wrapped up in trying to meet standards and parent demands and squeezing in certain educational units that we often forget to take a step back and observe how the children are functioning. And yes, I will even dare to say that we sometimes focus more on our own happiness and sometimes overzealous ideals of how the Montessori classroom should function.

One challenge that I have to give myself on a regular basis is to truly step back and take a look at the children. This is especially important on those days that I am feeling overwhelmed and like I have lost control. Often it is a misinterpretation on my part. *I* do not feel content about what the children are doing. I feel like they should be working on other activities. I feel like I should be giving more lessons. Do you see the repeated use of the word "I"?

I miss the loft that was in my old classroom. When I felt like the classroom was becoming all about me and my feelings, I would climb up there for a birds' eye view. That perch gave me an excellent view of the classroom where I could make numerous observations. In the new building I can go outside to the hallway and peer in through the large windows. I can step back into the kitchen area and watch from there.

I often encourage my coworkers to do the same. Many times they will comment at lunch or after school that they felt like their day was hectic. But when I walk past on my way to the restroom, their children look happy and engaged. So I tell them this. Whether or not they believe me is a different story.

I remember my late father visiting my classroom on a few occasions. His comments were always the same. He said that there was always a lot of activity in my classroom and at times it was loud. But when you really looked at the kids, they were busy doing something. Even movements were purposeful. And they were all happy in whatever it was we were doing.

One of the keys to teacher happiness in the Montessori classroom is to let go of your own expectations. Remember the fundamentals of Montessori philosophy. It is all about the children and not about us. Gauge their happiness and then make adjustments as necessary. You will find that the tweaking will happen with less frequency as you do this.