Being Authentic in a Non-Montessori Classroom

Hello everyone! I'm a good friend of Sandy and I'm lucky enough to be contributing to this blog. I'm so glad she set this up because I've wanted to blog for a long time. I've had a few rough starts but it never took off. Now maybe since a group of us will be working on it, I won't be so hard on myself if I don't post anything for a while.

On to introductions. I've been teaching for about 3 1/2 years in a non-Montessori environment. One year I was a full time tutor in a school, one year I taught kindergarten,  half a year I taught second grade, and last year I taught first grade. So I've been bouncing around everywhere. Some of those changes were upgrades and some were shifts because of budget issues. So here I am. I've been teaching for a year in the school I'm in now and have been working on getting my Masters in Lower Elementary Montessori.


Let me tell you about my school. We are a very small rural district. The center of the community is the school, which is a pretty awesome thing. Many of the small towns in the area I'm in only have education as an afterthought. In August, we are starting our very first Primary classroom (which my adorable son H will get to be in). This coming school year I will continue to teach non-Montessori first grade, then next year I will teach lower elementary Montessori.

So where does that leave me?

Well my life was CHANGED this summer. I don't mean like I learned some stuff. I mean, I am a different person now than I was at the beginning of June. Much like a caterpillar to a butterfly.  Which means that even though in a few weeks I will be walking into a non-Montessori room, there is no way I will be able to teach like I always have, which up until now has been pretty progressive anyway. However, there are some things I can execute easily and others not so much.

For example, I obviously can't have 3 hours of uninterrupted work time. Administration and parents wouldn't take kindly to it. However, I can give 30 minutes of self selected work time. Again, not that different from how I taught in the past or from how any other halfway decent "traditional" teacher is already doing. I can't exactly take down all the bulletin boards and charts on the walls. Parents like to see work up and it's generally desirable for it to look cute. But I can make sure my colors are muted, coordinated, and everything is beautiful. I don't have a single Montessori math material but I can use science and social studies three part cards.

As you can see, the task ahead of me is peculiar. I get a year to ponder and refine, but all the while trying to fit my authentic self into my job description. I would do the whole nine yards now if I could, but it's not fair to do that for parents who haven't signed up for it and kids who don't have the background. So for now, I will do what I can. I have to be my new self or I will feel dishonest and unsettled. But I can't change what is. So my quest will be keeping authenticity in a non-Montessori classroom.