Yesterday I met the woman I am to replace. In a nutshell, she's a traditional K-12 trained teacher whose classroom happens to house a bunch of Montessori materials.
The classroom is just crammed with a lot of useless fluff. Also, the room is pretty small which only exaggerates the fluff problem. There are boxes and boxes of who knows what high up on the cabinets and also (get this!) a stack of the buttoning, tying, etc. frames, totally out of the child's reach. Getting the frames closer to the ground was my first step.
Following this type of teacher presents some good and some not-so-good situations.
On the good side, my director is one-hundred percent supportive. She's great. And about as idealistic as I am. She really wants things to change in the school.
On the not-so-good side, the kids are used to a certain routine with the old teacher. And because its already shock to them that they have a new teacher I don't want to completely revamp everything that's familiar to them.
The classroom will just have to move very slowly towards change.
Can I turn white?
11 years ago
A a second-and-a-half year teacher who took over a class midyear I would suggest including the children in the change. Give them choices on where new materials should go and let them take ownership of the environment with you. Good Luck! It is a challenge taking over a class but an exciting one too!
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