Riches beyond compare

Right now I am on Spring break, so it allows me the opportunity to be able to write. I'm thankful for this. But I am also thankful for the privilege of being able to teach in a lot of different spaces, to children of all ages. Teachers are an interesting breed, especially those guides of young children. They tend to have such big hearts, yet can also be prone towards wanting to control our little towns inside our classrooms, forgetting the bigger picture.

Depending on the type of guide you are (in public school, or private school, Montessori or otherwise) you have such a limited time with these little ones. The mark that you have on their lives will go well beyond your own. The same is true for the families we get to serve. Usually we are with them at the beginning of their journey as parents. So it speaks to the type of impact we can have on everyone in the household. What a privilege to carry.

And yet it's so exhausting. The self control and thoughtfulness is far beyond any other occupation I've had. But I've never felt more rewarded just in the act of living out my vocation. The work itself keeps me motivated to continue it. More than that, I see the faces of all the children I've once walked alongside, those with me now and those who have grown up and moved on from my children's house. They make me push myself to become better. I'm quite thankful to the hundreds of families I've been able to serve over the years; they have made me quite rich.

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When a square is more than a square

While we've spoken of the long bead chains before, I wanted to focus on a specific point of interest. Each colored bead represents a certain number and a certain set of that number. When placed in a long chain, children are able to count them, identifying important numbers within the set. So in the Long bead chain of 5 (light blue in color) it has number tags for each set of 5 (5, 10, 15, 20, etc). There are larger tags for each square of 5 (that is, each set of 25). When a square tag is placed on each squared number, a square bead is placed as well. To think that Maria Montessori thought about the concept of squared numbers and considered a means to make it as concrete as possible! To think there are children all over the world who are learning a mathematical concept that they can feel in their hands before ever knowing how to connect it to an algebraic equation. It's quite baffling. What beautiful things God makes, both concepts and man to understand them.

Something I want my students to know...

I've had the privilege of teaching young children for about ten years. From the first fearful step into the 3rd grade classroom of P.S. 154 as a City Year Corps member, to looking up at my ninth and tenth graders during my teacher fellow year at the Collegiate Institute of Math and Science, I've been humbled to be in the presence of these young people. And now, in a primary Montessori classroom, with children who will remember me as one of their first teachers--if not the first teacher they've ever had--the stakes feel higher, even as I have to bend lower to look at my students in their eyes. I sometimes wonder if the message I want to get across to each child comes through in the way I'm teaching. If not, here's what I'd want them to know: Everyday I think about how I can be a better guide to you, and everyday I feel more inadequate to do so. I want you to know that you have far greater ability than you think, particularly the ability to do good in the world....

The Love of Christ and the Long bead chains

Count Von Count would be so pleased (and God is amazing!) As much as we can think through and manipulate abstract ideas we are constantly reminded that there is a God who created those ideas long before we existed. Take numbers for example. In the Lower elementary Montessori classroom, there is a group of lessons called The Great Lessons. They map out how the world came to be as it presently is, but in a narrative form. One of the last Great Lessons is the arrival of numbers; the discovery that one can quantify objects and create symbols that represent that quantity has not always been with humanity. It's a wonderful thing, though in some ways imaginary (we're not going down that rabbit hole, friends). Yet the very idea of numbers, though "discovered" by man was created by God. Now, there is no verse in the Bible that says this. But there is Psalm 24:1 "The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof..." Yes, it does refer to God speaking the wor...

Grace and Courtesy

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