MPW-Acelero Learning Partnership: Tools for Exploration

We’ve put together a draft of a teacher interest survey for your review. We're happy to make edits as needed!

Link to share with your teachers: www.MontessoriPublicWorks.org/acelero-learning-teachers

Click here to review teacher survey responses!

We're also available to schedule observations and/or info sessions.

What is Montessori?

The Montessori approach values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional, and cognitive through concrete experiences. The classroom is prepared by the teacher to encourage independence, freedom within limits, and a sense of order and cultural diversity. 

Multi-age groupings are a hallmark of the Montessori approach: younger children learn from older children; older children reinforce their learning by teaching concepts they have already mastered. In the primary classroom, this grouping includes children ages three to six years. 

Children in a Montessori classroom are encouraged to move through the curriculum at their own pace which allows for individualized learning to occur. They are presented with individual or small group lessons by teachers who keep track of when a child is ready to move onto the next lesson. Dr. Montessori observed that children experience “sensitive periods,” developmental windows of opportunity, as they grow. Montessori teachers match appropriate lessons and materials to these sensitive periods when learning is most naturally absorbed and internalized.

The Montessori method emerges from a belief that children are naturally good, peaceful and curious and that in the context of a supportive environment, all children engage instinctively in the work of self-construction. High-quality Montessori classrooms have several common characteristics: a carefully prepared classroom environment of beautiful and organized materials; children in multi-age environments with a three-year age span; and, children in the classroom working at different levels with materials and a trained teacher.