classroom management tips from a Montessori teacher in the real world

You have clicked into my series called ask a Montessori teacher where I am answering all kinds of questions that I have gotten

different questions that I've been asked by Montessori teachers new Montessori teachers homeschool parents wanting to try out 

this Montessori philosophy in their homes teachers that maybe have left the classroom and are coming back to the classroom so all

things about Montessori all about creativity all about blending the Montessori classroom into your environments

today question number one how to interact with a child that keeps taking a material that has not been presented to him or is misusing one

hmm okay well especially at the beginning of the school year um with with our three-year-olds right here's what I find so interesting right because we create those materials so that they are attractive students and then we face with this problem that they're so attracted

to the material that they don't want to wait for you to give them a lesson. So this is one of those things that you have to really deal with it on a case-by-case situation right the beauty is especially for your second and third year students that you have in the classroom okay so if you have that Bravo because some some teachers will tell you they get into a classroom when they're all three-year-olds and that is tough and I've done that and it's tough those second and third years especially the ones that really do love the environment love what we do in that environment and also those that have followed the protocol of when they can do do an activity they will be your biggest advocates they will be the ones that let other students know hey that's not how you touch that hey you haven't had a lesson on that yet hey friend listen on that yet she has an adolescent on that yet and so a lot of this will kind of go by the wayside because you don't even have to say anything one of the other students because this is our community this is not just Mrs norgren's Community they will help you with this so that is that's one thing to take heart of if however you don't have that because I I had a year I'll tell you kind of a little Side Story I had a year where usually I'll have a boy or a girl someone who is very nurturing that if there's someone that you know might feel a little sad in the morning they would go over and they would kind of chat with them or try to help them feel better I do remember there was one year however I did not have that in the classroom and it was a little bit disconcerting like why hasn't someone risen up to be this person in the classroom so again I had to remind myself every classroom environment is different and so that again and that's the part about Montessori that I will always love you get to have the opportunity to truly see children the way that they are and then invite them to try something different and see if this might be a better way okay so for example you could do the traditional um ways of doing it like you you haven't had a lesson on that yet or let's look at some let's let's see what we've had lessons on or even to show them the shelf and go okay you would like this would like to work with us I see you're excited about this right are we because of course it's a progression and they can actually see it on the Shelf oh you're right here okay again this this is again has to be navigated based on the size of your classroom right so I'm not naive with you got 35 kids and this child wants a lesson right now that doesn't necessarily happen because he or she wants it right but I would say okay well here's what we can do I think you're ready for this one here would you consider exploring this one right and so then I've come off of that you necessarily don't necessarily have the you're not gonna you're okay you're not getting this lesson that's what so that's what you know you're not getting this lesson but I see that maybe what you're telling me is you're ready for a lesson try this and so depending on my time I would either take that moment to give a lesson I might pull in one or two other students that I think might be ready for this lesson or I might even pull a leader in my classroom who I trust to give that lesson now again this is all up to comfort level you can always come back explore that with them make sure that they've gotten the lesson properly so again this is up to building your trust level with those in your classroom so that's how I would handle that those that are misusing it that's just a non-negotiable that's not available to you anymore and listen energy is everything in a classroom it's everything your manner of like holding back for so many things but there's like three things that when missing orgrin says it that's non-negotiable one of them is misusing material okay listen this is me being very honest I wish we would charge parents for when kids do things like this because you and I both know how expensive those Montessori materials are and most parents really don't understand and uh yeah remember back in the day if you broke it your parent had to pay for it well unfortunately that doesn't happen anymore and um so there's just this lack of understanding for how expensive you know even replacement materials are oh my goodness right and especially you know you know talking at 2023 the year 2023 how expensive Lumber costs are and most of the things in our classroom are wood so it's you know you damaging things are you throwing a brown stare and now there's all these Nicks over it all over it and now it's potential to Splinter and all that yeah it's just not acceptable so I would say again you know as we're making rules in the classroom right this would be a non-negotiable rule if you handle the material this way it is no longer available until further notice another way I've done it is I have if I've noticed there has been like this level of like just lack of respect I will either put a sheet or I will turn a shelf around and it's just no longer available to anyone in the classroom until we can establish how we handle things in the classroom so again this might feel a little bit harsh at the outset but I'm telling you you've got to establish that so early in your classroom because otherwise it really does become an issue and it's just hard to back it up after you let it go okay so there's my answer for that the misusing and the presenting again I try to negotiate here's what I can give you this is not happening today that's my last resort try to go oh I really I love that you're ready for a lesson lesson also say Hey you know it's kind of like this one you've had a lesson on this and it might be something in the Practical life area or even in the language area which believe it or not I mean this might seem like it's a reach to you but I bet you there could be something like oh this is this there are maybe um three part cards that kind of go with this and I might actually do that as well so just be open to like again this set that kind of like open-hearted Spirit about your classroom that yes we have a regimen as far as you get this lesson and then you get this listen and that's true I mean there's a reason why it happens that way but also be willing to go

okay well he's clearly wanting because it could be 

like well what does he like about that oh he likes

that there looks like something that looks like 

we're building something so let me invite him to

something where it's a an appropriate building 

activity okay all right so our last question

because I was kind of two two in one question how 

do you stop the fantasy play in your classroom

okay well here we go here here we go the fantasy 

play in the classroom is of course a very big

issue partially well mostly because I'm just gonna 

say it I don't mind fantasy play I don't mind

imaginary play I don't even mind having [Music] um 

what would you call it a dress-up area I actually

don't mind that so again that's why I've had to 

like widen my scope of what Montessori means to me

I have I have been in Montessori environments 

where you kids are students are not bringing

backpacks with comics on it nothing that 

is any sort of Make-Believe like so again

it depends on your school right how strict 

on are they on this line of fantasy play

that being said so oh for example and of 

course you're going to chuckle when I say

this those red rods oh my gosh red rods they 

sure do look like a good sword don't they so

um again this is about making room for things 

that your children are interested in right if

they are clearly interested in this what are 

you going to do about that well first of all

recess is a great opportunity for them to 

have that kind of fantasy play if and and

let me just tell you you're not stopping that 

recess that's not happening unless they're I

mean it's so like all around lunch AIDS are 

buying into this and just everywhere you know

um so so there's that Ninja Turtle play 

and all that that's happening out on

the playground listen let's be honest girls 

have their own imaginary fantasy play too so

um you can't take out one and not be it not take 

out the other and that kind of thing they you know

they're not going to be able to distinguish 

between oh that's why this is okay and this

is not okay so that being said short of having 

like a full-blown like um dress-up area in your

classroom what are some ways that you could bring 

that into the classroom well a couple of ways that

I have done in the past is I've done things like 

um students love to do skits and so what I would

do is I would create skits for them to do in 

the classroom right or nursery rhymes or um

sequencing of like oh here is a story of you know 

maybe one of their favorite stories but I would

make it into a sequencing work so again they could 

have that conversation but they also would have to

build on that conversation either by sequencing 

you know where they what happens in the story

um I would also uh perhaps tie in writing into it 

so okay well let's let's say we're going to create

a character together and what would that character 

say and what would they do so I would again go

back to how can I bring this in in a way that is 

going to honor what it is that they're interested

in but understand that I have a certain mindset 

of like why that might not be because to be honest

there are some students that stay in fantasy play 

and so how do you pull them out a little bit one

of the things that I did because one of the um so 

I live in Arizona and so common core standards are

are guidelines for schools and so for kindergarten 

they had to learn character and setting and so

what I did was I created and you can see this 

on my YouTube channel what I created was I had

these books that I created where they would get 

to pick a character and then they would have to

draw a setting around it so again it's kind of 

fantasy play so there would be a picture of a

princess let's say or a pirate yes you can go 

ahead and draw that pirate or color that pirate

what's that pirate's name how old is that pirate 

where is this pirate going and so then I would tie

common core standards to what it is that they 

want to do and they kind of get that you know

you know they've they've appeased that desire to 

have kind of a fantasy but they've also built a um

a groundwork for you know what you can 

actually write stories about things like this