Ms. Annie and Ms. Nury
(Classroom 10)
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Introduction from Jessica Engel, Director of Operations
Ms. Annie has been with Dancing Moose Montessori since June of 2007, the year Dancing Moose opened. She has been a wonderful teacher and friend to staff and parents. She has a fun personality that has been a gift when creating and establishing processes and programs. Annie has been willing to do everything that comes her way including, but not limited to: Montessori training, a dual-language classroom, offering lessons to other teachers, creating a unit curriculum and maintaining it, organization of classroom materials for teachers, organization of the library, teacher committees, date night, brain gym, fund-raising for new materials, and helping the front desk. She always comes to teacher trainings and school events, is punctual, and stays late to complete projects or talk to parents. Annie's weekly emails are lengthy and filled with details concerning units, phonics, academics, daily activities and probable answers to parent questions. She stays for date night and attends Montessori conferences. She is presenting with Dr. Joyce and Jessica at a national MEPI conference in February, sharing unit curriculum knowledge with other Montessori teachers. She is currently undergoing her internship for Montessori early childhood accreditation which requires many observations and practice hours. She is doing exceptionally well and is on track to receive her Montessori teaching certification.
Ms. Nury came to Dancing Moose Montessori for our dual language program. She grew up in Columbia. She moved to the US just a short time ago and has been working hard at learning English. Much of what she has learned in the past 6 months has been from the children. She loves working with children and has an incredible ability to teach her native language because of her sincere love of Spanish and kids. She is very sweet with the children and a wonderful addition to our dual-language program at Dancing Moose Montessori.
Teacher Speak: From Ms. Annie
Curricular Highlight
Our class this month is learning how to explore our earth using maps and globes. So far, they have been able to identify where their country is on a map of the world, their state on a map of the country, and their city on a map of their state. We have discussed the different types of maps out there and the different things that can be found on a map. They did a great job creating their own map of Dancing Moose so that nobody will get lost when they come here for the first time. We have talked about different landforms that are found around the world and identified them on a map of the United States. They were able to find lake systems, gulfs, bays, capes, islands, peninsulas, archipelagos, and much more. We are having a blast!
Student Excitement
Every day we introduce new lessons to the children. They love having that one-on-one time with the teacher. One student received a lesson on the beginning sounds of words. In this work, the student places objects under the first sound of every word, creating a group of objects that have the same beginning sound. When asked if she wanted to practice the work, she said “Yes, I bet I am going to be so, so good at this work.” It is great to see that confidence in children as they take on new things.
Questions and Comments to Smile About
We encourage students to work out their own problems with each other through their words. The other day we had two students approach us after having a hard time in the line and arguing who gets to go first. They were invited to talk to each other to see if they could agree on a solution. When they came back they said “We talked about it and we decided that I was going to go last and she was going to go first. That was the great idea we had.” Isn’t it ideal when we see friends communicating instead of fighting? Children really can teach adults lessons, if we only watch them to see what they are capable of doing.
Creative Arts Project in an Integrated Curriculum
The children have been learning about maps & globes and we included a lessons about the different continents. A project that the children get to do is put together a 3-D picture of the continent with objects to mark where the different things are on that continent. They are then able to color a picture of that continent and mark the different places on their pictures that are similar to those of the 3-D picture.
Posted: January 18, 2012
