How do we as adults engage in spiritual preparation, build strong relationships with all of our children, and understand how to reconnect them to work? The Montessori System of Justness provides a framework to support schools in replacing a more traditional “discipline/behavior policy” they may have in use.

“Genes provide a blueprint for the brain, but a child’s environment and experiences carry out the construction.”
Urban Childhood Institute, 2023

We, as educators, must create environments and opportunities for children to move. In this presentation, explore the many ways we can prepare our environments to promote purposeful movement, support the development of equilibrium, and create opportunity for refined movement – all this in service to the development of the intellect.

Movement is life, and our environments are full of life! Join me to explore how joyous and full of life our Montessori environments can be!

Entice children to recreate exercises through stamping, cutting, push pinning, gluing, and even drawing. Brainstorm with us how to use distance games, dice games, bingo games, and card games to reinforce basic concepts such as bead stair, teens, decimal system and more.

This session will focus on best practices related to family engagement, specifically those that support language and literacy development. Participants will review national standards that can inform their school’s family engagement strategies. They will also take part in literacy activities designed to build on learning that happens in the classroom and that enhance trusting, reciprocal relationships with families.

However, they may not know how difficult it is to implement effectively globally. The game is an elegant metaphor for how humans interact with the environment, either sustainably acquiring resources or ruining it through overproduction. By the end of the presentation, you will be able to teach your class the Sustainability Game, a fun and physically active way to get your students to think critically about global sustainability challenges. It’s easy enough for lower elementary to understand the game, but it has complex strategy and gameplay for your upper elementary and middle school students.

essentials they have consistently practice as head of school / director of curriculum and teaching and how fully trusting in the Montessori method has allow them to maintain their high performance School and State compliance.

The proliferation of electronic communication and the related disconnection from the natural world were further amplified during the recent pandemic.

Dr. Montessori shares that children need the freedom to move, talk, and engage in freely chosen “constructive activity” of great interest to them. Current research and understanding of “today’s children” agrees with her observations from years ago. Today’s children  may have greater need for movement, emotional regulation, and opportunities to learn social skills and problem solving as they seek to adapt to their time and setting in 2024. We  struggle to best serve these needs.

A growing model of education that can be a response is Nature-based schooling. The research is clear on its benefits. This workshop will demonstrate just how beneficial a Montessori Inclusive Nature-based model can be for all students. We will present the concept of “Inclusion” as a practice that accepts and respects the wide range of diversity that we see in our students and demonstrate that high fidelity Montessori practices, paired with free access to natural environments, is an ideal framework for inclusive education.

Participants will leave this presentation with a clear understanding of the needs of today’s students, guidelines and resources to build inclusive outdoor environments, and the confidence needed to implement high quality nature experiences for all of their diverse learners. 

It is intended for heads of schools, primary guides, infant toddler guides and those who are curious about infant and toddler programs.

This workshop will feature areas of the environment, the spiritual preparation of the adult, a brief discussion of child development, and critical family and community support.

We will also explore and debunk some of the myths that surround this level within our schools.

Teaching through a cultural lens enables us to weave abstract subjects such as geometry, math, and language around our cultural curriculum, that leads to true understanding of the process and self-directed learning.

Engaging students in the history of geometry gives them the tools to study change; analyze and explain problems in the past and see patterns in the present – thus provide a crucial perspective for understanding (and solving!) current and future problems. The challenge, of course, is that learners’ understanding of aspects of geometric relationships becomes a stumbling block that hinders them from developing their construction knowledge and skills.

In this session, learn from an upper elementary teacher -and curriculum designer- how you can Promote Geometric Reasoning through Artistic Historical Constructions. Using a compass, straightedge, and protractor, we will be able to discover innovative applications, and extensions of geometry and create magnificent designs that will help your students to actively build concepts involving geometric constructions which can reinforce and strengthen learning across the curriculum.

Children benefit immensely from these activities, developing the competencies they need for that stage of life.

But what about as adults? Many, many young adults today struggle with mastering the living skills they need. They may have mastered table washing, but what about things like making (and shedding) friends, starting new jobs, finding medical care, moving to a strange town, managing household repairs, coping with the death of a parent, or navigating financial challenges? What tools, what practical life competencies do they (and we) have to help us cope with these challenges of adult life? Why not use the principles of Montessori that we know and love and apply them to these issues of adult lives?

Join this workshop to go deep and discover how we can help our secondary students – and ourselves – by taking a fresh look at practical life skills. First we’ll look at how the practical life curriculum prepares students for more than just the task at hand. Then we’ll brainstorm some of the real, honest challenges faced by adults (especially young adults) and how we do, or do not, get preparation to handle these challenges. We’ll look at what it means to prepare the mind and body for new challenges throughout life, and finally get some ideas for what to do and how to create practical life competencies for grown-ups.

it is all about the family and their child. A school tour is not about information… it’s about transformation. We will break down your school tour and uncover all the parts of the person we are to reach- head, hand and heart. The Anatomy of the School Tour. With 17 years of touring, averaging 191 tours a year from Infants – Middle School, Head of School Patty Sobelman has spent a fair bit of timing thinking about this topic. Let’s study yours!

What would Maria Montessori say about Artificial Intelligence? Whether you’re an AI newbie, skeptic, or enthusiast, this seminar will help you think about AI in ways that will empower, caution, and ground your thinking, policies, and practice on one of today’s most pressing issues within the guiding light of Montessori philosophy.

Do trauma-informed practices align with Montessori approaches to education? What are Montessori approaches to supporting dual language learners? Would you like to enhance your gathering or line time content? If you are facing these challenges or wondering about these topics, come and see what current Montessori research has to say about solutions and strategies for helping students become more engaged, more independent, and more respectfully collaborative. You will leave with practical approaches that you can implement with confidence in your Montessori primary environment.

Examples of creative Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School projects that integrate with various subjects in the Montessori curriculum will be given. We will show how instruction is designed in a developmentally appropriate sequence from Grades 2-6, and describe how the existing Montessori Primary curriculum provides the needed foundation for younger students. Finally, the transformational power of combining technology and student service learning within the school and local community will be presented. 

Research shows us that identity and developmental stages impact one’s experience of giving and receiving feedback. This workshop will show how education leaders can learn to deliver feedback in a way that strengthens relationships, as well as performance, and builds the capacity for growth, drawing on constructive-development theory. We will discuss how leaders can provide feedback in ways that “meet people where they are” while expanding the developmental capacities educators bring to their work.