I’m in Arizona to complete the classroom and exams portion of my Elementary Guide diploma training.
I wrote previously about why AMI Montessori training is so important. In short: it is the most rigorous and most comprehensive Montessori training. The Association Montessori Internationale was established by Maria Montessori and her son Mario to safeguard the authentic transmission of her insights and approaches to education.
We insist on AMI training at Hilltop. Noelle completed the AMI Primary diploma training program in July 2021. Now that we have an Elementary I am doing the AMI Elementary training to ensure the best possible education for our children.
I can attest: this has been the most difficult academic program I have ever embarked upon. My cohort began in July of last year with 30 students. Only 20 are in Phoenix for this final module, and not all of us will complete the course within the 10.5-month timeframe.
Within the 10.5 months the course work includes:
- three in-person sessions in Arizona, totaling 9 weeks;
- three online modules, totaling 44 three-hour online classes (132 hours of online classes in total);
- 275 homework assignments which took about 825 hours to complete;
- 99 hours of observation in other classrooms plus four hours to complete writeups and essays;
- 2 two-week sessions of student teaching (which I will complete next school year) which also will require many hours of follow-up writeups and essays.
All told, this course will require more time than seven months of 40-hour work weeks, all shoe-horned into 10.5 months of running my classroom, plus other duties, expected and unexpected.
But the material… Oh, the material.
Maria Montessori’s insights into human flourishing, the creative and intellectual capacities of the elementary child, the techniques for helping them learn and showing them that they can learn, the tricks and materials…
Pure genius.
I wish I’d had especially the math materials and this approach when I was a child!
I am learning (or re-learning) everything from…
- from how to add to how to calculate the cube of a binomial;
- from how to write a fraction to how to divide a fraction by a fraction;
- from what the origins of geometry are to how to calcuate the volume of a sphere;
- from how to pronounce and spell basic words to how to analyze sentences and develop your own writing style;
- from how to draw a line to how to approach different artistic styles;
- from how to play a tone on the tone bars to how to identify what key a piece of music is written in;
- from what the states of matter are to how the sun affects ocean currents and prevailing winds, how plate tectonics affect animal and plant life, and how it all has affected the development of cultures, languages, cuisines, and economic zones;
- from what the difference between a plant and animal is to how to classify animals and plants;
- from what the parts of flowers and plants are to the intricate details of different kinds of fruits and seeds and roots and leaves and stems are;
- so much more.
AND MOST ESPECIALLY, I’m learning how to guide the children into learning in a way that grabs their attention and sparks their imagination.
This training is incredible. This training already has had a tremendous impact on our classroom and the learning of our children, even while it has pulled me out of the classroom for so many weeks this year.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who has supported this work and helped to make it possible. My assistant guide, Rebekah, who has really stepped up to keep the classroom going, donors who have helped us pay for it, those who have helped in the classroom during my absences, and to my exceptional trainer, Gaby Lopez.
The benefits for the children in the short and long-term is incalculable. On their behalf, I say thank you!