Today is my first full day of my classroom visit. We started the day with language arts where the students were able to work on independent Montessori materials after they finished their journals. Some students used the entire time to work on their journals while others finished quickly and started on their independent Montessori work.

While the class was doing this, my SA showed me how to run spelling tests because she didn’t have enough time to give everyone theirs the previous day since everyone has their own individualized spelling word list based on the level that they are at. I was given the opportunity to place some of the students into their appropriate word card levels by testing them on a few of the words on the cards. If they got all the words correct, they moved up a card and if they did not, they moved down one. I like this way of being able to cater the level of the words to the literacy level of the students but I can see that it can be extremely time consuming since instead of running one general spelling test, the teacher needs to run one for EVERY student in the class. This is where I saw the importance of independent work because during these times, the teacher can complete tasks like these.

They also participated in reading circles where students of similar reading level. I noticed that there were some students who would skip lines or mumble the words that they didn’t know how to pronounce. I made note of this to my SA and she said that she will switch the groups around to reduce the difficulty level for these students.

During math, my SA demonstrated to the grade 1 students how to use the coloured beads to add hundreds. At this time, the rest of the students worked on their own math materials. While some students were able to stay on task and do their work, there were some that weren’t. I was not sure what to do or say to these students since part of the Montessori philosophy is allowing the students to have the independence and choice to do their work when they want. I prompted and suggested these students to start working but did not push them to do so. One student was having a difficult time focusing in the grade 1 group so my SA told me to take her outside to work with her independently. While I was able to help the child focus on her work because she did not have the distractions of other students in the classroom, I wondered how I would be able to do this in my own classroom where I would not be able to have an extra person to help me in this way. That will be a challenge for me and I hope that I will be able to find strategies to help with this.

My SA and I had a conversation during her prep block about team building and figuring out ways to build independence in the classroom. We decided that we should have an inquiry research project on the 5 animal kingdoms in groups. We quickly made a plan and had a test run of groups when the children came back from computers. While some students were really engaged, others weren’t. We realized that the reason that some students were less engaged was because they were placed in groups with peers they didn’t like or they were given a topic that they weren’t interested in. One student hid under their desk and removed themself from their group. I went over to this student and asked them how they were feeling in terms of the zones of regulation but did not receive a response. I then told that it was okay if they don’t feel comfortable with their group and they can join everyone when they are ready to do so. At the end of the day, my SA and I re-evaluated the groups and switched students around according to how each group dynamic worked out. While we see the importance of allowing free choice, we did not want the students to choose their own groups because we wanted to keep control over the classroom. I suggested that we should have the students write down their top three animal kingdoms they wanted to study on a piece of paper next week so they have some choice in what they are study which will provide them with some agency.

We also had a fire and earthquake drill today and one student was scared because of this. So we had a class discussion about it before it occurred talking about why someone would feel scared and how we can help them. It allowed the students to make personal connections to the situation and reflect on their own emotions. To reduce the anxieties of the class, we prepared for the drill ahead of time so all the students knew what was happening before it happened.