Leaving the classroom, albeit briefly

This post comes the night before I leave with my son to visit Arkansas. He has wanted to go look for crystals for over a year, so I decided to bring him for his 8th birthday. It's a cheapish flight and the most valuable thing for him will be time alone with mom (read: no baby sister and her needy ways). So I leave for the airport tomorrow at 4:00 a.m.. I'll miss tomorrow and then Tuesday. I'm worried sick about my classroom. They are just now starting to make tiny tiny steps in the right direction. Today a child that is shut down completely 80 percent of the time came in beaming about being able to read the book I'd sent home with him. He read it to all his classmates and teachers. The most violence-prone child in the class has fallen in love with the continent song we just learned. He spends lots of time in our work period staring at the globe singing the song. We're getting somewhere, and I'm so afraid of moving backwards. What will I come back to on Wednesday?

It's telltale that I'm less worried about leaving my 1.5 year old. At least she will be with my husband. Oh! That reminds me: what a reaction a male gets in a classroom. My husband has stopped by after getting out of work early twice now. Each time the children just stare in awe, it seems like. They ask about him almost every day: when is he coming back? Will he read us a book? Are his tattoos real? Soon, yes, and yes.

I saw some of the Smith tutors today at Gerena. What a turnout! I lobbied for the tutoring program at our staff meeting -- teachers need incentive to get that info to parents and students. It's not so easy in our school. It's nice to see all those eager Smithies ready to give of themselves to Gerena.

Many of you have asked about Montessori details. I'd like to focus another post on that later, but for now I'll answer a few: No, the training is not paid. Yes, it is worth it (even with thousands of dollars of daycare for the summer). Montessori will work in Springfield. It worked in urban Italy first, and works at Zanetti beautifully. It's NOT a private school, white, upper middle class type of schooling, which is what I assumed at first. That's just what it's become in America. There are Montessori baby/toddler programs (none near here -- which my husband and our budget are thankful for), preschool-Kindergartens, E1 (1-3rd grade), E2 (4th-6th), and middle schools. There a few high schools, but they're not very common, and I'm not sure how much they are backed by organizations like the American Montessori Society.

The question about the demographics of Montessori teachers, particularly due to the lengthy unpaid training (and, I might add, the unbelievable demands on Montessori teachers to make materials WHILE still going to school during the year), is a truly interesting one. I hadn't thought of that, and yet it makes sense. For many potential teachers, it just wouldn't be an option. For a while I thought I'd be one of them, but it was important to me to make it work financially, and I have.

I welcome any of you to visit my class, as it seems like a few of you may be interested. But just know going in that this class is nowhere near "normalized". That is to say, in many ways it will not look like a Montessori classroom. There are many differences right now. But the general structure is there, as well as some of the truly beautiful materials. I can't wait to get back there, even though I'm longing for these days off with no planning and no "Miss Greenough! So-and-so told me to put my head on the floor and then I did and then he dropped a dictionary on it!" Ah yes, the sweet sounds of my classroom.