As a brand new Montessori teacher, entering the Montessori classroom for the first time felt like entering a foreign country. What was this language they were speaking? The teachers were all so quiet and soft-spoken. They used their own language to talk to students. They settled student disputes in ways that left everyone smiling at the end. It was so different from what I had experienced as a teacher in the conventional education system.
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| Montessori mentor teachers understand the value in letting students resolve their own conflicts |
My upper elementary team leader, who was my mentor, gave me Jane Nelsen’s book, Positive Discipline in the Classroom. My immediate reaction upon reading it was “Oh, this will never work! I can’t talk to children like this!” Nevertheless, as I observed my mentor with students, I began to realize that it did work.
