Realizing the Potential

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Realizing the Potential of the Adolescent And.
Creating Optimal Environments that Transform Our
World One Adolescent at a Time. Betsy Coe,
Ph.D.
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Adolescent Program

• Montessori Philosophy
• Adolescent Psychology
• Prepared Environment
• Prepared Adults
• Focus on a sustainable, meaningful, just future
  for all

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Montessori Philosophy Education cannot be
dismissed as an insignificant factor in the
peoples lives, as a means of furnishing a few
rudiments of culture to young people. It must be
view first of all from the perspective of the
development of human values in the individual, in
particular his her moral values, and second
from the point of view of organizing the
individual possess of these enhanced values into
a society consciously aware of its destiny.
Maria Montessori
Childhood to Adolescence
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Prepared Environment

• The prepared environment for the third plane
  is not a different type of school as it is
  habitually perceived by teachers, It is
  understandingly difficult for teachers to think
  outside of the context of subjects, curriculum,
  and class time. The Erdkinder environment
  requires a quantum leap in our thinking, It is a
  prepared environment that recreates the social
  environment for the adolescents in the same way
  that the work is recreated for the three to six
  year olds. This is an environment for the young
  in a stage of metamorphosis and therefore
  requires a particularly subtle adherence to the
  reality that sets the foundation for all
  Montessori prepared environments.
• Renilde Montessori,
  unpublished remarks, 1998

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Physical Environment

• Erdkinder
• Erde - for the adolescent means the physical
  space where adolescents live their lives.
  (Grazzini E Krumins p.141).
• Kinder - children
• Variety of physical environments
• classroom
• community
• land lab
• world

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Role of the Adult

• Love of Learning
• Care and understand the adolescent
• Friendly not a friend
• Guide
• Appropriate role models and mentor

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The teacher must have the greatest respect for
the young personality realizing that in the soul
of the adolescent, great values are hidden, and
that in the minds of these boys and girls there
lies all our hope of future progress and the
judgment of ourselves and our times, The
intimate vocation of people is the secret of the
adolescent.
Maria Montessori
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Adolescent Focus

• Adolescents need activities that encourage
  exploration of oneself and their place in the
  world.
• Adolescents need opportunities to work and live
  in a trusting community that fosters deep
  connections with others.
• Adolescents need a curriculum that demonstrates
  the interdisciplinary nature of the world and
  prepares them to understand and solve today and
  future challenges.

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Adolescents need activities that encourage
exploration of oneself and their place in the
world

• Reflective Learning
• Personal Reflection, Rites of Passage
• Student led family conferences
• Focus on habits of mind
• Exploratory/Electives format
• Socratic dialogue
• Internships

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Adolescents need opportunities to work and
live in a trusting community that fosters deep
connections with others

• Community Meeting
• Small group work
• Peer teaching
• ROPES course
• Student leadership
• Living on the land
• Service learning

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Community

• A community is a group of people coming together
  to achieve mutual goals and satisfaction in a
  spirit of peace and harmony.

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Mission Statements

• The mission of the Woods Middle School is
• to create a learning environment and participate
  in a variety of activities where we respect all
  things, trust and care for ourselves and others,
• to learn about ourselves and act with self
  confidence,
• to communicate with people and socialize with
  peers and
• to prepare ourselves for our futures.

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Woods High School Mission Statement

• We, the people of Woods High School, are the
  future of higher Montessori learning and
  excellence. We are individuals from different
  backgrounds coming together to learn from each
  other. Our purpose is to strengthen our
  education while gaining important life skills.
  We value love, respect, and unity at the same
  time, we have fun. We are striving to meet our
  full potential in everything we do in order to
  achieve greatness.

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Adolescent Experiences on Land Lab

• One week away every 6 weeks
• 48 students and 4 teachers
• 1 hour away from home
• Integration of all the disciplines
• Walk our talk
• Renewal and reflection opportunity

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Global Understanding of Sustainability

• Be stewards of the land
• Understand the concept of sustainability from
  participation and socratic dialogue
• Elementary curriculum in action with basic needs
  and then economy
• Practice recycle and reuse, wise purchasing of
  items

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Interdependent Micro-community Connected with
Nature

• Students manage the activities cooking,
  cleaning, projects
• Real, meaningful work with deferred gratification
• Connected to classroom studies
• Change in pace and renewal for students and
  adults.
• Appropriate distance from home not too close or
  far

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Rhythms of Nature and Adolescents

• Return to the same location to see the various
  seasons
• Astronomy at night
• Healthy, calming, natural environment that is not
  camping
• No electronics
• Honor adolescent sleep cycles
• Schedule of the day for routine but follow
  natural flow and respond to needs

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• Peace is the defining issue of our time. No
  more critical challenge faces each of us, and all
  of us together, than how to get along. How can
  we learn to live together, and deal
  constructively with our deepest differences? The
  challenge exists on the smallest scale and on the
  largest. Never before in human evolution have
  people faced the challenge of living in a single
  community with billions of other beings. Most
  people do not know how to work with a group of 6
  never mind, 60, 600 or 6 billion.
• Getting to Peace, William Ury, 1999

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Adolescents need a curriculum that demonstrates
the interdisciplinary nature of the world and
prepares them to understand and solve today and
future challenges

• Interdisciplinary curriculum
• 3 period lesson format
• Large blocks of time and routine
• Habits of mind
• Technology
• Field studies
• Multiage grouping
• Mastery learning
• Immersion or intersessions
• Authentic assessment
• Student run business
• Cultural exchange

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3 Period Lesson

• Period 1 - Presentation
• Present the framework, bridge from 9 - 12 class
• Story, simulation game, video, demonstration
• Excite the student, short
• Period 2 - Practice
• Extends and refines knowledge
• Take the most time, Individual and Group work
• Choices, Multi-intelligence and learning styles
• Period 3 - Application
• Synthesis
• Written, Performance, Self Assessment
• Real and meaningful work,Community service

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Deciding What To Teach Creating Guiding Questions

• Content Knowledge by ASCD
• New Standards by U of Pittsburgh
• Science Matters by Hazen and Trefil
• State Guidelines
• Global Perspective/Montessori

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• The mind that got us into this mess is not the
  mind that will get us our of it, Humanity needs
  a change of mind fostered by a change of heart.
• A. Einstein

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• A Chinese nobleman once asked his gardener to
  plant the seed of a rare and beautiful tree.
  When the gardener protested. But sir, that tree
  will take a hundred years to flower, the
  nobleman replied. Then wed better plant it this
  afternoon.
• Because the task of transforming the world may
  take a generation or more, there is no better
  time for us to begin than now.
• One Adolescent at a Time

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Betsys e-maildrbcoe_at_aol.com