Montessori School Prek

Test 2 Question 1. Presentations are offered to children so that they can perform activities.

In this monthly newsletter, I would like to share with you three beliefs of Dr. Maria Montessori. As your child's teacher; I would like to support each of these beliefs with vivid examples from my experience in the classroom as well as Dr. Montessori's own words. While all of us within the community clearly already support the Montessori Method, it is important to 'touch base' with these beliefs as we affirm the principles of our learning environment.

Statement of Issue: Many minority children and children from low-income families enter kindergarten without the academic skills they need to succeed. Math and reading abilities at kindergarten entry are powerful predictors of later school success. Research shows kids who start school already behind are unlikely to ever get caught up to standards. Hispanic and African American children are anywhere from 7 to 12 months behind in reading and 9 to 10 months behind on math when they enter kindergarten. Access remains extremely low to high-quality early education do to a couple of problems. First, rates of access to early education vary widely as a function of children’s socioeconomic backgrounds. Secondly, the quality of most early education programs is not high enough to substantially improve academic readiness. Considering the tremendous potential for high-quality preschool to improve children’s outcomes, this policy brief will consider how a universal publicly funded pre-kindergarten program in the United States could decrease both disparities in access to early learning and achievement gaps at kindergarten entry.

As early childhood educators we all have our own philosophies and approaches to education. There are several types of early childhood programs. Each program has its own philosophies, methods, and program goals. Every early childhood educator is unique making each early childhood program experience special. Consistently, early childhood programs offer educational foundations that prepare young students for their educational futures. In this paper I will focus on comparing and contrasting two programs that stood out to me, Ridgeline Montessori and the Whitaker Head Start.

The interaction a preschooler has with the surrounding environment, whether it be physical or social, has a significant impact on the child’s development. Ramani (2012), had taken a look at playful environment versus a structured environment to see which one benefited children more when it came to social interaction and joint problem solving. The interaction shown in the experiment showed that a playful environment benefits children more because they are free to communicate and interact with other children, they were more observant of their environment, would imitate more to get their point across, and were overall more positive. Denham, Bassett, Zisser, and Wyatt (2014) evaluated the child’s engagement with the surrounding physical and social environment, along with taking a look at the ways social-emotional learning can predict how academically ready the children are.

One of the greatest tragedies is the effect of the economic margin between ethnic and racial groups. Families of minority groups are more likely to be the living in what is relatively speaking, poverty levels, than the majority group. The majority, primarily of the white race, live with the advantage of their much better economic standing, and are benefitted with the advantage of having the ability to get their kids ahead academically. Which leads to disproportionate ease of transition into kindergarten for kids. In a sample of 3,595 teachers surveyed by using the National Center for Early Development and Learning’s Transition Practices Survey (1996), it was reported that about 16% of children faced difficulty during entrance to kindergarten. The rates of problems acknowledged among the children also reflected the minority composition, and

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress “test results, showed that 68% of low-income 4th grade students could not read at the proficiency level”. Head Start of Orange County was created to provide low income families with the best quality programs. 4,000 children are now being help because of this program. Preschool enrollment can be very beneficial in closing the achievement gap because students will be more successful if they are able to attend high quality programs. If the government keeps on working on early child hood education and can provide the necessary funds for these low income families this can be the result of finally closing the achievement gap between Latino students and their white

Funding allocation for additional training of educators as well as educators developmental programs would need to be created. Funding for curricula related expenses such as culturally relevant literature, events, speakers, and programs needed to facilitate learning. Learning in a real life setting such as the inclusion of community leaders, parents and institutions to give positive examples of diversity in action. In Lopez' (1995) study examined the relationship between the types of student learning, teaching skills and how knowledge affects the student performance. The teacher's race, gender and classroom size were examined to determine if student or teacher diversity or capacity affected the student performance for kindergarten through sixth grade. The results that were significant in regard to race and learning styles were that African American and Hispanic teachers were able to amplify student performance in the classrooms where the teacher’s race was the same as the students. This result indicates that young African American students have a positive school experience when they have teachers with whom they can identify with.

“The participants for this study were 15 African American preschoolers a preschool in Kansas City. All of the participants selected were from large families who had a significant low family income.

It was a beautiful and sunny day at Montessori Children House. I rang the bell, which indicated the end of outdoor play time. Children started putting away tricycles and sand toys, stacking the blocks and walking towards the classroom door. Within a few minutes, the outdoor play area was cleaned up and almost most of the children returned to the classroom.

In the midst of discussion of the effectiveness of early childhood education for children prior to entering kindergarten, the question of approach comes in terms of who will benefit from pre-k class time. Kristen Mobbs’s dissertation focuses on the differences between different learning settings and socioeconomic statuses of the students attending state/private/federally funded preschools. An excerpt from Mobbs’s research was deemed quite appropriate toward the reasoning for this study: “Disadvantaged and traditionally marginalized students are at an incrased risk of developing behavior and social problems (Bulosky-Shearer & Fernandez, 2011), and girls demonstrate higher approaches to learning (Dominguez et al., 20100, perform better in school

The purpose study was designed to examine the achievement of first-generation immigrant children in high-poverty elementary schools who received a school-based intervention. The intervention was designed to help schools to identify developmental strength and barriers to learning. In addition, it connected children to community and school supports to align with their strengths and needs. The participants were 667 first-generation immigrant children attending 8 high-poverty urban elementary schools. The study used a quasi-experimental design that manipulated school-level changes (presence or absence of the intervention) and had two hypotheses. First, immigrant children who attended schools when the intervention years would have higher achievement

According to the study conducted by Alan Gartner and Dorothy Lipsky, research was found that students who attended a Montessori public school did significantly better in math and social studies. Their overall GPA was not significantly higher than others but males received higher scores in science, while females received higher scores in math, compared to other students who did not attend a Montessori school (Schapiro, 2002). Montessori graduates also received higher scores overall on the ACT mathematics test, but lower on the ACT reading test (Schapiro, 2002). Montessori students also tend to fail fewer classes and take more honors and advanced

Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner are both known as an educator in early childhood education. Their theories, principles, and beliefs share many similarities. But at the same time, show many differences.

The Montessori method began in the early 1900's by the first female doctor in Italy, Dr. Mary Montessori, as a way of educating mentally disabled children. Her ideas were so successful with these children that she began to apply her understanding of learning to study the potential of normally functioning children (Oalf, 2001). Dr. Montessori's approach to education stresses the importance of learning styles, independence and responsibility.