Voices in Montessori Podcast

Angela Ma joins the Voices in Montessori podcast to discuss emotional resilience and the Elementary child. Angela offers practical strategies and helpful perspectives that can help Montessori guides feel confident about empowering their children to handle tough situations, persistent worry, or dysregulation. In addition to an in-depth, brain-based discussion about ways to help our children build the skills to navigate their interna...

Jonathan Wolff joins the Voices in Montessori podcast to discuss creating effective teaching partnerships with your co-guide or classroom associate. Jonathan describes this relationship as a "delicate dance" that involves "choreographing a partnership built on trust and understanding, humility and honesty." Jonathan first defines what a well-functioning classroom team looks like. Jonathan then dives into how successful teams overco...

Pamela Shanks joins the Voices in Montessori podcast to share information about Cortical Visual Impairment, an underdiagnosed learning difference that affects as many as 1 in 30 children in mainstream classrooms. CVI is often ignored, missed, or misdiagnosed as low vision, behavior problems, or learning disorders. CVI is a neurological visual processing disorder.

While classroom guides are not diagnosticians, you don't need a diagn...

Chip DeLorenzo joins the Voices in Montessori podcast to discuss the importance of holding regular class meetings as a tool to build students’ leadership skills. He advocates that class meetings are essential to developing a sense of community and belonging for the students in your classroom.

Chip describes the structure and processes involved in successful class meetings. He also shares how to teach the components of the class mee...

Catherine McTamaney joins the Voices in Montessori podcast to talk about how we commit to Montessori in an open-hearted, horizon-focused way, while caring for our spirits and caring for each other. What draws people to Montessori and why haven't we yet seen the New Society that she promised? How might Montessori practice (and Montessori practitioners) need to commit to a new model of radical love if we are to nurture the next gener...

Lydia Farmer and Kalai Ramanathan join the podcast to talk about preparing inclusive holiday celebrations in the classroom.

While some educators choose to avoid all holidays for fear of leaving anyone out, Lydia and Kalai feel that this misses a valuable opportunity to create a sense of belonging for the children. Instead, Lydia and Kalai celebrate a multitude of holidays and celebrations from around the world throughout the year. ...

Patricia Ludick joins the podcast to revisit Dr. Montessori's wisdom and insights regarding our work as practitioners who are serving Adolescents. Patrica reminds us that we must be constantly growing in our understanding of the mysterious third plane of human becoming. She considers what time and practice has taught us, as well as revisiting Dr. Montessori's vision statement in From Childhood to Adolescence.

Patricia touches on: P...

Alexandra Sands joins the podcast to discuss cultivating concentration in young children. She begins with how we set the stage for children's concentration by carefully preparing the environment and with the way we bring new children into the classroom for the first time. She discusses ways we can use art, music, movement, and the outdoors to enhance students' concentration.

Alexandria explains how observation can be used to identi...

Michael Duffy joins the podcast to talk about Cosmic Education, the central element of Montessori Elementary education. He discusses the nature and purpose of Cosmic Education, as well as how it is implemented in the classroom. Michael implores Montessori teachers not get lost in the emphasis on math and language testing. He explains that as important as math and language are for Elementary students, they are just necessary tools f...

Dr. Joyce Pickering and Amy Cushner join the podcast to discuss the early signs of learning differences that Guides can be looking for during the Primary years. They use the acronym CLAPS for the main areas of development:

Coordination Language & Speech Attention Perception Social-Emotional Development

Joyce and Amy describe typical development in each of these areas, and also signs of atypical development to watch for during t...

Kathy Leitch joins the podcast to reframe the Montessori practice of daily observation - not as a chore, but as an act of love. After all, how do we know what to teach? If we're just choosing the next material on the shelf or turning to the next page in our albums, how is that different from conventional education? Our pedagogy is reliant on knowing our children, our relationship with children, and understanding that they will each...

Jana Morgan Herman joins the podcast to discuss some common Montessori myths. As a Montessori historian and researcher, Jana has searched every one of Dr. Montessori's original writings, including those in the archives in Amsterdam, transcribing them from the original Italian, looking for evidence of some commonly held Montessori practices.

Here are some examples of Montessori practices that are not found in Dr. Montessori's writin...

Cheri Gardner joins the podcast to talk about how Elementary and Adolescent Guides can create a classroom culture that embraces worthy challenges, problem solving, and self-reflection.

Cheri talks about the importance of Guides designing follow up work and projects that are "rich tasks." Rather than being procedural or routine, rich tasks are both engaging and challenging. They provide opportunities for problem solving and critical...

Heather Barger joins the podcast to talk about bringing Montessori outside. She shares Dr. Montessori's vision for outdoor learning, which was for children to learn primarily through first-hand experiences in the natural world.

Heather is the founder of The Montessori Field School in Floyds Knobs, Indiana. She describes how its nature and Montessori-based curriculum supports a hands-on, experiential approach that nurtures the devel...

Tammy Oesting joins the podcast to talk about raising ecological awareness in young children, which includes cultivating awe in Montessori classrooms, integrating nature seamlessly, and empowering educators to nurture eco-consciousness. Tammy discusses why is it important to support children with ecological consciousness, and which specific Montessori principles and practices align with nature education. Tammy talks about how Monte...

Seth Webb joins the podcast to discuss tools that can be used to support Montessori practice, while keeping human development as the focus. Seth starts by highlighting current research about developmental objectives and "dimensions of wellness." He advocates that we redifine educational outcomes to what matters most: executive functions, social fluency and emotional flexibility, linguistic and cultural fluency.

Seth then shares how...