Welcome to the KLDF Montessori Education project journal. For news, updates and announcements on Khom Loy's continued work with local partners and communities on the Thai/Burmese border.
It’s a warm welcome to all. We are back after a long summer holiday.
For some children it’s their first experience away from familiar surroundings.
For parents, it’s a time filled with separation anxiety or may be a time of pride!
Mummy, stay with me!
For the teachers it is a challenging bonding time for providing the children with physical presence assurance, acknowledging their feelings and time to reassure the parents all will be fine beside the tearful goodbyes!
Such experiences have been significant at Baan Pakwao,Paming, andPatung, CDC’sour this term Montessori converted classrooms. In order to sooth this change, our teachers have been guiding the children adjust to school routine at their own individual pace by engaging them into the practical life meaningful activities to enable them ease the missing of parents and familiar home environment.
Control of movements : Walking up/down the stairs, around the mats
and on the line with objects.
This transition period has reminded the teachers on the need to prepare themselves emotionally, spiritually and physically in readiness to answer the many questions that surround them like: How can I ensure everyone feels at home? Which activity works “magic” to calm down the cries?How will I remember their names? etc. Next time I will tell you how we have progressed in these classrooms.
“To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.”
Maria Montessori
Besides freedom, prepared environment is one of the most important aspects of Montessori education. Maria Montessori’s grandson, Mario Montessori. Jr in his book “Education for Human Development: Understanding Montessori” explains some general requirements for a Montessori classroom. Not only it should be attractive and aesthetically, but it also should stimulates the interest of the children – it must appeal to a child’s whole personality and finally it also should contain materials purposely constructed to help child’s own self-construction.
Knowing how to set up a prepared environment is a very important skills that a Montessori teacher must have and during our Montessori Basic Training workshop last month, together we learned how to set up a Montessori classroom.
The participants were working in the group creating a classroom layout. With our pencils, markers and papers we shared our idea on designing the classroom that embodies the principle aspects of a Montessori prepared environment.
The sound of happily transformed children singing “Mingalaba Seyama” (or "Hello, Teacher" in Burmese) has become part of our morning routines as we begin our day at the Hsa Mu Htaw Montessori class in Mae Sot, Thailand.
With a large number of children (90 plus) in Hsa Mu Htaw's nursery program, we had plans to accommodate only 45 children. However, after considering the issue further we decided to take in all the children by diving them into two shift classes--morning and afternoon. This arrangement enabled all the children benefit from working hands-on with Montessori materials. Just like their friends in the morning class, our afternoon children also are adjusting well to the classroom routines and rules.
Since having implemented this change 3 weeks ago, the children have been enjoying their first experience in the Montessori classroom. As with most learning activities, the transformation does not happen over night, this process requires a lot of patience but it finally happened. That there were some days when our circle time was filled with ground rules…ground rules…and ground rules again, our work time is filled with work…and work…and work. These busy little children move freely in the classroom – choosing activities and exploring every area independently as long as they wish.
After their long day at school, we end our day with our good-bye song….”Ta ta seyama…see you tomorrow”, the students sing as they wave goodbye.
Newly completed Montessori Room at Hsa Mu Htaw School, Mae Sot, Thailand
Happy New Year!
On an early crisp morning in late December, we made another trip to Mae Sot. After long months of preparation, our goal of starting a pilot Montessori pilot project for Burmese migrant students in Mae Sot finally came to fruition.
We spent the last week of 2011 conducting a Montessori Basic Training at Hsa Mu Htaw School (HMT). Together with the school's teachers, we discussed and practiced the Montessori Method and philosophy (To see YouTube footage from the training, click here ). The participants shared their great enthusiasm by asking a lot of questions and exploring their new understanding of Montessori education.
We greeted the new year of 2012 with our scissors and glue as we began a material making workshop at HMT (for photos click here). All of the participants worked diligently; hence, we completed producing the planned teaching materials pieces in just three days! This gave the participants an ample opportunity to practice with the newly-made materials in all curriculum areas. Our new Burmese sandpaper letters are one such example.
The amazing part came when we had to name all the Montessori materials in Burmese language. The PinkTower was referred to as ‘Pam-yaung-mial-sen’….. . We quickly realized language would not hinder the Burmese children and community from learning the Montessori method, for we totally believe Dr. Maria Montessori 's texts can be represented by any style and tone of voice to reflect her original version. It was such a fulfilling moment and now we are excited to start our “real” work with the children in this new environment!
Another View of the HMT Montessori Room
Ooops! …we forgot to mention: the food at Hsa Mu Htaw was DELICIOUS! :-)
Loikrathing is a traditional ceremony in Thailand on every lunar month (mid-November). Our Montessori classrooms celebrated the Loikrathing festival in different styles at their schools. The peak of this event was marked by the making of the Krathong which is made of the banana leaves decorated with fresh colourful flowers, candles and incense sticks. Later the children enjoyed floating them at various waterways and rivers near their schools as they made a wish!
Ban Phuko CDC and Mekorn Sch. children floating their krathong
On Friday the 11th, after a long day school, we gathered together for some yoga. We started our session with a presentation by Patricia Solar about the importance of diet and exercise in our daily life. It was surprising to find out the amount of sugar intake we consume daily from different food sources without being aware!
Soon we were treated with stretch-up exercises before we embarked on our 8th Anniversary celebrations since the Khomloy foundation began. So far we are proud of our achievements, and we also realize that we still have lots of works in front of us. It’s happy birthday to Khomloy and we wish ourselves many successfull years to come!
We are happy to share with you KLDF's newest video , featuring our Montessori project--including why, how, and where Montessori makes a profound difference for ethnic minority and migrant children living in Thailand.
Special thanks to Tony Rieck, a very talented and thoughtful film producer, for working with us on the project. Feel free to contact Tony with any commercial video requirements you may have at rieckstudio@gmail.com .
October was a very busy month at our Montessori resource center. For 2 weeks, we conducted in-house Montessori Basic Training, which was attended by 12 participants from different organizations and schools. The first week of training was focused on the Montessori philosophies and some basic presentations in the learning curriculums. The second week, we engaged the participants in the materials making. What a mess! But we also had so much fun creating bead materials, Thai Sandpaper Letters and other materials.
During the month we also completed setting up 2 more Montessori classrooms in Chiang Rai area - Ban Mekorn and Ban Rim Lao. Early next month, we will also be setting up our pilot Montessori classroom at Hsa Mu Taw migrant school in Mae Sot. We are in the process of doing our final preparation and renovating the classroom. At the same, we are welcoming our new Montessori volunteer Diyanti (Silo) from Indonesia who will based in our Mae Sot Montessori program.- Please check out our blog for more postings on the progress.
Last month, we held our three day in-house Montessori mathematics workshop. This workshop allowed the resident teachers in our converted Montessori classroom to refresh the knowledge they already have and renew their enthusiasm and further develop their skills in Montessori mathematics.
Thanks to khru Somsak a resident teacher at Ban Huay mae sai CDC for expressing his views on this workshop. This is what Khru Somsak said:- " The mathematics workshop was quiet energizing as it enabled us review on the work we had learned earlier. The addition strip board material will help the children learn the addition facts and find the answers themselves"
We reviewed on the basic in-depth of the Montessori mathematics curriculum and the presentations from concrete to abstract. We also looked at the foundation that molds the child for mathematics introduction in the Montessori environment, and linked the sensorial and practical life areas with mathematics.
The teachers were truly inspired on the value of each piece of material. Thereafter, we engaged ourselves on the making of the Addition strip board.
We used a hard- cardboard for the usual wooden board and measured 2cm by 2cm for each square represented and also attached it with an extra lighter board to give it an extra weight before we could seal it with a clear plastic paper as shown below.
Cardboard addition strip board and the corresponding control card
Dr. Montessori observed how the children interests were drawn to the daily activities that the adults performed.
At Ban Pangkorn School, We added the banana cutting Practical life activity on our shelf and the children have been happily performing the activity, as they refine their movement, hand and eye co-ordinationand concentration.
We provided them with the necessary child sized materials along with detailed proper presentations to enable them participate in the daily activities of life and achieve success.
First the child washes his/her hand, rolls up their sleeves, peel the banana and dispose the peel into the provided dish. Then slice the banana into small pieces and uses a fork to transfer the pieces into a serving bowl. The child eats the banana without interference and sometimes they choose to share with their friends. Later, the child washes the materials and replaces ready for the next person.
Towards the end of June, we took our long awaited three-day long journey to Mae Sot, Thailand. As we approached the Tak hills we were welcomed by cooler weather with rain showers and the woolly mist that covered all the scenic features.
Our colleague currently residing there had versed himself with details pertaining to our visit. The following day, he took us to various migrant schools and we were met by a warm “Mengalabaa”…….the Burmese phrase for greetings. Our mission was to visit schools/child care centers in the area and learn about how the preschool migrant children spend their day in school.
Soon we entered one of the classrooms; a group of children were reciting names of fruits after the teacher in both Burmese and English language. Right behind them some were laughing and giggling as they enquired our names repeatedly in English. Their eyes shone brightly with eagerness to learn. This quickly reminded us of Montessori’s words: “Free the child’s potential and you will transform him into the world”.
Our mission continued on the second day where we met teachers and principals from several more schools. We quickly realized talking philosophy was not going to work, as a lot of time was spent with a translator since only a few teachers know minimal English. We introduced a few of the Montessori materials we had with us, and everyone caught on the use of fingers when tracing the sandpaper letters and connected between the use of fingers and later holding a pencil. The response was amazing as they laughed through the Practical life “Spooning and Button frame” exercises which they had earlier regarded as “toys”. The good thing is they could now link them to control of small motor muscles and coordination for the hand and eye, in preparation for writing skills and having the children help dress themselves.
The last day of our journey arrived so quickly and it was time to pack our bags and go back to Chiang Rai, but before we could bid goodbye to the wonderful teachers, we visited another migrant school at Huay Ka Loke where the children and the teachers are dedicating part of their time in banana tree planting and pig rearing. This school is working with the UPLift project from Khom Loy on a natural farming project that uses fermented banana stalk to feed pigs. The pigs gain weight very quickly, and also produce compost while they are living in a deep litter. You can read more about the natural farming project at UPLift’s project journal (http://uplift-khomloy.blogspot.com/) !
Dr. Montessori believed that outdoor environment is a natural extension of the classroom. At Huay Ka Loke, banana tree planting is a rewarding activity based on the sensory experiences of nature. It is through these constant outdoor experiences that children’s mental work and physical exercises become more aware of nature and are better able to understand the needs of the world and how they can make a difference.
We learned more from our interactions with teachers in the Thai-Burma migrant schools and we came back with a different perspective on life. We are planning to return soon to continue working with preschool and lower elementary teachers towards establishing a stimulating pilot Montessori program in Mae Sot district.
