Sparkling this week

I  love sharing the various finds that spark ideas for my Montessori classroom, but aren't necessarily from Montessori-based blogs. Here are a few things that caught my attention this week:

• Sewing School shows us a sewing center set up in a traditional kindergarten classroom
• Something to keep in mind for rainy day/too cold to play outdoors activity: The cardboard box via  Simplicity Parenting
• Teach Preschool starts the year right by showing the children how to use glue bottles with brushes (I purchased these glue bottles from School Discount Supply -LOVE them!)
• A neat way to organize a music center via PreKinders
• A thought-provoking essay on following the child from Project-Based Homeschooling

Enjoy!

Gathering Inspiration

Sabet  Brands


I love reading blogs to get ideas to use in the classroom. My personal reader is bursting at the seems, and I can't stop adding new blogs! I have tried many ways to organize what I find, and right now my favorite method is Evernote. Evernote allows me to clip the information I want to save, then store it in a "notebook" with as many labels as I want to add. I'm using the free version, but there is also a fee-based version for those who need more features. I'm still pretty new at using Evernote, so I'm sure that the purchase of Evernote for Dummies is in my near future.

Another free method I have tried before is Pinterest. I love having an image to trigger my memory for a work or project. Pinterest is a free, social site. I love finding ideas outside of what lands in my reader, and I have found many new bloggers to follow this way. Although I love the visual presentation, it can be time consuming to make sure you are "pinning" an image in a way that avoids copyright infringement.

What I have started to do is blending Evernote and Pinterest: I look through Pinterest for ideas, then save them to my Evernote files for future reference. I have my notes set to show an image of what I have clipped, so I have the visual element I like so much in Pinterest. The best of both worlds!

Tao of Montessori

My administrator has been reading bits of the The Tao of Montessori: Reflections on Compassionate Teachingto us this past year.  It is an interesting combination of the Tao Te Ching and Montessori essays.  It follows the same format as the Tao Te Ching, putting a Montessori perspective on each of the 81 verses of the original Tao.  I plan on reading one verse each morning before I go into school.  I purchased a digital copy, but I think  I'll try closing my eyes & randomly pointing to one of the verses to read.

I find January a hard month to get through.  The holidays are over, there is at least 2 more months of bitter cold & not being able to send the kids out to play, and mid-year assessments.  It is tough transitioning from holiday mode back into school mode, so I'm looking for inspiration and motivation.  Hopefully, this book will help.

What do you do to keep your motivation up?





China, Fujian...