May Day or Mayday?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Happy May Day – the first day of the craziest month of the school year!  Did you know that May Day is the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice? In ancient times, this was one of four Celtic “cross-quarter days” marking the seasonal midpoints. 

For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it also marks the beginning of the end.  In traditional and Montessori classrooms alike, children are busy with culminating projects and thoughts of summer.  Teachers are preparing Mothers’/Parents’ Day projects, continuation or graduation celebrations, end of year gifts, and final reports, all while giving enough lessons and opportunities for work to keep the children engaged and learning.  Phew!  It seems like the clock ticks along at double speed during these final weeks.

The way that teachers approach this beautiful and chaotic time of transition seems to fall along a continuum between two end members:

• Hang on for dear life and ride the roller coaster from one task to the next, hoping to glide white-knuckled and breathlessly to the landing in the end. 
• Rise above the noise and haste, living as much in the moment as possible, confident that in the end there will always be time for whatever is required.

Wherever you fall on that continuum, it is worth a few minutes to set some intentions for this crazy month.   In so doing, you will do more than just arrive at your final destination for this school year; you will set up the children, the classroom community, and yourself for greater success both now and in the fall.

Gathering Wisdom

In a matter of weeks, Montessori classrooms everywhere will pass the baton of leadership to next year’s classroom elders while bidding farewell to those who are moving on.  But before we make this transition, before children scatter for the summer, there is much that we can learn.  Consider: at this point in the life cycle of a classroom community, children most authentically manifest the culture that we co-created.  In just a few short months, we will begin again, shaping a community out of a collection of individuals.  What wisdom can we reap from our current cohort that will help us welcome new students and jump start the normalization process?

We are often counseled to “begin with the end in mind”.  What if this year, we end with the beginning in mind?

Acknowledging Our Best Bits

It is always best to first establish what we want to preserve.  Research tells us that, because the human brain’s primary directive is to protect us from harm, it has about an 80% negativity bias.  It is far easier to see what needs to change than to see what is going well.  That means we need to set aside thoughts of what we need to “fix”, to consider only what is going well. 

For the teacher, this may best be initiated with a focused observation.  One day, set aside 30-60 minutes during a work cycle to record only evidence of things that are going well.  Remember to observe not only academic activities, but also personal interactions and the use/maintenance of the environment.  What shows that these are not the same children who started in the classroom last fall?  How are the children demonstrating academic, and social/emotional independence, leadership, collaboration, kindness, creativity, empathy, or intentionality? 

From that observation, make a list of aspects of the classroom culture and want to promote with next year’s cohort.  Add things that might not have manifest because the observation window was short, such as children’s willingness to take academic risk or to defer gratification.

We also want to include wisdom from our co-creators, the children.  What do they most appreciate about their classroom values, rituals, and routines?  What has made the classroom a good place to grow intellectually, physically, socially, or emotionally this year?  Get the ball rolling with one or two of your own observations and see what comes from the children.  To gather input from less vocal children, put out a suggestion box, encouraging everyone to write down up to 3 things they most want to preserve.  

There is an immediate side benefit to this discussion, too. The mere act of drawing attention to what everyone values often causes an uptick in those specific behaviors!  Not a bad thing to have happen as children’s focus turns more and more to the summer ahead…

Designing Our Future

Another day, we can summarize what children identified as going well and ask them what we could do better.

It is always good to remind children that whenever we discuss areas for improvement, we discuss problems, not people.  The discussion should focus on processes, routines, procedures, and the like.  Carefully crafting questions that lead to solutions will help keep the discussion proactive.  Here are a few ideas:

• How/when do you find joy in your work and how can we encourage more of that?
• What, if anything, could we change that would help you feel more ownership of your learning? How can we create a better work environment?  
• What, if anything, could we change that would help us all be more empathetic and respectful of one another?  How could we be better resources for each other?

We can wrap up the discussion by asking if one of these ideas sounds like something the children would want to start this year –  one thing that would create a beautiful, strong finish to the year.

Priming the Pump

In the last week, we can set the stage to welcome new children.  Explore what helped children last fall to feel like authentic members of an inclusive community.  Invite the youngest in the class to share what fears they had about joining the class. What quelled those fears?  What interactions, activities, and practices made them feel like they belong?  These might range from the mundane, like name games, to the personal touch, like having someone invite them to snack, to the esoteric, like contributing to decisions about classroom norms. Or they might share something completely delightful and unexpected!

To keep this relevant for children who are moving on, ask them what they hope to experience in their next classroom.  (Bonus: share those hopes with the children’s next teachers, if possible.) 

Finally, ask the children what that they can do to help the newest members feel welcome in the fall.  This might include concrete activities for whenever they have unfilled time: creating cubbie, desk, or locker tags, or writing personal welcoming letters for all to sign.  It might include writing a story or designing a game for the fall that helps the new students acclimate.  Or it might be social activities that can be started immediately, like inviting the children who are moving in to join for lunch or for a recess activities.  Those who are moving on might enjoy collaboratively creating a list of what they are bequeathing to next year’s eldest: responsibilities, duties, rights, and privileges. 

Immediate side benefit: concrete activities provide a project for children who have “finished everything” before the last day. The activities promote inclusivity and empathy for the children entering the classroom. And they lay the path for mentoring in the fall.

Reaping what We Sow

Intentionally acknowledging aspects of our culture that best serve us helps ensure that these habits and attitudes will carry forward to next fall.  Inviting children to help plan for a next year gives them a valuable experience as architects of their own future.  It demonstrates that they are partners in creating the learning environment that they most want and need. And it provides a real opportunity to spotlight the value we place on joy, self-determination, and concern for the community. Finally, preparing to welcome new classmates lays the path for the kind of inclusion and acceptance that we hope will characterize our classroom in the fall. All of which will jump-start the normalization process for children and the community in the fall.

Wishing you all great satisfaction as you wrap up this year –

-Betsy Lockhart

“A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

Dinah Maria Craik