Betsy is available for Professional Development and Parent Education, tailored to meet your school’s particular needs and interests. Some sessions are suitable for all levels, while others specifically address topics of greatest interest to elementary staff/parents. Topics that have proven popular include:
- Your Brain on Montessori – Learn about current research in the neuroscience of learning and the implications for Montessori children. It’s a great time to be a Montessorian! Attendees will come away with a deeper appreciation for the Montessori method and a game plan for simple adjustments to enhance their effectiveness. This talk can be tailored to the specific audience: Montessori teachers, assistants, and/or parents.
- Planes of Development – The more we deeply we connect with the characteristics and needs of the children, the more efficacious we become. For faculty, this can help even the most experienced educators take a fresh look at their practices and expectations and can promote cross-level conversations to enhance understanding and appreciation of other levels’ practices. For parents, understanding Planes of Development can help ensure that conversations with their children are effective and expectations of their children are realistic. This talk can be tailored to the specific audience and can address all four planes of development or focus more deeply on second-plane children’s characteristics and needs.
- Normalization and the Working Environment – Montessori described characteristics of what she called the normalized child; she did not provide a road map to achieve normalization. Montessori’s philosophy, augmented by more recent Montessori writers and other educational specialists, gives us tools to create an environment that promotes normalization and fosters interdependence and intrinsic motivation – key elements of a productive working environment. This talk is geared towards Montessori educators (teachers, assistants, and specialists). Content is geared for those working with second and third plane children but can be tailored to include those working at Early Childhood level.
- Redirections that Work – Explore how to improve the effectiveness of your redirections using Montessori philosophy augmented by the best and most applicable findings of neuroscience and behavior modification theory. These tried-and-true methods will significantly reduce the need for consequences. When consequences are needed, these fundamentals will help you to choose those most likely to produce lasting results. This talk is geared towards Montessori educators (teachers, assistants, and specialists). Content is geared for those working with second and third plane children but can be tailored to include those working at Early Childhood level.
Betsy is also available for workshops tailored to meet your elementary staff’s particular interests, including leading group refreshers on the traditional use of particular Montessori materials, new uses for traditional materials, or approaches to address a specific, identified need. Workshops can range in length from three hours to several
- To Infinity and Beyond – simple ways to reinforce the hierarchy of numbers/place value (and figure out which children really “get it”) In addition to elementary teachers and assistants, those working with 5- and 6-year-olds, and teachers at the secondary level may find this interesting and informative.
- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – fun-filled activities that train children to develop and utilize visualization to enhance reading, writing, and retention. This is appropriate for Elementary teachers, assistants, and reading volunteers, as well as Early Childhood teachers and assistants.
- Making Math Facts Memorable – by making minor adjustments to lessons/activities that are already being done in the classroom and supplementing with a few new ideas, help children joyfully achieve automaticity with math facts. This is of greatest applicability to elementary teachers, assistants, and parent volunteers, but may also be of interest to those working with 5- and 6-year-olds.
- Divide and Conquer – a walk through the Montessori sequence for teaching division, from the earliest explorations using the division board to dividing fractions and decimals, and even some considerations with square roots. While much of this content is delivered to second-plane children, it can provide valuable context for Early Childhood and Secondary teachers, especially those without formal Montessori training.
- Managing the Passage to Abstraction – an exploration of the truth and myths about authentic abstraction and of important principles in guiding children to linking the concrete processes that they know with abstract processes that they are learning, resulting in deeper internalization and retention. Spontaneous abstraction can happen at any age; however, the systematic transition from concrete materials to paper-pencil and abstract reasoning begins for most children around age 8 or 9 and continues well through middle school. This content is most well suited to teachers of elementary and early secondary teachers and assistants.
- Others by request – if you don’t see what you most need, contact us to suggest a topic!
Betsy is also available for on-site consultation and observation for individual classrooms or schools. Please contact