 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Learning on the loose
By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
Two dozen students, who moments before had been sitting cross-legged in a circle and singing the same song, fanned out in search of work to do. Two first-graders chose wooden blocks to build geometric patterns. One boy made a beeline for the kitchen, where he set out a snack of peanuts on a paper towel. Others wrote in their journals, colored maps of Africa, sewed, baked shortbread and mopped up spilled water. Kindergartener Daniel Meadows, mimicking what he saw an older classmate do the day before, built a tower of blocks. "There! That's nice," the 5-year-old declared, after picking the right blocks to erect a stack almost his height. It didn't take long for one of Daniel's two teachers, who were patrolling the room, to notice. "It was so huge and complex," said Cindy Dix, the classroom's Montessori teacher. "You worked hard." Chaos? Not really. This is the way the teachers at Pinellas County's first public Montessori program want it to be. They are transforming three classrooms at Gulfport Elementary School from the strict, hands-on-your-desks, feet-under-the-table rules of a traditional primary class. Montessori classes put the students in charge of their work and pace. The teachers act as facilitators. Most work is hands-on and is done on the floor. Students of different ages are mixed in one class. So, how's it going? The furniture and materials were late. Several teachers started mid semester. Parents needed to be convinced that the students were actually learning even though they didn't bring home tests, dittos or homework. Despite the challenges, the students have grown just four months into the first year. The Montessori students are noticeably quiet and well-behaved as they walk through the halls. The older students are helping the younger students. They are handling their freedom responsibly by choosing challenging work -- most of the time. "They're used to being given orders," said Amy Seibert, the class' traditional teacher who transferred from Campbell Park Elementary to learn about Montessori. "They're used to being told what to do." And the teachers are used to being the ones giving orders. With the onset of Montessori, a half-dozen teachers are leaving. Even more want to come in; as of mid December, 15 were seeking six jobs. Signing up at Gulfport is a commitment. The staff must take 11 university courses and complete a one-year practicum to earn American Montessori Society certification. About 30 employees -- including the physical education coach, music teacher and principal -- will begin training this month. "We're going to be a very, very well-educated staff," said Sara Gilmour, a certified Montessori teacher who is helping coordinate Gulfport's program. "It has impressed some parents." Grading progressGulfport is a small, diverse community at the southern tip of Pinellas County. Gulfport Elementary is the city's only elementary school. The school, which enrolls many transient and economically disadvantaged students, has worked hard to improve its test scores. Of about 350 students, 75 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of poverty. That's more than most Pinellas schools. Gulfport has focused on reading, stressed character education, tutored after school and now added Montessori. A federal grant pays for everything from training to expensive Italian furniture. Most Montessori schools are private and free from standardized testing and accountability programs such as Florida's student tests. Gulfport's test will come in 2003-04. That year, Pinellas schools will abandon traditional neighborhood zoning in favor of parental choice. Also that school year, Gulfport's Montessori students will have reached third grade, the year when Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests begin. In the most recent FCAT -- before Montessori came to Gulfport -- 60 percent of the school's fourth-graders scored in the lowest reading level. In 2001, the school got a D grade from the state, down from a C in 2000. If three other public Montessori schools elsewhere in Florida are any indication, the educational philosophy is no cure-all for an urban school's challenges. But there are also signs that Montessori's looser philosophy can be adapted to fit a state where testing is a high priority. Virginia Shuman Young Elementary in Broward County is the largest Montessori school in the nation and has been open for eight years. For the past two years, the school -- with about 28 percent qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch -- has earned A grades from the state. Northboro Elementary School and S.D. Spady Elementary, both in Palm Beach County, improved from C's to A's. More than 55 percent of Northboro's enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, compared with about 38 percent at S.D. Spady. Like Gulfport, Northboro added one grade each year until the entire school became Montessori. Gulfport will add second grade in 2002-03 for a total of nine Montessori classrooms. Educators at Young, Northboro and Spady said it is important to introduce testing conditions early on, so students get used to transferring their concrete knowledge to more abstract concepts on the FCAT. Beginning second semester at Northboro, students sit at desks and bubble in answer sheets each week to practice test-taking. "The single most important thing is to have staff members who truly believe in the philosophy," said Hazel Calvet, principal at Virginia Shuman Young. "It's tough for some teachers to make the transition." It's not easy for parents, either. Families who live near Gulfport Elementary are zoned to attend the school, so they don't have much choice but to try it out. (More than a dozen families have inquired about special attendance permits to get into the school.) The school will be open to families from all over southern Pinellas beginning in 2003. Early in the year, parents had a host of questions and concerns. They wondered about the large class sizes, the lack of homework and the validity of some nontraditional lessons, such as dishwashing. Gilmour explained dishwashing this way: It's a multistep task that requires concentration, physical coordination and patience. Those skills are key when students graduate to academic lessons, she said. The classes are large, but Room 4A, for example, has two teachers and an assistant. There's rarely homework because students are taught to start a lesson, finish it and put it away so it's available to others. To help parents adjust, more homework is being assigned, and the students bring home weekly cards that list the lessons they have completed. Annette Olson said it takes a little faith to get used to the Montessori environment. But now she appreciates that cooperation and independence, not competition and conformity, are encouraged. In a private Catholic school her first-grade daughter, Ellie, attended before, helping other students was considered cheating and selecting your own work was considered breaking the rules. "This really fits in with how I wanted to raise her, so she can make her own choices," Olson said. "What they're doing is allowing the students to still be children. They're really getting an exceptional education for free." Concrete lessonsThe Gulfport class Seibert runs with Dix has prekindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade students. The room has child-sized shelves so students can reach the work. Some shelves are empty; as the students advance, more difficult work will be presented. Only a couple of posters and a picture of the alphabet hang on the wall. They're all at children's eye level. Too much stimulation -- from posters and charts and stuffed shelves -- is distracting, teachers said. Students eat lunch in the classroom because the teachers found the cafeteria too rowdy. Even when the students are doing two dozen different things, the room buzzes, but not too loudly. The first-graders have little trouble staying on task, though the youngest ones tend to wander -- until the older ones tell them to stop. Andrew Martison, a first-grader writing in his journal about a turtle he wanted for Christmas, said he likes the Montessori class because the students cook every week. Coral Dornig, another first-grader, is less enthusiastic. "In this class, they don't like to force us," Coral explained, comparing it to last year's more traditional kindergarten class. "I got to tell you, that work was harder." Dix is just starting to introduce harder work. Right before winter break, Dix asked the first-graders to leave the playground early for a math lesson. Dix set up a carpet remnant as a work space and stretched out a chain of golden glass beads using both hands. After talking about how long it might take to count ("three days and three nights," one student said), they did it as a team. The idea behind working first with concrete objects rather than numerals is that students begin to understand the quantity that a number represents. "I wish all children could learn math this way," Dix said. "It's so wonderfully concrete. I wish I had had this when I was in school."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
