HM Only

Sabtu, 6hb Jun 2009 – Salam & Gud evening all.. Today Eva n Mielda celebrated their “Children’s day” celebration at their school (Fairview School & Fairview Montessori International School). The grand awards were on “Best Dress” based on class level.

Eva is in her Year 3 whilst Emielda in Advanced-casa class.

Surprised ! Surprised ! Eva was awarded for her best dress as she dressed-up as ‘Cinderella’. Emielda too. But unluckily her best buddy, Alya beated her. No luck, Miel…. But that wasn’t the point; the thing was the children were happy as they gathered with their teachers with their own costume. Eva n Miel brought chocolate roll cakes for this celebration; which were bought the night before at “bit…bit” as Qaseh mumbling…eheh..

Oh yeah.. Eva was also awarded “The BEST story-teller” for her level….. Pintar anak mummy. Congratz Dear… ;-) Okey, I bet not many people aware of Montessori Method in learning, so pupils, read along……

The Montessori Method is a child-centered, alternative educational method based on the child development theories originated by Italian educator Maria Montessori (1870–1952) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Its method of education is characterized by emphasizing self-directed activity, on the part of the child, and clinical observation, on the part of the teacher— to stress the importance of adapting the child’s learning environment to his or her development level, and the role of physical activity in the child’s absorbing abstract concepts and learning practical skills. The use of auto-didactic (self-correcting) equipment for introducing and learning concepts, and reading taught reading via phonics and whole language, the comparative benefits of which are presently being recognized.

One distinguishing feature of the Montessori method, at the pre-school age, is that children direct their own learning, choosing among the sections of a well-structured and stocked classroom, the curriculum including Practical Life (fine and gross motor skills), Sensorial (senses and brain), Language, Mathematics, Geography, Science, and Art. The teacher’s role is to introduce children to materials, and then remain a “silent presence” in the classroom. Montessori schools pride themselves on seeing and meeting the student’s personality and intellectual needs, rather than viewing them as part of a classroom process. The students are encouraged to teach and to help each other.

A 2006 study published in the journal "Science" concluded that Montessori students (at ages 5 and 12) performed better than control students who had lost the random computerized lottery to go to Montessori in prior years and instead went to a variety of different conventional schools. This better performance was obtained in a variety of areas, including not only traditional academic areas such as language and math, but in social skills as well (though by age 12 academic benefits had largely disappeared)

On several dimensions, children at a public inner city Montessori school had superior outcomes relative to a sample of Montessori applicants who, because of a random lottery, attended other schools. By the end of kindergarten, the Montessori children performed better on standardized tests of reading and math, engaged in positive interaction on the playground more, and showed advanced social cognition and executive control more. They also showed more concern for fairness and justice. At the end of elementary school, Montessori children wrote more creative essays with more complex sentence structures, selected more positive responses to social dilemmas, and reported feeling more of a sense of community at their school….

Sorry for making-up space in this blog ;-p