Some Q&A on Montessori high school...

Some Q&A on Montessori high school...

1) Though I have an idea of how the course should go and anticipate some requests from students to adjust the curriculum, is there a case when the course is altered too often by the students? I just do not want students to request changes because they find certain modules /concepts difficult.

Yes.  The goal is not to 'follow' every student whim or make every student follow every other student's whims, but rather to offer a variety of experiences that challenge a range of students.  Student work must be challenges matched to their skills (if not, the result is either boredom or anxiety; read Flow).  Your curriculum is a series of experiences within which students may have any number of choices.  Avoiding work is not an option.  
"All work is noble.  The only ignoble thing is to not work." -Maria Montessori 

3) How does the institution handle behavioral issues if they arise? 

First, because of the nature of the school, there is a very low incidence of misbehavior.  The sense of ownership and voice that students have at the school short-circuits a lot of behavior that might lead them to being excluded from such a community (that welcomes and values them).  Beyond that, our work is to help students enjoy adolescence and prepare for adulthood.  A part of each of those tasks is managing social relationships with other people.  Another part is meeting expectations, both those that others have for us and those that we each have for ourselves.

4) Is it be possible to work with other Montessori high school faculty in order to know what has worked for them?

Yes. Some other Montessori high schools: 

Great River School (St. Paul, MN)

Montessori High School at University Circle (Cleveland, OH)  

Compass Montessori School (Golden, CO)  

The Grove School (Redlands, CA)   

School of the Woods–Woods High School (Houston, TX) 

St. Stephen's Episcopal School (Houston, TX)

If you want to serve me...

Today while talking with a teacher candidate who hasn't spent much time working directly with children or teens, I blended an old friend of an aphorism with a truism.

Original Aphorism (from the wall of the camp Edenwood of ARC fame): 

"If you want to serve me, get to know who I am."

Original Truism (from everyone I've ever known, it seems):

"The first step is to take your own inventory."

New Aphorism:

If you want to serve me, get to know who I am.

If you want to serve me, get to know who you are.

Alternate phrasing:

If you want to serve me, first get to know who you are.  Then get to know who I am.

Contemplating Montessori

Where have I been...

Here's an interesting blog I stumbled across today.  Little pearls, I think.  Feel free to share!

A couple entries:

Theory of Loose Parts in Action: Free play at school has been becoming more and more creative and inventive of late. What’s more, we have noticed increased co-operation and fewer fights between the children. (Many captioned photos included.)

Materialized Abstractions: He came to me saying, “I think I’m doing this without material … just with my mind”, so I suggested that he put the material away and check....  He did two precise subtraction problems. The strips of paper he had used, inspired him to make a flag out of them.  He went outside and found a stick and stuck his subtraction problems, front and back to make a ‘subtraction’ flag. (!!)

Looking at the paper on which he did the subtraction problems, I was struck by the neatness. There were no strokes and loops showing the borrowing and changing of quantities,...And I remembered my school days.  If I had shown up with subtraction problems completed like the one above, the teacher would have assumed only one thing – that I had copied it from a friend. If it had been on a test, I would have been knee deep in trouble!