Dear Parents,

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce Prashanthi, a teacher who has been interning with us full time for the past few weeks as she studies the Montessori Method. Moms and Dads, you may have seen her helping us out in the studio during out Mother’s Day and Father’s Day celebration. We were excited to meet her when she came to us with her desire to learn Montessori Education, and I have been teaching her lessons whenever I can so that she can participate in the classroom. She is quick to learn, goes with the flow, and all of the kids were comfortable with her immediately.

Prashanthi is from India, and she was previously working in a classroom of kids of ages 3 to 6 in a traditional school in India. Her husband recently became a resident at Duke, and they have family in the area, which made the move much easier. Prashanthi was looking for a Montessori School nearby and we happened to be the nearest, so we got lucky with being her first choice!

I am excited about this, because while I’ve trained a lot of people, most of them have had at least some Montessori experience, but this is her first experience learning about Montessori Education ever! I was once that person, 6 years ago when I was first learning about Montessori. I trained under an Indian Montessori teacher for a year here at Indigo. It was an amazing experience for me as I too came from a traditional school, and there were so many moments of “wow” as I realized that Montessori Education is far more effective than the ways of the last school I was working for. Prashanthi is already recognizing some of those details only found in Montessori, and it’s just cool to notice that she really appreciates these moments 🙂

It’s been a big adjustment for her to make this move move from India to Durham, but she really likes it here so far. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to say “hi” before the end of the school year.

That’s all the big news for now. The kids have been staying productive and I hope to get one big newsletter out before school is out!

See you soon,

Angelique

Some of my students from the 2015-2016 school year reading library books about global awareness

I try to be very careful on these topics as I don’t want to share information in a way that would frighten or discourage my students, so I usually take time in advance to prepare what exactly I am going to say.  There are not enough children’s books on these topics, so I often find myself taking books from the library that are for much older children, read the book to myself, and then reword the entire book for my students to better comprehend in simple terms. I find that when real issues are carefully brought to the attention of these youngsters, the awareness humbles their spirits and brings out thoughtful conversation.  This year, I discovered the book Gift Days, a story about a young girl in Uganda who was left with responsibilities to look after her family after her mother died (of a disease that I did not mention, because I did not find it to be a topic that I could reword lightly and I wanted to focus on the positive).  The story is about the girl’s desire to be educated and to go to school while she had no time or money to do so.  She eventually finds a way to educate herself with the help of her brother who took on some of her chores. We had a couple of discussions on this topic that lead to what we are thankful for, how fortunate we are to have the right to an education, and how organizations are helping kids like the ones in the story.  The kids have plenty of questions and we do our best to answer them in a positive and hopeful way.  I just want you to be assured that when I introduce serious topics that can sound scary, I always take a lighter and simpler approach.  Overall, it’s meant to be a humbling experience that helps students appreciate more in their own life.

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