“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”
Helen Keller

Community

We feel that children are only as strong as the community they live within and the support they are given. We take pride in making our most fun projects opportunities for parents and families to come together share their experiences and connect while working together to create something amazing. Parents are supported with a network of passionate parents, teachers, and local businesses who give so much for our students. Portland Oregon is a wonderful place to raise a family. The city makes great efforts to provide unique fun family events and celebrations that our school can be apart of such as: The PDX soapbox race, Milk Carton boat race, food festivals, parades and so much more!!! Each year we come together to participate in these activities to build stronger relationships with one another, learn new skills and model for our children our role within our community.

If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

African proverb

Family Community

Supporting our families is what makes our community strong. We provide our families with a network of like minded parents who are looking to share their love, excitement, and joy for community. Families participate in volunteering, attending special events, using the Homeroom app. to stay updated on daily classroom activities, and are there for each other via phone calls or email. When we can look toward each other for support and insight the strength of our community relationship grows and we become better parents. We can then use this development to support our children with confidence and then pass on that experience to another family. Bridge City Montessori produces parent education classes that will soon be available online through our youtube Channel.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.

George Bernard Shaw

Classroom Community

The classroom community is supported by active lessons of peace, courtesy, respect and tolerance. Our young ones are always experiencing new social situations and different cultural norms all the time. We feel it is our important role to provide guidance on what words to use, approaches to build friendships and handle difficult behaviors. Guides are diligent on observing the needs of your child and creating a framework of support in different areas of the classroom designed to refine the challenging skills necessary to your child’s developmental skill level. This allows them to be challenged but also successful in the tasks completion. This builds the child’s confidence in the process, themselves, and their abilities to navigate through difficult emotions. the child builds upon their successful experiences and becomes excited by challenges as their academic confidence grows. We support their emotional development through Art therapy practices that allow your child to communicate their feelings in a safe and familiar way utilizing a story telling framework. The guides are then able to help the child to communicate, understand, and accept their emotional reactions to new situations. Once a dialog is created student and teacher together can create the model of expectation. This is how the teacher and student work together and build their relationship upon trust.

Portland Community

Portland, Oregon (PDX) is a beautiful place to call your home. We are so excited to be apart of the Portland community and share in the events all that we can. Our parents and students worked hard side by side to make the Adult Soapbox Derby a reality with the help of local business sponsors!! We collaborated with Hammer and Jacks toy store to ensure we have the highest quality natural play and work materials available to our students. Foster-Powell area business have shared the passion of their business to facilitate cooking experiences, or special show and tell events right in our classroom. Being connected to your city and greater community is vital to our kids learning what it means to apart of something. We are all looking for connection and the best place to find healthy relationships in within the circle of good people you see each and every day. We invite you to join our community, or seek out the community that inspires you!!!

Learning

The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Bridge City Montessori school. Encouraging our students to explore their interests socially with friends, lessons with a teacher, independently through art or science based projects, and by experiencing via community events and celebrations, our students are filled with excitement and wonder. We guide our students development after observing and recording their current success level we then can attune our curriculum to meet the needs of your child. This provides us with information to formulate a clear plan to support your Childs progress though milestones of growth and educated the whole child. Teachers work along with parents to answer questions about their development and provide solutions to challenging behaviors, and ways lessons can be encouraged at home.

From The American Montessori Society:

The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. Dr. Montessori’s Method has been time tested, with over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world.

It is a view of the child as one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. It is an approach that values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional, cognitive.

Montessori education offers our children opportunities to develop their potential as they step out into the world as engaged, competent, responsible, and respectful citizens with an understanding and appreciation that learning is for life.

  • Each child is valued as a unique individual. Montessori education recognizes that children learn in different ways, and accommodates all learning styles. Students are also free to learn at their own pace, each advancing through the curriculum as he is ready, guided by the teacher and an individualized learning plan.

  • Beginning at an early age, Montessori students develop order, coordination, concentration, and independence. Classroom design, materials, and daily routines support the individual’s emerging “self-regulation” (ability to educate one’s self, and to think about what one is learning), toddlers through adolescents.

  • Students are part of a close, caring community. The multi-age classroom—typically spanning 3 years—re-creates a family structure. Older students enjoy stature as mentors and role models; younger children feel supported and gain confidence about the challenges ahead. Teachers model respect, loving kindness, and a belief in peaceful conflict resolution.

  • Montessori students enjoy freedom within limits. Working within parameters set by their teachers, students are active participants in deciding what their focus of learning will be. Montessorians understand that internal satisfaction drives the child’s curiosity and interest and results in joyous learning that is sustainable over a lifetime.

  • Students are supported in becoming active seekers of knowledge. Teachers provide environments where students have the freedom and the tools to pursue answers to their own questions.

  • Self-correction and self-assessment are an integral part of the Montessori classroom approach. As they mature, students learn to look critically at their work, and become adept at recognizing, correcting, and learning from their errors.

Given the freedom and support to question, to probe deeply, and to make connections, Montessori students become confident, enthusiastic, self-directed learners. They are able to think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly—a skill set for the 21st century.

Lifelong learners

Guides are chosen by meeting our high expectations for a quality staff member academically but we are also looking for that same quality in that persons patience, calm, and compassions for children. We partner with like minded professionals who strive for their own betterment for the good of themselves and their students. Guides are encouraged to bring their own learning and passions into the classroom to further strengthen the relationship with the students but model the behavior that is learning. When children see that adults continue to learn and grow they are able to except their own challenges with learning more readily and ask for help or recognize that they are capable of progress. When the veil of struggle or challenge is removed a person can focus on evolving a skill, or recalling information without stress or worry. This shift in perspective encourages a child to focus on their accomplishments through a learning process. The more this happens consistently the more a child will work unassisted or before asking for help.

Montessori Method: The Five Principles

Principle 1: Respect for the Child

Respect for the Child is the major principle underlying the entire Montessori method. Montessori believed children should be respected (not common practice in the early twentieth century). Respect is shown for children by not interrupting their concentration. Respect is also shown by giving pupils the freedom to make choices, to do things for themselves, and to learn for themselves. Teachers model respect for all students as well as peaceful conflict resolution, and must learn to observe without judgement.

Principle 2: The Absorbent Mind

Montessori education is based on the principle that, simply by living, children are constantly learning from the world around them. Through their senses children constantly absorb information from their world. They then make sense of it because they are thinking beings.

Principle 3: Sensitive Periods

Montessori pedagogy believes there are certain periods during which children are more ready to learn certain skills. These are known as sensitive periods, and last only as long as is necessary for the child to acquire the skills. The order in which sensitive periods occur (i.e. a sensitive period for writing) as well as the timing of the period varies for each child. Through observation, Montessori teachers must identify sensitive periods in their students and provide the resources for children to flourish during this time.

Principle 4: The Prepared Environment

The Montessori method suggests that children learn best in an environment that has been prepared to enable them to do things for themselves. Always child-centred, the learning environment should promote freedom for children to explore materials of their choice. Teachers should prepare the learning environment by making materials and experiences available to children in an orderly and independent way.

Principle 5: Auto education

Auto education, or self-education, is the concept that children are capable of educating themselves. This is one of the most important beliefs in the Montessori method. Montessori teachers provide the environment, the inspiration, the guidance and the encouragement for children to educate themselves.

The Role of the Teacher

In Montessori education the role of the teacher is to guide children in their learning without becoming an obstacle, and without inserting themselves too much into the natural learning process. Therefore, the Montessori teacher is a facilitator, not a lecturer. Montessori teachers encourage children to learn by placing the pupils, rather than the teacher, at the centre of the experience. They provide learning materials appropriate to each child after close observation in the specially prepared learning environment. Teachers also demonstrate and model learning activities whilst providing freedom for the students to learn in their own way. Montessori teachers manage classroom behaviours by modelling ongoing respect for all children and their work, by observing and using sensitive periods, interests and abilities to plan activity, and by diverting inappropriate behaviour to meaningful tasks.

Love

Most educators are passionate about teaching and care deeply for their students, their families, and the well being of our community. It’s one of the main reasons they show up each day, to make a difference in the life of a child. But how do you show your students that you care about them, when during this epidemic you cant even give them a hug when they’re feeling down?

Don’t be surprised if your child starts doing some of these same things. When a culture of love and acceptance is cultivated, there’s no telling where it’s impact will end.

  1. Give each child eye contact with a smile. Connections most definitely come through eye contact and what follows. its sends the message of acceptance and love, or disapproval and rejection. Make a point to look your students in the eyes and smile.

  2. Speak kind words in a reassuring voice. Speak love into your students lives. Be mindful of the way you speak your words and the tone you choose to use. Even a simple “Good Morning, Taneesha, It’s good to see you today.” in the right tone can create the atmosphere of kindness and love you are looking for in your classroom.

  3. Take a genuine interest in their progress and ask questions. Get to know your students. Ask them questions about their hobbies, favorite food, books, sisters, brothers… Them! Showing an interest in their live will go extremely far in showing that you truly care.

  4. Be present. It is so important that our students see and know we are present with them. This means focusing in on staying in the moment when possible. Everyone know what it is like to be with someone that seems to want to be someone else. Give your students the gift of being in the moment. Be present.

  5. Have a special routine. Connections are really amplified through three main areas: eye contact, physical touch and fun. We need appropriate ways to connect through physical touch. There’s nothing like a good ole high-five or the sweet old fashioned “secret handshakes” of our childhood.

  6. Find your students “Love Language”. The 5 love languages of children are: Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts and Acts of Service; as laid out in Gary Chapman’s book The 5 Love Languages of Children. Speak words of Affirmation to those that need it, spend one on one tra time etc with each student according to their specific need. Intentionality doesn’t qual fake, it means that you are wanting to meet those needs and show love to your students.

  7. Love and celebrate them. Can you find one thing today that you like or appreciate about each student? I would suggest making a list to help bring some of those positive things to the front of your mind. Each child deserves to be loved, regardless of whether they act like it or not.

    Don’t be surprised if your child starts doing some of these same things. When a culture of love and acceptance is cultivated, there’s no telling where it’s impact will end.