Montessori School Consulting and Coaching
Finding success together
Email: annemacmillan2@gmail.com
Text or Call: (617) 996-7239 - United States
MacMillan Montessori
Montessori School Coaching and Consulting
“An ordinary teacher cannot be transformed into a Montessori teacher, but must be created anew.”
-Maria Montessori
The Good News:
The good news is that Montessori education and Montessori teacher development don’t need to be a nebulous mystery. Developmental psychology provides answers that new Montessori teachers can start using to improve their Montessori classrooms today, even before they make the decision to embark on the rigors of accredited Montessori training programs.
Accredited Montessori programs are an important part of the growth of the Montessori guide, but they also require a lot of busywork. And transformation into a Montessori guide doesn’t happen through busywork.
You and your team can prepare themselves now and make decisions about training as the time arises. And you and your team can rest assured that the process of transformation is lifelong and is owned by no one other than the teacher — not by me or by any Montessori training program. How could true transformation possibly be about anyone other than YOU?
The Problems:
Teachers are busy!
The path towards becoming a transformed human takes a lifetime. It won’t happen just because courses were taken and a certificate was earned. (But accreditations are necessary and certifications are fantastic!)
Children and parents arrive at Montessori schools with many complex developmental, family, educational, behavioral, and mental health issues that teachers are expected to effectively support.
Teachers are continually asked to self-sacrifice and help others grow while alsoseeking their own Montessori transformation. Sometimes there is pressure for teachers to be perfect even though there is often hardly enough time for teachers to breathe.
Montessori is popular because it is superior to conventional educations, but it canalso be confusing. Administrators and teachers need quick answers that work inthe present as well as resources to support their lifelong growth and development.
The Solution:
I provide a three-phase system tailored to your school’s specific needs.
Phase 1, DISCOVERY: I get to know you, your team, your school and your needs. I develop relationships and provide professional development that gives everyone a kick start on the why and how of Montessori.
Phase 2, GROWTH: I develop and implement a coaching and consulting plan that is right for your school and staff. I support Montessori environment preparation, teacher development and transformation, understanding specifically how to apply the principles of developmental psychology that underlie Montessori education, classroom observations, and behavior management.
Phase 3, SYSTEMIZATION: We design and establish school systems that last. I help you transition your coaching needs in-house so that your employees are coaching each other instead of being dependent upon me. By the time we’re done, you’ll have a resilient system of management that builds upon itself.
The Plan:
PHASE ONE: Discovery
Step 1: Anne visits school, meets all teaching teams, spends time observing each classroom.
Step 2: Anne meets with individual teaching teams and administrators to discuss needs and concerns. This is time for Anne to listen.
Step 3: Anne offers at least two hours of professional development support, helping all understand HOW and WHY Montessori works as well as the results that can be expected when Montessori is successful. We cut to the chase.
Topics to be discussed during professional development (other topics may be added based on individual and school needs):
Behavior management in Montessori classrooms
Classroom management in Montessori classroom
The conventional teacher vs. the Montessori guide — reversing the teacher student relationship
The environment teaches the child and the child teaches themselves within the environment
Montessori guides control the environment rather than the child
The importance of environmental feedback for child rather than teacher feedback
The guide as part of the prepared Montessori environment
Defining Optimal Development, concentration and “flow” — how and why Montessori is a transformational experience for adults and children
The purpose and importance of the Montessori work cycle
HOW to prepare yourself and your classroom for a highly functioning work cycle.
HOW to observe your prepared Montessori environment and make tweaks to improve your Montessori work cycle
The relationship between the child, the teacher and the prepared
Montessori environment and how the environment and that relationship foster increased levels of consciousness development in children and adults.
Montessori is for everyone.
Followup: Anne prepares a new proposal for Phase Two, GROWTH, that includes specific recommendations for the school based on what is discovered during the initial Discovery phase.
PHASE TWO: Growth
Anne supports teachers with classroom environment preparation, behavior management, understanding what to observe, understanding how to make decisions based on observations, teacher relationships and communication
Text and observation forms to support teachers: Flow Montessori (publishing in process) by Anne MacMillan
PHASE THREE: Systemization
Anne and administrators make a coaching plan that will begin with Anne providing the teachers coaching and consulting and then transition towards a system that supports the teachers as they coach and consult each other.
Text to Support School: Montessori in Action (2021) by Elizabeth Slade
Return on Investment:
A functioning Montessori environment will establish a unified and empowered community. Successful happy teachers support successful happy children and parents. In the end, you will have strong, resilient systems based on honest conversations that engage the full school and make your customers happy. Happy customers bring new customers.
And even better, the systems will be built to last. Successes will build upon succes
Anne MacMillan, MLA
Montessorian, Consultant, Coach, and Educator
About Anne
I have a master’s in clinical psychology from Harvard University and am an AMS- certified Montessorian, trained in Primary, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary. I have over 25 years of experience teaching in a wide variety of settings including as a Montessorian in Primary and Lower Elementary classrooms.
I am the parent of three successful adult children (ages 20-27) who were raised to become creative, independent, entrepreneurial, self-actualizing, self-starters using principles of developmental psychology that align with Montessori education. As an undergrad, before I raised my children, I studied developmental psychology under Kevin Rathunde, the man who made the connection between the mind state of flow, more commonly known as “being in the zone,” and the Montessori method of education.
I know how and why Montessori education works and I can share that information with you so that you can apply it in your classrooms immediately. This information works.
I also get that truly evolving into our best selves requires a lifetime of growth. I am also an ICF-trained coach who is prepared to offer Montessori guides the prepared environments they need to transform themselves into the happy, productive, successful teachers and employees they want to become.
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A New Kind of Education
Tomorrow's Children
Tomorrow's world is going to be different than today's. Tomorrow's success won't require the memorization of facts or diplomas from fancy schools. When artificial intelligence is more fully with us, we will realize that everything we once thought we knew about education has long been obsolete. Today's parents have little reason to prepare their children for a future based on the wisdom of the past... because that future won't exist.Instead, prepare your children for the future that really is coming.
Montessori builds innovative entrepreneurs who know how to lead, not the corporate cogs and factory workers who come out of conventional classrooms. Montessori teaches children how to think rather than what to think, and how to act rather than how to follow. Montessori helps children learn how to make their own meaning -- a skill that will be worth far more than accolades in a future world that will be even more complex than today's.
The wisdom your parents used to raise you isn't enough for your children because the world has changed... and because it will continue to change at faster and faster rates. What mattered when you were a child doesn't matter as much now and will likely not matter at all by the time your children reach adulthood.
Shift your thinking for your child.
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anne@neurodiversemarriage.com
Text or Call: (617) 996-7239 (United States)