Why I was Interested / Interesting Findings

       I became interested in the topic of the Montessori Method because both of my kids attend an elementary Montessori school.  I wanted to see what the research said about the method and the different aspects of it and how it would affect my kid’s long term.  I also wanted to be more informed about making a decision on whether to continue the kids past the third grade.  At first when the quarter started I selected the topic of milk and how it may be unhealthy for a person but because of lack of academic research on the subject I abandoned it and went in search of another topic.  Based on the first free write exercise we did where we listed our interests and community groups that we were in and the roles we have in life, this subject lined up with all of them.  Being a father having kids and an interest in education even just based on the fact that I am going back to school, it fit.

       Another of the free writes that helped my was the mapping or outlining of our subjects.  Whether it was drawing boxes that have words in them or just doing a descriptive outline those helped to organize the paper.  Based on those it was easier to figure out what order to put things in and it allowed me to add content easier by seeing what may be missing and when adding it knowing better where it should go.

       In general the free writes were very helpful because often they were parts that were needed in our papers and instead of just writing a paper all at one time from scratch it seemed that we were putting it together piece by piece.  We did free writes on signal phrasing and quotations for our in text citations, thesis work shopping , lead writing, title testing, data warrant and claim writing, and some others that I haven’t mentioned but each one was something that we could add to our paper writing.  It seemed that when I went to write the actual papers that I could look in my notebook and take material that had been produced in class.

       One of the most interesting things that I found out in my research was something that was stated in an interview that I did.  The person was talking about Montessori vs tradition education and posed the thought about how traditional students have to raise their hand and ask to go to the bathroom and how demeaning that seemed.  I hadn’t thought of that before but it just goes to show that there is a lack of initiative being taught in our public schools and most students grow up wandering if they can do something rather than taking the initiative to go get it.  The Montessori Method is built in a way that promotes freedom of movement within the classroom.  In addition in the same interview they mentioned that because of the freedom of movement conflict happened more.  While that seems like a bad thing really it’s a great thing at the elementary level because kids learn how to resolve conflicts early with allot more practice.  Kids sitting in desks in a classroom have very little real conflict throughout the day and when there is conflict the teacher uses one of their stick to control it.