Rhett's Classroom Observation

this leona lewis ("better in time") song is overpowering. tone it down duchesne. need some rhythm so here we go...


i vowed that i wanted to be a part of rhett's weekdays. his other world when he is in the "big school" at the montessori managed by sister rachel and sister maureen (sisters of charity). so off i go and made an appointment to visit for an hour. i didn't want to do it the whole day coz i am pretty sure it will be a distraction to rhett.

hit replay leona! youtube is such a blessing.

and sure enough he was pretty quiet during this visit. well, the teachers at school always tells me he is very well behaved and has moderate temperament. (oh yeah, please come to our home - huh!?).



his class is a huge class with thankfully three montessori instructors (ms. mariele, ms. zulema and ms. nicole). rhett belongs to ms. mariele when they are broken down in smaller groups. she calls the kids - ms mariele's friends.




they started in circle time where they discussed the weather, year, day. such as "today is tuesday, february 17, 2009; the season is winter and the weather is partly cloudy". they do group read aloud and also translate them in spanish.




rhett's class mix is almost like an international school with filipinos, chinese, vietnamese, mexican, italian and other hybrid students.

they then segue to classroom assignments for the day. they feel special when they are chosen. and also, jealous if not. why does giovanna got selected again? so the instructor has to justify and you know kids have tons of whys. so the one sentence becomes a parade of more lines. they have tasks like greeter, child of the day, lunch helper, librarian, playground helper and plant care helper.

it was wet outdoors so am sure the playground helper will really not be busy that day. plant care is really cool coz rhett himself volunteers at home to water his mommy lily's (grandma) plants.

everybody stands for the pledge of allegiance with their hands across the chest. rhett being quiet again. see what i mean by distraction?





they all breakdown to three small groups with the three instructors. at this time, the instructor provide simple direction on what they are supposed to do. rhett was listening up to this point and then decided to hangout with his buddies - salvatore and peter.



he was supposed to get his own activity from the center and do it. he was really distracted by now. by me. by the momma. ms. keturah (music resource stand in for ms. mariele) had to redirect him several times to stay on task. he did the building blocks that stacks and becomes a tower. this teaches him sorting, logic, classification, and fine motor skills. montessori philosophy is learning by doing. very tactile.



mason who is from the other group wisely tells rhett that he is not supposed to do the activity by himself. i have never heard of such. so i brought this wise coaching to ms. keturah's attention who flatly denied of such blah. mason was told to go back to his own group and rhett was allowed to build the tower on his own. mason is now blacklisted in my black book. i have become a stage mother.



the class have snacks served on the round table. they are free to choose two types of the veges. healthy healthy healthy variety.

leona lewis is giving up on me. do i have to hit "replay" multitude times. somebody get me a leona lewis cd pllleaaasssse!




this was a very productive day with my unico hijo who was very proud to show me their mini american standard trio potties. he felt special and valued. it was like letting me in his secret world. now if we can get daddy to go!