Residency: A new model for training
By Laure Fleming
The MTR is designed with public school teachers in mind
Since 2019, NCMPS has been delivering MACTE-accredited Montessori teacher education using a new model—the Montessori Teacher Residency (MTR).
We are not alone in this new work. Other MTR programs include the Chicago Montessori Residency at the Montessori School of Englewood, the Arete Montessori Teacher Residency located at the Libertas School of Memphis, and the University of Delaware Montessori Teacher Residency based in UD’s Professional and Continuing Studies. Faculty and program directors from all of these MACTE-accredited programs as well as from new MTRs seeking MACTE accreditation convene monthly to share learnings, develop resources and to strengthen our approach, in a collaborative effort called the Public Montessori Residency Consortium (PMRC).
PMRC programs are different
In order to support schools’ ability to hire teachers who represent their community, these programs enroll cohorts of Residents from geographically connected public schools or school districts. They establish close partnerships with those institutions, working alongside school leaders and coaches to train and support new Montessori teachers prepared to serve in the public sector.
Residents complete a MACTE-accredited Montessori teacher education program while employed full-time in instructional roles in MTR partner institutions. During their residency period, Residents engage in job-embedded coaching, facilitated NCMPS Lesson Study and Child Study sessions, and instruction in complementary coursework addressing topics such as diversity, equity and inclusion; trauma informed education; working with multilingual learners; effective family engagement; and advanced seminars on language and literacy. This set of topics arose out of NCMPS research and field experience which helped us identify what public school teachers most needed to bridge their work from the Montessori canon and pedagogy to the children and families they serve in the public sector. These courses (the “Montessori Surround”) are available outside of the PMRC as graduate courses through Whitworth University.
NCMPS MTRs in action
So far, NCMPS has completed six MTR cohorts at three levels: Early Childhood, Elementary I, and Elementary I-II, in four states, and we have four more cohorts enrolled. Our Montessori albums and video libraries are in use by our own cohorts as well as in three other MTR programs. NCMPS MTR partner schools include district, charter, and non-profit organizations who offer no-cost Montessori education. These partners make it possible for thousands of children to have access to Montessori classrooms regardless of income. Our partner schools serve children in urban, suburban, and rural communities. We have worked with three dual-language programs who provide Montessori education in English and Spanish. This work was made possible by the generous support of Instituto Nueva Escuela (INE), a Montessori teacher education program working with public schools across Puerto Rico, who provided NCMPS with access to the Montessori albums in Spanish which our dual language teachers so desperately need.
Having now worked on MTRs with a variety of schools across seven states and the District of Columbia, we have learned some things about supporting new public Montessori teachers through their training programs.
Local context matters
The culture of the school and the community have a powerful influence on the experience of Residents. Collaboration with school leaders is vital to ensure that we are helping build a pipeline of teachers who will be successful in serving their particular students.
Most MTRs offer differentiated pacing of content and customize training schedules to allow for ease of access for each cohort. We make schedules that take advantage of pre-determined PD days so that training requires less out-of-school time away from families. Depending on the region of the country, we may need to adjust album content or develop different sample presentations so that Residents will be prepared to offer relevant and compelling presentations to children. This is particularly important for geography, history, life science, and ecology, but also considers what children in a particular location will encounter in standardized testing. For children to feel empowered and confident, they also need to feel competent and capable in facing what is expected of them. We do all this without compromising the core tenets of Montessori pedagogy and the transformation of the adult.
MTR Residents do best when they encounter experienced public school Montessori teachers, instructors, and coaches who believe in the children and trust the pedagogy. New teachers have a lot of doubts about how they can be true to what they are learning in Montessori training and still meet the requirements and expectations of public school systems. They need to be surrounded by others who strongly believe in and will advocate for fully implemented Montessori. In order to ensure that Residents have the job-embedded support they need, MTR partner schools take advantage of NCMPS trainings for school leaders, coaches, student-support coordinators, and others. A school that exemplifies a “habitat of transformation” where everyone is growing and learning together provides a strong context in which new teachers can integrate their training and implement it well.
Many MTRs serve Residents who are part of a cohort in a start-up or conversion school rather than a well-established program. In these situations, we need to be realistic that both the school and the Residents are undergoing a journey. We should expect that their classrooms will take longer to “look Montessori” as materials are ordered, furniture is built, and families, children, and staff acclimate to an entirely new environment. We set interim goals and celebrate small successes recognizing the challenge it is to open a school and take Montessori training at the same time. And, especially if there are no other established Montessori classrooms in the school to observe, the training room needs to offer Residents a window into the full experience.
Montessori “immersion” experiences matter
Residents who were not themselves Montessori children have likely never experienced a learner-centered environment from the perspective of a learner. As part of our program, we try to give adult learners immersion experiences in environments prepared just for them.
As many TEPs do, we sometimes ask adult learners to practice with Montessori materials as if they were a child. This means choosing an activity, finding a workspace, gathering materials, and working through something until they feel affinity or understanding. In the pacing of our instructional programs and in the tenor of our communication, we as instructors need to be able to adjust in order to follow the Residents as we would have them follow the children.
Montessori immersion can mean setting a classroom chores rotation and a shared snack schedule so that our teaching environments are lovingly cared for and nourishing. It can mean that small groups collaboratively read and discuss Montessori theory, make posters, and give oral presentations to the rest of the group. We hold circle times, play games, sing songs, and perhaps start the day with a morning message to journal about. Residents might construct nets and build mobiles of polyhedra using art supplies and their own imaginations. Residents sometimes do the “big work” of the children, such as collaborating on ancient history research projects that culminate with class events including music, dance, and food. It could be that we need to invite Residents to continue working on coloring or painting cell models they’ve made while the TEP instructor begins modeling the next set of presentations, because the Residents are not yet ready to move away from that work but the clock is ticking for the day.
How Residents feel and how instructors live the pedagogy work together to shape Residents’ emerging understanding of Montessori. Montessori immersion includes welcoming and modeling the sharing of divergent points of view, leaning into addressing conflict, taking turns, managing limited resources, and also cultivating joy. Many Residents entering MTR programs may have many years of deep experience in more conventional schools and educational settings. How they experience their Montessori training programs shapes the way they will frame out and implement Montessori in their own classrooms. It’s not infrequent to have other school staff stop by an MTR training space, take note of what is happening, and say, “this looks a lot more fun than my training was.” That fun is by design.
Flexibility matters
NCMPS works to support each public Montessori school on its own particular journey, and that practice transfers to work with MTR schools. As we collaborate with school partners over the multi-year cycle, we are always considering two questions: “What do the residents need?” and “What can the residents handle?” The answers to these questions change depending on many factors. We have to remain informed regarding school system mandates, state legislation, non-teaching responsibilities, and all kinds of community occurrences or news that will impact Residents’ capacities and sometimes even their motivation at different points in the training cycle. We look for ways to streamline their work, in some cases designing whole-school PD experiences or resident assignments that can simultaneously address a requirement of both their employers and the TEP. We are able to work together well because school coaches and instructional leaders who meet MACTE requirements for TEP instructors are automatically co-opted as part of the MTR faculty serving the cohort of learners. This allows us to be flexible and strategic—neither over- or under-training the group in a particular topic or area.
In a world that offers up many challenges and obstacles, people require flexibility on an individual level as well. With the clear goal of preparing Residents to serve as teachers in these diverse school communities, it is necessary to be responsive to the human beings before us. While they are all selected by their individual schools for participation in the program, cohort members enter into the MTR with diverse experiences, cultures, languages, strengths, needs, and even goals.
There are many program requirements which cannot be changed or negotiated for individual Residents, but within those structures, we try to offer flexibility that affirms and supports each individual Resident in doing their best work. That can mean that Residents are invited to provide written responses in a language other than English. It may mean that self-made videos, phone conversations, or voice recordings can suffice to demonstrate understanding of a topic when requiring a written response places a barrier to completion. In most cases, the timing of due dates can be adjusted to accommodate human needs and extenuating circumstances. And because we have school staff serving as faculty on the program and participating in MTR faculty workshops, when Residents do need to miss aspects of the program for unforeseen reasons, they can receive school-based make-up sessions over the course of the academic year and do not lose their place in the program. This does require a lot of record-keeping on the part of the TEP and the part of the Resident, however it is totally worth the effort. School leaders recognize the individual gifts and promise in the teachers they select for MTR programs, and the MTR program in turn commits to try and help each one earn their credential and become a Montessori guide.
[Ed note: Looking ahead—In the spring issue of MontessoriPublic, we will explore the MTR approach to culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy.]
Laure Fleming
Laure Fleming is the Director of Montessori Teacher Residencies at the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector.