I just finished part of the math training for Montessori teacher preparation and while I was a bit skeptical about some of the procedures that go along with this approach, I was really impressed by the math materials. I can really see where my students could benefit from this type of learning. It starts out concrete and moves to abstract, so the child can actually see a physical representation of what 1,000 (for example) means instead of just seeing the numeral written out and knowing that it’s a larger number than 100. Friday we learned how to do long division with number cards and tiles and it was very interesting. I just thought I’d share…The materials are expensive, but I think kids who have math difficulties could really flourish with them.
Re: Lesser expensive materials available
Actually, seeing the math disaster in regular ed classes, they could use a lot more materials and especially teacher training, too.
Re: Lesser expensive materials available
Yes, Montessori materials are very expensive. I won’t even have any in my classroom this year, but there are a lot of things that I can see that would benefit the children. Plus, they work at their own pace, so they won’t have much chance to move to abstraction “too quickly.”Another teacher wrote:
>
> Lots of the base ten cubes & rods are more affordable that
> the “Montessori stamp.” Trouble w/regular ed for sped kids
> is that they move to abstract to quickly. We have to really
> make those symbols (numbers) mean something.
> Kids let us know when they are finished with them…
Lots of the base ten cubes & rods are more affordable that the “Montessori stamp.” Trouble w/regular ed for sped kids is that they move to abstract to quickly. We have to really make those symbols (numbers) mean something.
Kids let us know when they are finished with them…