Montessori Teacher Training in Russia
Who Are These People and What Are They Doing?
Montessori Students at Work
These people are all teacher training students of the Maria Montessori method. They attended Mary Ellen Maunz’s Montessori Early Childhood Teacher training program in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July and August of 2011. They all listened to daily lectures, wrote papers, watched presentations of Montessori lessons, and spent many happy and deeply focused hours learning how to give the presentations themselves.
After their summer course, they will spend the next school year interning in fully equipped Montessori schools in various cities in Russia. After their year as interns, they will return for final exams. If they successfully pass the practical exams, they will become certified Montessori teachers. Their practical exams include presenting randomly selected lessons for the instructors, as this young man is doing.
Trained Montessori Teachers Coming Back for More
This young man (at right) has been a Montessori teacher for seven years in Russia and holds a diploma from the AMI organization that trains teachers there. However, after attending Mary Ellen’s lectures, he said there was a whole side to Montessori that was deeper and more spiritual, which he had never heard about before. He did the entire course all over again so that he could learn more.
He was not alone. Several more trained teachers came back for a refresher and a deeper look at what Montessori offers. Three of them did their internships and did all the work for the training course over again for a second time! We welcome newcomers and old hands! There is always more to the Montessori method to learn and internalize.
