Registration is open for
NAMTA conferences:
Total Reading and Writing in the Montessori Context
and
Whole-School ManagementSM Tier I: First Principles
Portland, OR
___________________________
Apply today for the
The AMI Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies, Cleveland, OH.
NAMTA's purpose is to maintain Montessori traditions, and at the same time, to be on the cutting edge of innovative education. Accordingly, we provide the medium for study, interpretation, and improvement of Montessori education.
In 2012 NAMTA is offering Montessori Whole-School ManagementSM: A Professional Development Course for Administrators at two levels, each in a different location.
Tier I: First Principles, February 29-March 4, 2012, is designed as a foundation course for new and/or aspiring administrators.
Tier II: The Art of Strategic Planning, July 29-August 3, 2012, is an opportunity for seasoned administrators to explore and discuss strategic planning at the Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, VA, following the MAA retreat.
Since 1988, NAMTA has documented best administrative practices and provided professional development to beginning administrators with one overarching principle in mind: Montessori schools, in order to retain their authenticity over time, need Montessori-oriented administrators who understand the specific operational aspects of Montessori pedagogy.
The increasing complexity of Montessori school structure means that the Montessori school must reintegrate its parts to complete the developmental continuum. This is an extraordinary endeavor as the Montessori school must embody the Montessori vision of successive prepared environments, indoors and outdoors, encompassing the natural and human-built worlds through all academic disciplines from concrete to abstract, from eighteen months to eighteen years. The more comprehensive the Montessori vision, the more complicated the institution and the larger and more diverse the staff. There is also more difficulty in staying organic and remaining focused on the organic whole, which is simply children and their intrinsic needs in contact with the appropriate “prepared environment,” including the natural environment. The implementation of Montessori Whole-School ManagementSM requires not just administration but visionary leadership, which is as much a test of character as it is of knowledge.