Evidence Set 4:
Communication and engagement
Overview
Evidence Set Four is focussed on the development of professional relationships with families, colleagues and the wider Montessori and education communities. The artefacts within this evidence set illustrate the ways that I develop these relationships through utilising effective and open communication and participating in engagement opportunities.
Descriptors identified
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of children
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3.4 Select and use resources
3.7 Engage parents/carers in the educative process
4.1 Support student participation
4.2 Manage classroom activities
4.4 Maintain student safety
4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
7.3 Engage with the parents/carers
7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities
4-A Communication with parents and the wider school community
4-B Collaboration with peers
4-C Professional engagement with the Montessori community
Annotation of evidence
Artefact 4-A Communication is at the heart of relationship, and with families of children in my class, I initiate this before the child even starts with me. The first item within this artefact is an example of an email I send to the family once a child is ready to transition into the class. This email is to introduce myself and to communicate logistical and practical things, but more importantly to give families a better understanding of how a Cycle 2 class differs from Cycle 1, relating this to the changing developmental characteristics of their child (1.1). My aim is to begin a partnership with parents to support the learning and development of their children, and to convey my dedication to this end (3.7, 7.3).
This relationship continues throughout the child’s time in my class as I meet with parents regularly through parent-teacher interviews, and at other times at the request of either the parents or me. The periods of home learning during 2020 and 2021 were particularly challenging for families and I met online with children and their parents weekly during these periods. I also met with some families outside of this regular schedule, and the second item in this artefact shows the record of a meeting I held with a child who has additional learning needs, and the child’s mother, because the mother had raised concerns about how her child was engaging with online learning. During the meeting we worked together to come up with actions to support the child, and this email formed a record of our conversation, ensuring we had a shared understanding of what we had discussed and stating the points of agreement reached in the meeting (1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 3.7, 4.1, 4.4, 7.3).
Apart from communication with individual parents, I also proactively engage with class families through whole-class email newsletters, and the third item in this artefact is an example of one of these. Through these emails I am able to share aspects of the class that impact and involve all of the children, and to share with them aspects of the approaches I use in the class. Parents will often reply to these emails and engage in discussion about the things I have shared (3.7, 7.3).
Beyond the families within my own class, I have also contributed to communication and engagement across the entire school community, through writing school newsletter articles and participating in and organising parent events. The final two items within this artefact show examples of each of these. Engaging with the school community in this way offers opportunities to share knowledge and engage with them around topics related to the learning and developmental characteristics of their children. They are aimed at creating a shared understanding around child development and learning according the the Montessori approach and to link the child’s experience between home and school. Parent events offer the chance for the community to come together to share knowledge and foster the development of open and productive relationships between teachers and parents (1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 3.7, 7.3).
The images in the final item are all from a parent event that I conceived, organised, coordinated and conducted. It involved gaining support from leadership to run the event in a novel format, involving the use of technology (Padlet) in engaging parents before the event in a way that had not ever been done previously in the school, encouraging staff to participate as panel members, as well as preparing communication to go out to the community, and the design of an online feedback survey. Both the Padlet and post-event survey questions were anonymous, protecting the identity of respondents (2.6, 3.4, 3.7, 4.5, 6.3, 7.3).
Artefact 4-B Effective collaboration with colleagues also rests on open communication and a willingness to share knowledge with each other. Transparent Classroom is a classroom management and communication tool designed for Montessori educators to plan lessons and record those presented, as well as make a child’s records of daily activity and school reports readily accessible to parents. After observing another Montessori school using this system during a teaching practicum, I brought it to the attention of the leadership at my school. Subsequently the system was adopted by the school, and I became champion of its implementation.
The first item in this artefact is a presentation I delivered to staff introducing the platform and providing initial training to staff on how to use it. I continue to support my teaching colleagues and administration staff with exploring its functionality and troubleshooting when they encounter problems, and consequently the staff have embraced it and together we are continually expanding the utility of the system in our school (3.7, 4.2, 6.3).
The second item in this artefact is an example of a weekly timetable of lesson sequences offered to children in both Cycle 2 classes during the period of remote learning in 2021. This simple plan is the result of a great deal of discussion, planning, organising and evaluating between my colleague and I, illustrating the way in which we collaborated to deliver content across a wider range of topics and levels than we each otherwise could manage alone. Splitting the days we each delivered lessons, also ensured we both had enough time to engage with children and families every week. Given the importance of social connections to this age group, and the additional challenges to remaining connected during home learning, operating in this way also ensured that the entire cohort could remain connected by attending online lessons together and by sharing their learning through an online “Work Share Portfolio” and presentation session each week (1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 2.2, 2.6, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 4.2).
The final item in this artefact is a presentation that I delivered to leadership and colleagues on completion of the first component of my qualification in Multisensory Structured Language (MSL). Through this presentation, I shared my understanding with school leadership and opened a discussion with them about how we might go about implementing this approach within our school and the potential benefits to the learning outcomes of the children across the school (2.5, 6.2, 6.3).
Artefact 4-C Engagement in the wider Montessori and education communities more broadly supports my own knowledge growth, while also enabling me to share my experience and expertise and support other teachers at the same time. The Montessori Australia Foundation (MAF) runs regular mentoring and support Zoom sessions for Montessori educators across Australia, and I have participated regularly in these. This has enabled me to make professional connections, contribute to shared projects and learn from a wider variety of Montessori practitioners than I would normally be in contact with in person (7.4).
I have also volunteered to be an album reader for the current AMI 6–12 Diploma course, which involves reading and assessing the work of current trainees, and providing corrections and feedback where necessary. This process supports the learning of those undertaking training and also serves as an opportunity for me to review my own album work and refresh my knowledge, especially for those presentations that are largely given to children in Cycle 3 and which I have not had occasion to present thus far (7.4).
Over the past two years, I have invited my former Montessori trainer to observe my class and offer feedback and advice on my teaching practice and classroom environment. These visits were prompted by an offer by my trainer, and she used her first visit as an opportunity to encourage other former trainees to take up her offer. The feedback she provided led me to make some simple yet effective changes to the classroom environment (one of which is referred to in the email in this item) as well as deeper cultural adjustments, such as methods for developing leadership within in the class (7.4).
Finally, I have also run an online workshop for the Sydney Montessori Training Centre (SMTC) on the process of eco-printing, including the provision of supporting materials to implement this in the Montessori primary classroom and link it to a number of different areas in the curriculum. An important aspect of presenting this workshop was ensuring that I appropriately acknowledged information sources that I used in designing the workshop and associated materials (7.1). I have since been invited to present this workshop to a wider audience through the AMI Elementary Alumni Association in the USA, and am currently in discussions to present this at their annual conference next year (7.4).
Reflection
Very early in my teaching career, I recognised that building relationships with children, families and colleagues, through effective communication and engagement, is at the foundation of the profession. What I perhaps did not fully comprehend at the start (but now certainly appreciate) is that this process takes a huge investment of time and energy. But without this effort, the process of delivering academic content to a child will not achieve the best possible outcomes for them. Since the act of learning (which, as I have reflected on in Evidence Set Two), is a risky endeavour, children must feel safe and understood and know that as their teacher, my role is to support them wholly. This idea is in agreement with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which describes that an individual’s physiological and safety needs, along with a sense of belonging and self esteem, must be met before activities that enable the individual to develop to their full potential, including education, will be meaningful and accessible to them. They simply cannot learn if they don’t feel safe, if they do not feel they belong, or if they do not feel good about themselves.
By extension, building relationships through communication and engagement with parents and families builds trust and an understanding of shared motivation to support the learning and development of their children. Similarly, parents need to feel that they can trust me and know that I care about them and their child, and they also need to feel good about themselves as parents through our interactions. Especially as a Montessori teacher, where we are guided by particular pedagogical principles, It can be tempting to attribute a child’s negative behaviour and attitudes to parenting; however, I often remind myself that the parents and I are like tennis doubles partners on the same side of the net, both playing for the same team and working hard to achieve the best outcomes for their child. Occasionally either of us might miss the ball or play a bad shot… and my role is to encourage and support my team-mate to keep playing to the end.
This picture of partnership with parents, extends to colleagues and the wider Montessori and teaching profession. To take the tennis analogy further, at different times I might be teaching others how to play new shots, while at other times I am learning new strategy and game-play from others. But by participating and engaging in the game, I am contributing to the improvement of the teaching profession as a whole.