“My hope is that these videos will give Montessori educators a ready-made toolbox that helps them make their classrooms more responsive to and inclusive of all students’ needs.”
Dana Anderson, MSJ, AMS, is a seasoned Montessori educator and a Digital Citizenship and Content Specialist. She is AMS-certified at the Primary and Elementary levels, has served on the Inclusion workgroup for the AMS Innovation Think Tank and is deeply committed to making education more responsive to and inclusive of kids’ and teens’ needs and voices, particularly in the realms of neurodiversity and Digital Citizenship. Dana is currently working on her Adolescent-level certification while teaching Secondary students at Bridgemont International School. She took time to chat with The Montessori Post about her new course featured at The Montessori Library, Working with Children with Non-Standard Needs.
How did you come to know Montessori? When I was given my first daughter, I was living abroad and looking for a first school experience for her. I was working as a newspaper journalist at the time, so I put on my reporter’s hat and used all the tools at my disposal to research educational methods and see which one I was going to be most comfortable with when sending her to preschool. I came to the conclusion that — hands down — Montessori education was the best way to support the natural, healthy development of the whole child — intellectually, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.
Through reading Montessori’s original works during that time, I experienced my own intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual transformation. I came to a new understanding of and great appreciation for the child’s importance to humanity’s growth and to peace in our world. This eventually led me to teach my own children for seven years in a Montessori-inspired homeschool environment, and then to go back to school for my Primary and Lower Elementary certifications. I’ve been teaching in Montessori schools for more than a decade now, and I am currently in training for my Adolescent Montessori certification while teaching at Bridgemont International School. It is such a joy living on this Montessori journey, which I imagine will continue for the rest of my lifetime!
What are some of your current projects? In addition to teaching Language Arts, Literature, and Digital Citizenship to my wonderful students at Bridgemont, I have been serving as a fellow in the American Montessori Society’s Innovation Think Tank for the past two years. I believe with all my heart that Montessori’s philosophy holds the answers to the problems that plague education today, and I want to be part of supporting and promoting that solution.
You have a new subscription featured at MontessoriLibrary.com, Working with Children with Non-Standard Needs. What does the content offer subscribers? My hope is that these videos will give Montessori educators a ready-made toolbox that helps them make their classrooms more responsive to and inclusive of all students’ needs. Through this course, I wanted to offer as many teachers as possible my own practical, concrete tips of things that I used to tailor my former Primary/Lower Elementary Montessori classroom in which I guided neurodiverse students with special learning, social, and emotional needs.
From visual aids and sensory regulation assists to personalized materials and new ways to envision spaces in the Montessori environment, I hope this course helps Montessori guides understand what they can add — and some incredible tools they already likely have in the rooms — to their Montessori classroom as well as on the playground. They will learn how to incorporate items, lessons, and activities that can facilitate calm, and how to deploy adaptive writing tools and technologies to foster a successful learning home for all students.
The course also breaks down some traditional Elementary lesson plans into smaller steps and offers strategies to tailor instruction for students facing cognitive, auditory, visual, emotional, and fine motor challenges. By incorporating movement, language, and interactive materials, they can learn how to help students stay engaged with lessons and avoid meltdowns. They will discover the benefits of assistive technologies, as well as the emphasis on the importance of individualized instruction in Montessori, even in our most standard lessons.
What have you learned by working with such students and their families? A lot of what I learned as I worked in my classroom was “baptism by fire!” To be honest, I never expected to be teaching this population of students. I started that part of my journey as an assistant substitute in a Montessori classroom that was beautifully established by an extraordinary Montessorian who founded the room especially for neurodiverse students who may struggle in larger classroom environments. While subbing in her room, she mentored me and gave me the confidence to know anyone could set these amazing students up for success — given the right environment, tools and support.
When I moved into the lead teacher role in the classroom, I began to understand that many children had challenges beyond neurodiversity, including social-emotional issues, adverse childhood experiences, and educational trauma experienced even at very young ages from being bullied and/or feeling like a “failure” in their previous schools. I had to figure out how to help them adjust to Montessori-style learning, to see themselves as capable of being a valued member of a classroom community, and — most of all — to love learning again.
As a result, just like when researching the best pedagogy for my baby daughter, I once again put on my reporter’s hat and used my journalism training to start researching, digging into the topics I needed to know the best practices on to help these amazing students adapt and thrive. I conducted informational interviews and asked tens of thousands of questions of other educators (Montessori and non-Montessori), therapists, parents, and — most importantly — my students. I did a lot of continuing education and reading on neurodiversity and specific learning challenges, as well as social-emotional learning, inclusion practices, trauma and adverse childhood experiences, digital citizenship, and more.
Eventually, people started asking me for advice on challenges they were experiencing with struggling students in their classroom. With all the resources out there today and through this course, I hope other educators won’t have to go through the stressful “baptism by fire” and time-intensive learning journey I underwent. I also hope this course serves to honor all of the children who have been and continue to be my greatest teachers on this journey.
How can readers find more about you? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIN or email me a danderson@bridgemontschool.com
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