From: Quynh Tran <qutran@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Subject: Parent Survey
To: Betsy Mitchell <bmitchell@msnv.org>
Cc: Jacqueline Hoang <jkhmd7@gmail.com>
Dear Mrs. Mitchell,
Thank you for this opportunity to share with you our thoughts on MSNV educational programs. This is our second year being MSNV parents, and, overall, we are quite thrilled with the experience.
Our input, at this point, is limited to our personal exposure to MSNV, having two attending children. Jack is in pre-primary with Savage/Sandoval and Marin in primary with Portch/Bishop. We are extremely happy with Jack's class, his progress, and the quality of his teaching. Marin's progress, on the other hand, has been a little rocky from our perspective.
Before coming to MSNV, Marin had been enrolled at Springs Montessori. She entered the Primary class as a second-year. This year, being her third, is a little perplexing for us because we were presented with the choice of keeping her in Primary for the 4th year or moving her up to Elementary. Forced with having to assess her academic record as well as her emotional maturity, we paid more attention to her classroom progress. What we discovered is a seeming lack of a curriculum detailed enough for assessment purposes; i.e., language skills, math skills, etc. We resorted to comparing Marin's progress to her classmates', and found that she was quite behind everyone else who was moving on to Elementary.
Marin's teachers, at every P/T conference, have been reassuring us of her academic progress. As eager parents, we often asked about her reading/writing ability. We were told, "She's doing fine. Don't worry." When we asked specifically if Marin had done practices in reading/writing/math work, we were told, "She didn't ask for it yet."
What we finally have to do is to teach Marin reading/writing skills at home. We bought Primary Workbooks for her to practice and read with her every day the same books that she has in her class. Marin shows incredible enthusiasm because she feels that she is finally catching up with her classmates.
Here are our specific concerns regarding the Marin's MSNV education:
1. What are the curriculum guidelines to assess a student's readiness for graduating? Marin's teachers recommended a 4th year in their class, citing emotional immaturity. We decided to move her up to Elementary, in no small part due to the seeming lack of any academic progress in the current class.
2. What are the "Workbooks" that are being used to teach in the classroom? We played detective in Marin's classroom and found that her classmates had "original" Primary Workbooks as well as Math notebooks. We brought in our own copy of the Primary Workbook for Marin to use. To be honest, her teacher did her best to dissuade us from giving it to her, but we persisted. To date, she still does not have a Math notebook.
3. When do you introduce new, challenging work to the students? We were stopped short every time we asked about Marin and were given the answer, "She didn't ask for that work yet."
4. After school programs such as Powertots, Art, are considered part of MSNV or separate? We find that information is not coordinated well with MSNV on class times, cancellation, or make-up. If there's a bulletin board where this type of information is continuously updated, that would probably help tremendously.
We understand fully the Montessori teaching philosophy: Let the student determine her own pace and scope of study. However, we feel confused about where the limit for this type of free range study fades and where gentle guiding/encouraging takes over. We believe strongly in the Montessori philosophy and intend to let our children experience as much of it as possible. We are just confused about whether we understood it incorrectly or maybe it's something else we're missing about our own child. Marin's teachers remain adamant about Marin not being able to succeed if she moves up to Elementary.
We, on the other hand, are confident of Marin's ability to move up academically and emotionally. However, we can't help but wonder how best to motivate and teach her when she's ready to learn. Evidently, Marin was very willing and eager to learn, but her teachers did not realize this and did not give her the appropriate work. The reason is, "She did not ask for it." We are now very concerned that with Marin's lack of willingness to "ask", she will fall behind again. Is she truly not cut out to be in a Montessori system?
Please feel free to contact us if you need more information.
Thank you,
Quynh and Jacqueline
Thank you for this opportunity to share with you our thoughts on MSNV educational programs. This is our second year being MSNV parents, and, overall, we are quite thrilled with the experience.
Our input, at this point, is limited to our personal exposure to MSNV, having two attending children. Jack is in pre-primary with Savage/Sandoval and Marin in primary with Portch/Bishop. We are extremely happy with Jack's class, his progress, and the quality of his teaching. Marin's progress, on the other hand, has been a little rocky from our perspective.
Before coming to MSNV, Marin had been enrolled at Springs Montessori. She entered the Primary class as a second-year. This year, being her third, is a little perplexing for us because we were presented with the choice of keeping her in Primary for the 4th year or moving her up to Elementary. Forced with having to assess her academic record as well as her emotional maturity, we paid more attention to her classroom progress. What we discovered is a seeming lack of a curriculum detailed enough for assessment purposes; i.e., language skills, math skills, etc. We resorted to comparing Marin's progress to her classmates', and found that she was quite behind everyone else who was moving on to Elementary.
Marin's teachers, at every P/T conference, have been reassuring us of her academic progress. As eager parents, we often asked about her reading/writing ability. We were told, "She's doing fine. Don't worry." When we asked specifically if Marin had done practices in reading/writing/math work, we were told, "She didn't ask for it yet."
What we finally have to do is to teach Marin reading/writing skills at home. We bought Primary Workbooks for her to practice and read with her every day the same books that she has in her class. Marin shows incredible enthusiasm because she feels that she is finally catching up with her classmates.
Here are our specific concerns regarding the Marin's MSNV education:
1. What are the curriculum guidelines to assess a student's readiness for graduating? Marin's teachers recommended a 4th year in their class, citing emotional immaturity. We decided to move her up to Elementary, in no small part due to the seeming lack of any academic progress in the current class.
2. What are the "Workbooks" that are being used to teach in the classroom? We played detective in Marin's classroom and found that her classmates had "original" Primary Workbooks as well as Math notebooks. We brought in our own copy of the Primary Workbook for Marin to use. To be honest, her teacher did her best to dissuade us from giving it to her, but we persisted. To date, she still does not have a Math notebook.
3. When do you introduce new, challenging work to the students? We were stopped short every time we asked about Marin and were given the answer, "She didn't ask for that work yet."
4. After school programs such as Powertots, Art, are considered part of MSNV or separate? We find that information is not coordinated well with MSNV on class times, cancellation, or make-up. If there's a bulletin board where this type of information is continuously updated, that would probably help tremendously.
We understand fully the Montessori teaching philosophy: Let the student determine her own pace and scope of study. However, we feel confused about where the limit for this type of free range study fades and where gentle guiding/encouraging takes over. We believe strongly in the Montessori philosophy and intend to let our children experience as much of it as possible. We are just confused about whether we understood it incorrectly or maybe it's something else we're missing about our own child. Marin's teachers remain adamant about Marin not being able to succeed if she moves up to Elementary.
We, on the other hand, are confident of Marin's ability to move up academically and emotionally. However, we can't help but wonder how best to motivate and teach her when she's ready to learn. Evidently, Marin was very willing and eager to learn, but her teachers did not realize this and did not give her the appropriate work. The reason is, "She did not ask for it." We are now very concerned that with Marin's lack of willingness to "ask", she will fall behind again. Is she truly not cut out to be in a Montessori system?
Please feel free to contact us if you need more information.
Thank you,
Quynh and Jacqueline
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