Montessori Schools of Massachusetts Board of Directors. Renee Duchainey-Farkes, President Kingsley Montessori School, 26 Exeter Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

MSM is pleased to be able to offer a high quality conference experience for schools in the Massachusetts area. The most important part of attending the MSM Annual Conference is the valuable information you take home to your community. The ideas and strategies you learn from workshops, roundtables, speakers, and exhibitors can be implemented back home in your own school.

Coming in 2010 !
March 25-28, The American Montessori Societyʼs Annual Conference in Boston.

Join MSM as we welcome AMS back to Boston for their 50th Annual Conference! MSM will not be hosting our Annual Conference so that we can be a guiding presence for AMS in Boston. We hope to see you all there and look forward to hosting the MSM Annual Conference again in 2011!

What Will MSM’s Role be During the AMS Conference

To highlight our involvement in the AMS Boston conference in March, the brand new Spotlight Speaker Series will be sponsored by Montessori Schools of Massachusetts. In each session, we have engaged educators from Colleges and Universities in the Boston area, to speak about their cutting edge research and its relationship to Montessori education. We are proud to announce the speaker series, and (as listed below) the official sponsorship entitlements.

As sponsors of the Spotlight Speakers, MSM will be listed as an official sponsor of the conference. Entitlements will include the following:

Conference volunteers act as an extension of the AMS conference staff during the conference. Volunteers assist staff with set up, support the book room and registration staff, and serve as room monitors for conference sessions. Volunteers should be cheerful, friendly people who are ready to go out of their way to help others, and work hard for a few hours in return for the opportunity to give back to your national and state organization, meet lots of new people, and also learn new things and grow both personally and professionally! If this sounds like you, please read on...

Do I get a discount for volunteering? Yes. If you sign up and volunteer for 4 hours you receive a 20% discount on the entire conference.

Do I still get a group discount for 10 or more registration? No, the 20% discount is a better deal.

Is there a deadline? Yes, you must sign-up to volunteer and register for the conference by February 11, 2010 for the discount.

How do I register as a volunteer to receive the discount? You must mail or fax your Conference Registration Form to receive the discount. Click here for additional details.

How do I sign up to volunteer?

Send an email indicating which day you want to volunteer to Ellen Kelley, ellen.kelley@newtonmontessori.org or Fred Catlin fcatlin@thacherschool.org
You will receive an email with the date, time and where to report
Times are assigned based on availability. First come first served! So respond quickly. You will receive an email confirming the date and time.

What else do I need to know? When you sign up to be a volunteer, you name will be entered into a raffle for 2 tickets to the Golden Bead Gala-dinner, music, dancing!!! (Value: $500)

We are gearing up for the AMS conference to be held in Boston on March 25-28th, 2010. Each AMS conference includes a Silent Auction that raises money for teacher scholarships. Last year the AMS Scholarship Committee awarded almost $50,000 to students wanting to pursue their studies in Montessori, thanks in part to donations made by schools like yours.

We need your help. MSM schools and their colleagues in New England can easily participate in and make a big impact on the silent auction. We are asking that our schools create a basket to be auctioned off at the conference. The basket should be geared toward classroom use and can contain a number of things including: books, materials and/or projects – either made by the school or purchased, inspirational or informational posters or pictures. There are so many wonderful possibilities: a basket of peace, botany materials, geography, practical life, to name just a few.

We encourage schools to be imaginative and create a basket that is a signature of your school. We have over 70 member schools in MSM as well as many schools in the New England area that are part of our community. With every school creating a wonderful basket we should be able to raise the largest amount of money for the AMS Scholarship Fund ever! What a special way for the Boston conference to be remembered – having helped new Montessori teachers reach their dreams!

Click here for the required form and return it to Gail Supanich, as designated on the form. Forms are due by February 15th. Items can be brought with you to AMS information table or mailed to Renee Duchainey-Farkas, at the address listed on the form.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact one of the co-chairs - Gail Supanich (gsupanich@excell.net), Susan Swift (susanswift@northamptonmontessori.com), and Mary Gale (megale_99@yahoo.com).

Thank you in advance for your participation and enthusiasm. We are looking forward to a great conference!

Involve your students in the "self-portrait" project! We are hoping to display a wall of at least 1000 faces of Montessori students from Massachusetts!

Heres' how: cut white drawing paper - 4" x 5" - hold vertically. Using black sharpies, ask the students to draw a self portrait - from the neck up. They should also write their first name and age.

Please send all to Inly School, 46 Watch Hill Drive in Scituate, MA 02066, c/o Donna Milani Luther, BY MARCH 1 2010. We will mount on black construction paper, and display all at the conference.
Questions? Contact dmluther@inlyschool.org

AMS Annual Conference Opportunity for Parents – Raising Children in Today’s World

The American Montessori Society's Annual Conference isn't just for teachers and administrators! AMS has designed a special one-day program for 21st-century parents called, "Raising Children in Today's World."

We hope that you will encourage your parent community to join AMS for this day-long program in which child-care experts will address issues critical to raising children and youth in today’s world, provide valuable insights, and offer practical and reassuring parenting tips.

Montessori said that, “Education requires parents, teacher, and child to work together in cooperation; a weakness in any one of these decreases the efficiency of the others while inhibiting the development of the child”. Sharing this information is easy! You can forward this e-mail directly to your parent community and friends or download the form for distribution; click here for a detailed flyer.

Key Details

“Raising Children in Today’s World” – A one-day program for parents of children of all ages (toddler through teenager)
Thursday, March 25, 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Boston Marriott Copley Place (110 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA).
Will feature noted child-care experts offering insights and tips on issues critical to raising children and youth in today’s world.
Consists of five workshops (two are concurrent) on a variety of topics
Fee: $95.
Registration and program information online, www.amshq.org/conference/2010boston/program/ParentsProgram.htm

Incentive for Schools to Spread the Word! For every parent a school sends to the event, AMS will provide a credit of 10% of his/her registration fee toward professional development for that school (to be used toward AMS conference registrations and other AMS events through April of 2011). To obtain credit, school administrators should contact Gary Nelson, AMS Conference Registrar, by March 31, 2010 (gary@amshq.org, 212-358-1250 x 312).

Session Details

Session 1
BI-MODAL MEMORY – APPLYING THE NONLINGUISTIC AND VISUAL ATTRIBUTES FOR STRONGER, SUSTAINED MEMORY AND RECALL -– Robert Greenleaf
The conscious mind works primarily in image and emotion. Nonlinguistic Representations are reported in the research to generate as much as a 26% increase in student performance outcomes. What nonlinguistic strategies can be used that engage the mind? What about pictures and illustrations? Are there strategies for engaging the five natural learning systems? Can we merge the research on effective instructional strategies with recent neuroscience research and generate "Minds-On" learning? Can we use visual in a manner that enhances recall and transfer of important ideas? Are there some learners or learner types that would benefit from nonlinguistic representation approaches to processing and interpreting information? Let's explore some possibilities and several ways to make this happen.

Session 2
PANEL DISCUSSION ON 21ST CENTURY SKILLS

Come share your thoughts and engage with us in a collaborative, cooperative and thought-provoking opportunity for dialogue and learning. Leading experts from businesses and educational groups will lead our discussion on “2lst Century Skills”, and allow us to experience a common ground for this discussion.

The phrase “2lst Century Skills” is everywhere in education policy discussions these days, from teachers rooms to the highest positions of the U. S. Education system.
Many believe that these skills will be in high demand as our world continues to shift to a global, entrepreneurial and service-based workplace. Others contend that implementing this vision might be at the expense of core content. And the real question is do we know “How” to implement, and “How” to assess? Let’s talk about this!

President Obama called “A new vision for a 2lst century education system “ when introducing, Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. This discussion is the focal point of defining this important and timely educational policy.

Through this dynamic panel discussion, it is our intent to continue to raise continue to raise our awareness to the complexity, yet highly necessary, important educational review, and to learn from each other.

Session 3
CLASSROOM CONVERSATION AND STUDENT LEARNING: HOW CAN WE INTEGRATE TALK, TASKS AND TOOLS? Cathy O’Connor

Montessori training rightly emphasizes the use of tasks and materials with students, but research over the past decade points to yet another critical factor in student learning: productive talk. How can we integrate productive talk with well-chosen tasks and materials to optimize children’s learning experiences in the classroom? In this session, Dr. O'Connor will introduce participants to methods for fostering academically productive talk in their classrooms, with a special focus on mathematics and science. Research over the past eight years has shown the power of these methods to improve learning and performance. Participants will watch excerpts from videotaped lessons in actual classrooms. Dr. O'Connor will also lead discussion of how to begin using these methods in the context of Montessori classrooms and how to avoid common pitfalls.

Session 4
TAKING BACK CHILDHOOD: Nancy Carlsson-Paige

Childhood has changed dramatically in just one generation. Social trends such as exposure to media and electronics, rampant consumerism, overly structured school days and fast-paced lives are threatening some of the basic building blocks of healthy childhood. In what ways are these societal trends impacting childhood and what can we adults do to restore childhood to the best it can be even in these challenging times?

Session 5
OUR WATER, OUR WORLD: Bringing the Ocean into the Montessori clasroom – Deborah Cramer

In discovery upon discovery, science is now revealing the myriad ways all life, including ours, depends on the sea. The sea is our life line. It brought us here and sustains us, and now, we hold its life-giving waters in our hands. New, pivotal connections between humans and the ocean dovetail naturally with the different levels and disciplines of Montessori’s holistic curriculum. Shedding new light on the meaning of the sea in our lives, Cramer’s talk, followed by a panel discussion, will equip teachers to enrich Montessori “cosmic educations” with cutting-edge ocean science; to incorporate the critical role of the sea in filling the “needs of man”; to apply current research to the “big picture” view of evolution essential to every Montessori elementary classroom; to fill the large empty space before the fossil record; and knit it into an evolutionary understanding of contemporary geologic time.

Biography: Deborah Cramer is the author of Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water Our World, the companion to the Smithsonian’s new, permanent ocean hall. Of this book, Linda Lear, Rachel Carson’s biographer, wrote: “Rachel Carson wrote the ocean’s biography for the 20th century, and Deborah Cramer, with the same passion and meticulous research, has written it for the 21st.” Pulitzer prize winner E. O. Wilson wrote: “It has often been proposed that the ultimate human future lies in space. It has become clear instead that the strange world really holding our future, now and forever, is the ocean. In Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water Our World, Deborah Cramer explains why. Authoritatively researched, clearly written, and beautifully illustrated, this book is best in its class.”

Session 6
HOW AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE READING BRAIN HELPS US TO TEACH ALL CHILDREN – Maryanne Wolf

Description of the talk: This presentation will describe the science of how the brain learned to read and the developmental story of how every child learns this amazing cultural invention. The implications of this information for teaching every child---with and without learning impediments like dyslexia---will be discussed.

Bio for Maryanne Wolf:
Maryanne Wolf is the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service, Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research, and Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. She received her doctorate from Harvard University, where she began her work on the neurological underpinnings of reading, language, and dyslexia. She has won many awards for teaching and research, including the Teaching Excellence Award from the American Psychological Association. She is known for her investigation into new approaches to reading intervention, including the RAVE-O reading intervention program, created by Prof. Wolf and members of the Center for Reading and Language Research.

The author of numerous scientific publications, Wolf recently completed a book for the general public, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Her book received the Marek Award from the New York International Dyslexia Association for the best book of the year on reading.

Wolf’s recent research interests include reading intervention, early prediction, fluency and naming speed, cross-linguistic studies of reading, the relationship between entrepreneurial talents and dyslexia, and the uses of brain imaging in understanding dyslexia and treatment changes.