I had a "YAY" moment last week in our preschool. For those who don't know, I am the director & a teacher of a preschool serving our missionary families in Tijuana, Mexico. We are multi-cultural and multi-lingual. I had very little Montessori exposure about 12 years ago before I became a missionary when I nannied for a family that attended a Montessori school. When looking for something completely different last summer I stumbled across a Montessori website or youtube channel and got sucked in. We started implementing some of the principles and works into our class and after a HUGE renovation to the school last summer we officially made the transition into a more Montessori-focused (we are not officially trained and aren't an official Montessori school) school but that transition has been a little difficult. This is partially due to some teachers not fully grasping the philosophy and methods (my fault) and trying to introduce a whole new way of learning to all of the kids at once (we have ages 1-6 split more like a traditional Montessori school). Most of my time was spent redirecting a child to find an activity to do as well as teaching a new one to a student. Finally, last Thursday as I was walking through the classroom, I was in awe of the fact that everyone had come in, put their stuff away, picked an activity and was quietly & respectfully working. They were speaking with respect to others while not disturbing those who were working and my other teachers were quietly working alongside students as well. I was so elated!! YAY!!!! #smallvictories #noteveryday #butilltakeit

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