Anonymous
Post 04/14/2016 23:22     Subject: Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:My one concern would be about the class balancing. Do they have any concern with having larger groups of 3 year olds? (I'm assuming the answer is no).

Based on its location and use of the term "Montessori", I'd be shocked if the FARMs rate for next year is very high. I'm on the WL and those who I know who are either in or WLed are all white or mixed race middle to upper class Petworthians/Cola Heights families.



Don't worry, there's plenty of low-income housing in the area. Those families used to be drawn to Bridges for its proximity and probably won't like the distance to their new location. Breakthrough will be just as convenient in the future as Bridges was in the past.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2016 21:31     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Bump
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 14:00     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:Any hope for those of us on the WL? Doesn't seem too promising, even with the anticipated first year growing pains which may keep people from enrolling.


I'm a self-proclaimed lottery guru.
I think they will go to 65 on their PK3 WL and go through their PK4 waitlist into some post-lottery applications.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 13:59     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Any hope for those of us on the WL? Doesn't seem too promising, even with the anticipated first year growing pains which may keep people from enrolling.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 13:10     Subject: Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:1) Start a PTA ASAP
2) Remember you are a school in a city who has a prescribed philosophy. You chose Montessori. Don't agitate for music, arts, drama, language. Montessori is your lane right now.
3) Make sure kids get outside. Lots. As much as you can.
4) You are a charter school in a large city. Hold administration accountable for recruiting in a diversity of locations.


This!!!

As a founding parent at a now HRCS, the first year is crazy. Don't expect everything to be working smoothly on day 1, be flexible with your admin team, and most of all...relax.

When we were a new school, we reached out to other more established schools to "mentor" us in some of the processes (starting a listserv, starting a PTA, etc.).

Networking with other charter school parents in real life (especially other founding parents) makes things so much better.

Good luck! A few years from now, when you look at DCUM...you feel a bit of pride in something you helped to build.

Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 12:30     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Regarding class size, at one of the pre-lotto sessions I attended, I recall one of the board members saying that class sizes would be smaller than typical for Montessori schools in the first year or two while the kids adjusted to Montessori style. They said trying to go into a big class right away when it was a new school with all new students wouldn't work.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 10:05     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Breakthrough parents and parents to be, congrats. You have a special opportunity to help make your school the best it can be. Might I recommend you all take deep breaths, remind yourselves that teaching 3 and 4 year olds to polish plates might be important--not is not complicated--and focus your sights on making sure the elementary program develops as you would have it.

Seriously, larlo will be fine.

Unless he eats a lot of glue.


I'm sure Breakthrough will have the healthiest glue available.

Very much agree that public Montessori can go off the rails in elementary.

My kid attended a public Montessori and was found to have a specific reading learning disability. Thank goodness it was a 'strict' Motessori as he needed pullout and push-in reading interventions in a specific evidence-based program and help from a non-Montessori reading specialist. He wasn't the only one. If they hadn't adjusted the curriculum he would have continued to fail miserably.

Montessori materials and methods have limits and public schools must meet the needs of the students who are enrolled under the law. Sometimes that means deviating from AMI best practices. That is fine with me.


The WHOLE point of Montessori is that it meets the needs of the child and enables them to excel to the best of their ability and go wherever their abilities take them. Meeting the needs of the child should always be part of AMI best practices. I'm glad your kid got the help that he needed. They also do pullout reading interventions at my child's school (and other activities for those with learning disabilities), which is a public Montessori, and I'm pretty sure they will at Breakthrough too.


Thanks. I get a little sensitive when I read posts on this and other threads about how something can't be Montessori if an aide or specialist without Mont certification works in the classroom and it concerns me. The best place for my kid and most kids with disabillities to be is in the classroom, getting support in their environment. So in our case an OT, SLP and reading specialist came in the class and worked with him on Montessori lessons and non-Montessori activities 3-4 hours a week, and he left the classroom for another hour. These adults were all respectful and tried to be non-intrusive to the community but they were there, which is not recommended and certainly wouldn't have happened in a private Montessori.school.



At my kid's school, the special needs teachers are all Montessori trained. I've observed the classroom and having an aide working with certain kids on reading within the classroom in no way disrupts the 3 hour work period for the other kids, and because they are Montessori trained their interventions are all within the general approach to Montessori too (the kid has some choice over what they work on and for how long). In fact, in my kid's elementary classroom there have been up to three other special needs teachers or aides in addition to the main guide. It works very smoothly.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 09:26     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Breakthrough parents and parents to be, congrats. You have a special opportunity to help make your school the best it can be. Might I recommend you all take deep breaths, remind yourselves that teaching 3 and 4 year olds to polish plates might be important--not is not complicated--and focus your sights on making sure the elementary program develops as you would have it.

Seriously, larlo will be fine.

Unless he eats a lot of glue.


I'm sure Breakthrough will have the healthiest glue available.

Very much agree that public Montessori can go off the rails in elementary.

My kid attended a public Montessori and was found to have a specific reading learning disability. Thank goodness it was a 'strict' Motessori as he needed pullout and push-in reading interventions in a specific evidence-based program and help from a non-Montessori reading specialist. He wasn't the only one. If they hadn't adjusted the curriculum he would have continued to fail miserably.

Montessori materials and methods have limits and public schools must meet the needs of the students who are enrolled under the law. Sometimes that means deviating from AMI best practices. That is fine with me.


The WHOLE point of Montessori is that it meets the needs of the child and enables them to excel to the best of their ability and go wherever their abilities take them. Meeting the needs of the child should always be part of AMI best practices. I'm glad your kid got the help that he needed. They also do pullout reading interventions at my child's school (and other activities for those with learning disabilities), which is a public Montessori, and I'm pretty sure they will at Breakthrough too.


Thanks. I get a little sensitive when I read posts on this and other threads about how something can't be Montessori if an aide or specialist without Mont certification works in the classroom and it concerns me. The best place for my kid and most kids with disabillities to be is in the classroom, getting support in their environment. So in our case an OT, SLP and reading specialist came in the class and worked with him on Montessori lessons and non-Montessori activities 3-4 hours a week, and he left the classroom for another hour. These adults were all respectful and tried to be non-intrusive to the community but they were there, which is not recommended and certainly wouldn't have happened in a private Montessori.school.

Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 09:12     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Breakthrough parents and parents to be, congrats. You have a special opportunity to help make your school the best it can be. Might I recommend you all take deep breaths, remind yourselves that teaching 3 and 4 year olds to polish plates might be important--not is not complicated--and focus your sights on making sure the elementary program develops as you would have it.

Seriously, larlo will be fine.

Unless he eats a lot of glue.


I'm sure Breakthrough will have the healthiest glue available.

Very much agree that public Montessori can go off the rails in elementary.

My kid attended a public Montessori and was found to have a specific reading learning disability. Thank goodness it was a 'strict' Motessori as he needed pullout and push-in reading interventions in a specific evidence-based program and help from a non-Montessori reading specialist. He wasn't the only one. If they hadn't adjusted the curriculum he would have continued to fail miserably.

Montessori materials and methods have limits and public schools must meet the needs of the students who are enrolled under the law. Sometimes that means deviating from AMI best practices. That is fine with me.


The WHOLE point of Montessori is that it meets the needs of the child and enables them to excel to the best of their ability and go wherever their abilities take them. Meeting the needs of the child should always be part of AMI best practices. I'm glad your kid got the help that he needed. They also do pullout reading interventions at my child's school (and other activities for those with learning disabilities), which is a public Montessori, and I'm pretty sure they will at Breakthrough too.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 08:59     Subject: Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:Ok folks, I'm not the OP but gonna make a request: a number of us are checking and contributing to this thread because we have a big decision to make about our kids. We want to make the right choice for us so many of the contributions have been really useful so thank you for that.

However, some contributions seem like they might belong more on threads where snarky fights about some dog whistle issues are being debated.

I'm sure some will rip my head off but it's getting a bit challenging to wade through the fighting on things only tangentially related to Breakthrough.

Could you please kindly consider focusing on topics that can help parents with this decision?

Thank you for your consideration.



Thank you, I was too busy cursing to think of such a thoughtful response to this thread being hijacked like this.

Breakthrough was high on my list because being in a Montessori school was worth the risk of enrolling in an unproven school. I am amazed at all the speculation about a school that is not even in the building.

Mayou all of our 3 and 4 year Olds be saner than us.....
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 06:58     Subject: Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Ugh - thank good it was NOT a strict ...
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2016 06:57     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Anonymous wrote:Breakthrough parents and parents to be, congrats. You have a special opportunity to help make your school the best it can be. Might I recommend you all take deep breaths, remind yourselves that teaching 3 and 4 year olds to polish plates might be important--not is not complicated--and focus your sights on making sure the elementary program develops as you would have it.

Seriously, larlo will be fine.

Unless he eats a lot of glue.


I'm sure Breakthrough will have the healthiest glue available.

Very much agree that public Montessori can go off the rails in elementary.

My kid attended a public Montessori and was found to have a specific reading learning disability. Thank goodness it was a 'strict' Motessori as he needed pullout and push-in reading interventions in a specific evidence-based program and help from a non-Montessori reading specialist. He wasn't the only one. If they hadn't adjusted the curriculum he would have continued to fail miserably.

Montessori materials and methods have limits and public schools must meet the needs of the students who are enrolled under the law. Sometimes that means deviating from AMI best practices. That is fine with me.
Anonymous
Post 04/12/2016 22:25     Subject: Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
1) Start a PTA ASAP
2) Remember you are a school in a city who has a prescribed philosophy. You chose Montessori. Don't agitate for music, arts, drama, language. Montessori is your lane right now.
3) Make sure kids get outside. Lots. As much as you can.
4) You are a charter school in a large city. Hold administration accountable for recruiting in a diversity of locations.
Anonymous
Post 04/12/2016 22:16     Subject: Re:Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
Breakthrough parents and parents to be, congrats. You have a special opportunity to help make your school the best it can be. Might I recommend you all take deep breaths, remind yourselves that teaching 3 and 4 year olds to polish plates might be important--not is not complicated--and focus your sights on making sure the elementary program develops as you would have it.

Seriously, larlo will be fine.

Unless he eats a lot of glue.
Anonymous
Post 04/12/2016 19:55     Subject: Breakthrough Montessori Family Orientation
There is only so much to say about an unproven school that hasn't opened yet.

Who is managing the school, whether their actions are adhering to the plans their outlined in their charter application and their approach to Montessori practices is fair game.