Our children are back on campus and classes are in full stride! The month of August brought many exciting updates, along with some hiccups. Our entire community has worked together to overcome these challenges with grace and strength.
The Toddler and Children’s House Village East looks very different from our last update – there is now a roof, walls, windows, and doors! Inside, the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical have all been set and the workers are finishing up with the drywall. In addition, the road that runs in front of the Main Building has been torn up to make way for new utilities and a new road has been paved in its place.
Our entire school community had the opportunity to experience the unpredictable nature of renovations when the power was lost on the first day of school. Our children were excited to learn about the ins and outs of construction and it was a beautiful day to be outside, so it was a harmless inconvenience. Since then, things have been running smoothly!
We are all looking forward to moving into the new building in November.
The Faculty and Staff of Greenspring Montessori School have had quite a busy summer. Guides and assistants traveled as far as Ohio, Connecticut, and even Prague to learn from seasoned Montessorians. Learn more about their exciting experiences below.
Elliot Dickson, Adolescent Guide, traveled to Hershey, Ohio, to attend the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association Orientation. He writes:
“I attended Hershey Montessori School, a farm school that was the first school to implement Maria Montessori’s full vision for an adolescent community. At Hershe, I attended lectures given by veteran Montessori guides and got to experience the life of an adolescent as I balanced academic work with chores on the farm and in community spaces. The training gave me a holistic view of human development and how Montessori’s vision for community learning can best support the developmental needs and characteristics of children and adolescents at each stage of life. I also came to better understand how our own adolescent community at Greenspring can fully meet the needs of the adolescents while also preparing them for the young adults they want to grow to be. After two years at Greenspring and thirteen years in education, the learning and time for reflection was a true gift. ”
The picture is of all 60+ attendees (from the U.S., Australia, Sweden, Mexico, Romania, China, and Germany) and faculty.
Marketa Traband, Children’s House Guide, ventured to Prague to attend the International Montessori Conference. The topic for this year’s conference is
Pathway to Peace: Montessori Education for Social Change. She was so inspired by her trip and the international community of Montessorians, and she is excited to utilize her new understanding in the classroom this year.
Lee Lanou, Director of Children’s House and Director of Training at the Maryland Center for Montessori Studies, continued her AMI Primary training at Greenville Montessori Institute in South Carolina.
Already AMS certified, Lee is deepening her Montessori practice and gaining a better understanding of the unique teachings of the AMI curriculum. She said, “Training is a wonderfully intense, fulfilling, and filling experience. By the end of 8 weeks, my brain was completely full! Having had the AMS Primary training in 1989, this training has served as a wonderful refresher, rich in Montessori theory and practice.”
Marcela Daley, Spanish Enrichment Guide, attended the Summer Assistants Course at Washington Montessori Institute in Columbia, Maryland. She was enthusiastic to share, “The
training provided great information helping me with a better understanding, not just about the
Montessori philosophy, but about the needs and expectations of the child from 6-12. I am excited to put in practice all the learning and use it during the Spanish time with the students.”
“I greatly enjoyed my time training at Mid-America Montessori Teacher Training Institute in Omaha, NE for three intense weeks this past July. I had the opportunity to study both infants and toddlers. During my training, we made materials, practiced lessons and created practical yet thorough albums. I brainstormed new ideas with both my teachers and my classmates. Overall it was a wonderful experience that gave me a more complete understanding of the importance and beauty of a Montessori education.”
Two new staff members, Monique Crabb, Dual Language Children’s House Assistant, and Shweta Santosh, Floating Assistant, began
their AMS Early Childhood training at our very own Maryland Center for Montessori Studies. Both are looking forward to pairing their knowledge from training with real-world implementation in the classroom.
11 other team members – including Lead Guides, Assistants, and Administrators – attended conferences and trainings, bringing back a wealth of knowledge on Montessori practice. We are looking forward to a fantastic year of continued growth!
In June, our building project hit full stride – we have seen walls literally pop up overnight! Although many of our families and staff are off for the summer, our construction continues on and it is great to see the amazing progress.
The half of the Multipurpose Building that is being renovated was stripped down to the bones, windows, siding, and interior framing then took place in this side – making it even easier to picture the spacious, bright Toddler and Children’s House classrooms that are soon to occupy the space. In the east side, the cement floors were poured, steel beams were installed, and the exterior framing is going up. On the other side of campus, workers are digging a trench for utilities.
In the coming weeks, the sheathing, siding, and roof will go up on the new building, providing a true vision of the exterior of our new Toddler and Children’s House Village East. In addition, the construction crew will continue to work on utilities, with their trench extending into the road in front of the Main Building. If you are attending any of our summer programs, please be on the lookout for a revised traffic pattern.
To learn more about our building project, please visit the Capital Project landing page, and feel free to stop by to see the spectacle for yourselves!
If you have been on campus in the past two weeks, you may have seen a very exciting change – the east side of our Multipurpose Building has been demolished! Much to the delight of our children, the excavator began taking down the building in the morning last week. Children gathered in the center island to watch the entire process.
Since then, the construction workers have been busy clearing the rubble from the area and continuing the soft demolition of the rest of the Multipurpose Building. The spaces formally known as the Multipurpose Room and the Blue Room will be completely renovated to make way for a Toddler and Children’s House Village. Once the debris from the east side is removed, the foundation and framing will begin for additional classrooms.
We are excited to see such progress on our busy campus!
It has been a couple of months since we have started construction at Greenspring Montessori School. While much of the work still remains behind the scenes (interior demolition of the Multipurpose Building, relocation of wiring, new water pipes for the Student Activity Center, finishing up the storm water management pond), there are still many very real signs of construction on campus!
Classes have ventured to get a closer look at the jack hammer breaking up the underlying rock behind the Student Activity Center (and there is a lot of rock to break!). Toddlers have been learning the names of construction vehicles and tools. Children’s House students have been practicing their own construction skills in the classrooms with hammering, sawing, drilling, and safety lessons. Our play spaces and outdoor environments are getting new rocks and greenery that we have repurposed from the construction area.
In addition, we are looking ahead excitedly for the newly renovated classrooms. We have selected our tile and carpet samples, along with our wall colors! Our staff are also meeting to discuss the fixtures in our kitchens, restrooms, and classrooms. With this, we can begin to paint a picture in our minds of what the new buildings will look like.
Just imagine walking into the Toddler and Children’s House Village East (currently the Multipurpose Building), where the classrooms are all a buzz with activity. Large windows let natural light pour in on to the many Montessori materials neatly placed on the shelves. This building is completely new, but it fits in with the historic charm of the rest of campus. Clean cream walls and neutral flooring allows the room to fade away, so that the child’s work becomes the primary focus.
In all of the rooms, children move freely in between the indoor and outdoor environments. Outside, there is even more space for the children to garden, work with materials, and observe the great world around them.
The communal kitchens in each building will allow for all of our children and our faculty to bake and cook regularly, incorporating more fresh foods into their daily snacks.
All in all, these new villages will provide an immersive and fully-Montessori space for our children to grow and flourish.
In the coming weeks and months, we will begin to truly see this vision take shape. Once the interior demolition of the Multipurpose Building is complete and the storm water management pond is in place, the external demolition will begin. After that is cleaned up and hauled away, workers will start the framing of the new Village. We look forward to sharing more of this journey with our community this spring!
