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You may have imagined yourself a beloved teacher and guide, children gathered at your feet as you offered The truth is: teaching is hard. Our work as teachers is not measured day by day. Thank goodness. We would never see the growth.

This Saturday, if you're like most teachers, you find yourself away from school, maybe resting, maybe Except that, if you're like most teachers, taking this time for yourself can be tricky. administrator, can you take some time each day to visit each classroom and sit down for a cup of tea with a teacher for the classroom or an opportunity to take a longer lunch break while you cover the classroom for a teacher Make sure you acknowledge the good work teachers do every day... the hard days may draw our attention

We may wonder how come all those teachers on those online message boards seem to be doing it better than There's no text called, "All the Times It Didn't Work," in our teacher education programs. Even our strongest teacher educators are still working in the realm of hypothesis. Take time to reach out to your favorite teacher educators or to the teachers who touched your heart most When you reach out to one another, you remind the other teachers and parents and administrators around

contribute to the classroom as part of the prepared environment, the ways in which our work as peaceful teachers doing lots of pleasure reading these days and not spending quite so much time reading long essays on teaching While many great teachers are self-reliant, industrious and resourceful, remind yourself that you're

When I was a much younger teacher, I had a student enigma, one of those kids who, despite everything It was one of the hardest years of my teaching career, knowing there was a person inside of all the I relayed this story in the teachers' lounge one afternoon, as an example of one more thing this boy As Montessori teachers, we know all the philosophy and the ideals we're supposed to espouse. I'm talking about all the other times.)

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected We need to take care, though, when we're knee deep in the work of teaching and surrounded by so many They're real, complicated, challenging, inspiring people, walking together with us, connected with us They need also to be compassionate to the lives of the real people they serve, walking together on this

You've made it through those first few weeks, the crying children, the crying parents, the crying teachers Even when you've done everything a master teacher would do to prepare the perfect Montessori environment when we know the children less than we will later and when we are, more often than not, making our own teaching class that's still wobbly a few weeks in does not mean you're necessarily doing something wrong as a teacher That's why we ask teachers to commit to another year of teaching in May instead of September.

that expects us to spend so much time as one of a very small number of adults in the room, and not to talk Indeed, the child-centered nature of most Montessori classrooms can leave teachers needing more adult We don't always have to talk about work. It's ok to leave it back in your classroom sometimes. Organize a potluck lunch with the teachers who share your lunch schedule, or suggest a simple breakfast that each teacher can contribute to, or (gasp!)

Montessori teachers are often inundated with requests from people who want to observe our classrooms. children can learn lessons in grace, courtesy and boundary-setting is a natural part of the classroom that teachers Let your guests know if they happen to make eye contact with a teacher, a quiet wave is enough to signal If the teachers are otherwise engaged, instruct them to quietly leave the classroom. Welcoming guests is an important part of our work as Montessori teachers.

We know that part of our work as Montessori teachers is to observe children. You would use the muscles of your fingers, not your wrists or arms, for such a nuanced task. Talk with your coteachers or colleagues about what materials might be a good match for a child at a particular

door to the classroom to review briefly those guidelines and to predict how you might respond as a teacher "The classroom teacher is likely to be focused on the children. "I won't be able to chat with you while you're visiting, but I'd be happy to talk with you later in the If you have any questions, please write them down so we can talk about them when I am available later "I'd love to talk with you about that further.

We want other teachers around us to think we know what we're doing. In the midst of all the busy work, make time to connect with the other teachers around you. Take a break to invite another teacher to walk around the block with you and breathe in some fresh air , when the real, live, actual humans around us will be fundamentally critical to our persistence as teachers what you know about children's development and the materials you've received from parents and other teachers