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Proposal Name: The Montessori School of Raleigh High School Proposal

Brought by: Morgan Hurt

Sponsored by: Julie Ruble, Mike Szott, Linda Flippo, Subhash Patel, Nick Smith, and Rose Barnett

Date of Creation: October 5, 2015

We bring a proposal to: design the Montessori School, while still keeping all the important aspects that make Montessori special. One of the most important things we are keeping into consideration is creating the school to still follow and continue the Montessori philosophy.

Background: 

Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children learned best by doing. Dr. Maria Montessori’s method is a method that we remain true in our everyday learning environment. Maria believed that children construct themselves through personal effort and engagement, the child in the prepared environment is free to move about and choose activities of his own interest. The prepared environment encourages exploration, movement, and focused activity, because children learn by doing. Montessori classrooms have multi-aged groupings, which reduce competition, provide each learner time to develop relationships with the teacher and one another, as well as to take on the role of both learner and teacher.

The Montessori School of Raleigh consists of 34 toddlers, 132 children’s housers, 40 first graders, 40 second graders, 29 third graders, 24 fourth graders, 32 fifth graders, 20 sixth graders, 12 seventh graders, 19 eighth years, and 8 ninth years, which comprise a total of 390 students.

Looking back a few years ago and seeing the Montessori School of Raleigh how little there was, and now looking at how much we have is astonishing. There was a time when MSR only went up until sixth grade. There was a time when the middle school did not exist. That all changed when one student decided to broaden our horizons and open up our minds to what could be.

This is the ninth years’ chance to make a permanent, life-changing mark on the school. This is the time when we get to be creative and show to others what changes we can make to our school that is much more efficient and special. We want to be those students that look back and think, “There was a time when the high school did not exist.

Mission Statement: 

The Montessori School of Raleigh is the Triangle’s modern embodiment and mindful practice of the time-proven Montessori philosophy, developing agile thinkers, poised communicators, and gracious collaborators -- engineers of authentic and fulfilling lives.

How this Proposal Fulfills the Mission: 

-keep mixing age groups

-independent learning style

-stay self disciplined

The high school will explore “developing agile thinkers” by supplying an outdoor classroom for every space. This will be an environment where students can quietly work on any assignments or projects that the teacher assigns them, whether it is independent or in a group. Montessori believes that the student should have the freedom to move around and work where they feel most comfortable and focused. The outdoor classroom is an important part to my proposal because this gives students the opportunity to work in a new space and it gives them the enjoyment of being outside. This space will also be completely visible from inside the classroom so the teacher can continue to keep a close eye on his or her students.

At the high school we will explore “authentic and fulfilling lives” by have two spaces for each subject. This belongs in my proposal because students should always feel comfortable with what they are leaning. In the lower elementary environments the student learns and receives information at their own pace. If they are ready for the next step they can continue learning at the rate they are going, but if they are not ready for the next step they can ask guidance from the teacher and respectfully move at the pace they feel safe in. Once you advance onto the middle school you are asked to move at the same rate as all of your peers, but for many students this can be a struggle. When we visited Lakewood Montessori, one of the special additions they incorporated into their school was a room with a dividing wall that separated the two sides. This is so there could be two levels of math occurring at the same time, in the same space. And if the teachers wanted both classes to work together all they had to do was remove the divider. I believe that we should use this technique in the high school for English, history/geography, Spanish, math, science, and biology so there could be multiple classes going on. Plus this would be a way to incorporate “honors” classes if we choose to offer that choice for the students.

Proposal:

In the end result we have accomplished our goal, building a high school while still meeting all the important aspects that make our school stand out. While still following the Montessori method and philosophy. Our intentions are to create a safe learning environment that meets all the standard must-haves while trying to incorporate new ideas from our very own faculty and administrative team. As each year passes, we watch the same kids start from the bottom and work their way up. We get to experience their weaknesses, challenges, and growth overtime. Whenever they are put into a specific situation we get to see what their immediate reaction is and what they plan to do. Montessori has the amazing opportunity to watch each and every kid that comes through grow from a little toddler to a young adult in a few short years. We want this community to be special place where children can come through and be given the best learning opportunities that we can provide.

When you first walk into my proposed high school, you will immediately be in the administrative office. There will be a desk for the receptionist and behind her will be a door that leads you to various offices for the administrative team. As you proceed on the right there will be a flight of stairs that take you to the classrooms, but as you keep proceeding forward you will come to the library/computer lab where students can peacefully work and research for any topic.

When you first walk up the stairs, there will be floor to ceiling cubbies lined up against the wall for each of the students. As you continue down the hallway, there will a classroom for science/biology where the walls will surround the space with cabinets and drawers for extra storage, and each of the lab tables will provide a sink for the use of any experiment. The next classroom will be math. There will be a different math classroom for each grade, which then will convert into eight classrooms with the dividing walls. Then comes Spanish, and the classroom will have round tables where students can face the teacher up at the board (this will be the same setting for the other side behind the accordion wall). The next room is history/geography which is similar to the Spanish room. And last but not least, the English room. This room will be the same setup as the math, Spanish, and history/geography room which will include space where the students can sit on the floor to have a discussion. Each of these classrooms will have floor to ceiling windows for maximum light, and each of these classrooms hold a large supply closet next to the teacher’s desk for plenty of storage. There will also be a wrap around “porch/patio” so that every classroom has an outdoor classroom. This whole space will be executed in the shape of a square, so you will wrap back around to the stairs.

Outside the administrative building there is another building. In this building you will first be open to the cafeteria where the students will receive their lunch daily. When you walk to the right there will be a door to the gym. This gym will be used for pep rallies, volleyball and basketball games, physical education (if it’s raining), and possibly school dances. When you walk into the gym there will be two doors for both the girls’ and the boys’ locker rooms.

The last building will hold the auditorium/theatre where students can put on performances for the school and parents. As you walk into this building there will be a flight of stairs to your right. When you reach the top there will be a room for chorus, band, art, and music. These spaces will also include lots of storage and natural light. When you go back to the auditorium/theatre space on the left there will be a room specially designed for storage, this room will hold janitorial supplies, school supplies, dance supplies, cleaning supplies. Really anything you could think of is being held in this space.

Our projected timetable is to have completed our whole process by the end of the year. Our process includes our brainstorming sheets, our original ideas, our proposals, our notes/pictures from visits, our resources, and our blueprints. Our projected budget is $7.5 million.

Environmental Stewardship:

In my proposed high school there will be lots of natural light flooding into every room possible. This will reduce the electricity bill because our source of light will be coming from the outdoor space. When we need the lights they will be motion-detected, which means when it detects movement the lights will automatically turn on; but when no one is in the classroom the lights will automatically shut off. This goes for the heating and air conditioning as well. When there is no one in the room the temperature will automatically reduce to the set temperature, and when there is someone in the classroom it will go back to the set temperature.

Process Review:

The process the ninth graders went through to gather all of our information was looking over all of our notes from Mr. Ammons's discussion where we talked about his experience and his tips to designing a space that is meant to last. The first field trip we took was our green residential and commercial tours where we toured a man’s home and a business building where we looked at their unique ways to conserve energy. Our second field trip was our school tours, when we visited Lakewood Montessori, Carolina Friends School, and NC Botanical Gardens to look at their buildings. Next came our brainstorming sheet on Edmodo, which is a website where we can virtually turn assignments in and have class discussions on. And our spreadsheet on google drive with suggestions from the faculty and administrative staff from both campuses.

I collected all of my notes and such and read through all of them to get an idea of what my ideal plans are for the high school. When I was done I re-read all of the ninth graders’ responses on the Edmodo conversation and then I re-read all of the responses from the faculty. Then I looked over all of my notes from all of our tours and talks. In biology I went through and read this website, called “Green Schools” to receive more information from the green school perspective.

Suggested Board Motions:

The board should read through all of our opinions and feedback and then hold a meeting with the other teachers to discuss their pros and cons from our ideas, and commit to a high school.

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