Montessori Training for Teachers’ Professional Development

Teacher training is a continuous process that includes initial education, induction, and ongoing professional development. It is closely linked to ensuring quality education and positive learning outcomes. Namaste Nepal has been dedicated to providing quality education in rural areas for over 15 years. As teaching methods continue to evolve with the changing times, Namaste Nepal organized a three-week Montessori Express training for Early Child Development (ECD) teachers. This training was part of our Education Improvement Project, which is funded by Wacker’s Group through Namaste Nepal S-GmbH-Freiberg aiming to improve the professional development and teaching methods of existing teachers in our project partner schools. In addition, we’ve included teachers from Dansing and Shyang in our training program with partial funding from AG Nepal’s annual budget.

Teachers are required to go through training for educational excellence. The Teacher Training Program plays a vital role in reform in the education world. Teachers must keep themselves updated with the changing environment like any other professional. The training program is helpful for teachers in improving their efficiency, ability, knowledge, and professionalism/motivation for their work. The training was conducted by Best’s Montessori Training Center from 20^th July 2022 to 8^th August 2022. Best’s Montessori Training Center is one of the reputed Montessori training centres in Kathmandu. This training was conducted in Kathmandu as it was not feasible to conduct the training in the project area since various sources and different levels of manpower were required to conduct training.

Opening Ceremony of Montessori Express Training:

A formal opening of the Montessori Express training took place on July 20th, 2022 at the Best Montessori Training Center in Kathmandu. The program started with an introduction session, allowing everyone to get to know each other. Mr. Nima Tshering Lama, the Project Coordinator, hosted the event, and Mr. Mohan Lal Shrestha, the President of Namaste Nepal, lit the candle to commence the program. Mr. Vishow Raj Gyawali, the General Secretary, formally welcomed the training participants and shared the history and accomplishments of Namaste Nepal. He emphasized the importance of solid education foundations and how Montessori teachers play a significant role in strengthening them. Mrs. Griha Laxmi Tamang, the Treasurer of Namaste Nepal, urged every participant to apply the skills learned in the Montessori Training in the project partner schools. Mr. Sanjay Phinjo Lama, the director of Best Montessori, explained the history of the Training Institute and motivated participants about the importance of Montessori training. Mrs. Sushma Lama, the education director of Best Montessori, shared short motivational stories in her speech to inspire the teachers to become skilled educators. Early childhood education is crucial for children’s development, providing a solid base for lifelong learning and cognitive and social abilities. It also supports children’s transition to school. In his speech, the NN president, Mr. Mohan Lal Shrestha, talked about the impact that Best Montessori education has brought to the Barhabise municipality. Thanks to the trained Montessori teachers provided by Best Montessori, children are learning through a modern approach. He expressed his gratitude to their development partner for funding essential training that leads to quality education in the project partner schools. After the opening ceremony, the Montessori training began, and Mrs. Sushma Lama and Namrata Amatya were the facilitators.

Montessori Training days:

Montessori is a method of education based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. The junior Montessori diploma course aims to develop in trainees (i.e. the participant teachers) a high level of professional competence as teachers of the Montessori Method to children from 2.5-6 yrs. The goal is to make trainees capable of making their students learn practically and gain an understanding of concrete concepts before moving on to more abstract ones.

On the first day of training, the teachers were introduced to the basic Montessori teaching materials and were taught the preliminary exercises such as carrying a mat, unrolling/rolling the mat, carrying a chair, sitting and standing from a chair, carrying a table, carrying a jug, carrying a tray etc. that should be conducted in the Montessori class. The primary purposes of the exercises were for better coordination of children’s physical movement, development of the muscles, and concentration. Green mat is considered a respected area where the teachers and kids perform teaching and learning exercises inside the Montessori classroom.

The teachers were taught to use the learning materials in the following days. Regarding the specific learning materials, the Montessori Method relies on certain types of materials, and they differ depending on the student’s age. For the youngest student, the first materials will tend to be those that provide real-world skills practically, such as using educational materials, household utensils, washing dishes, gardening, and more. Gaining these skills helps to develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination and also begins to expose the child to the process of selecting, setting up, completing, and cleaning up an activity. Next, the teachers were introduced to the sensorial materials that help to develop and strengthen the five senses. General activities of the sensorial section of the training were pairing cylinders with the same sounds together, the smell of different products, the taste of different flavours, choose and identifying different objects from bags without looking at them. After teaching the trainee the motor and sensorial skills, it was time to learn literacy curriculum, methods to teach phonics to the students, language and mathematics. For mathematics, the trainees are taught the process of teaching students about single digit numbers from the learning materials, and then they begin to learn larger quantities. All subjects in the academic curriculum are introduced with concrete materials. The participant’s teachers/trainees were taught about understanding child psychology. As the first essential for the child’s development is concentration, the trainees are also taught yoga sessions. Yoga’s emphasis on mindfulness can also guide a child’s emotional intelligence and self-regulation.

Another critical session the trainee attended during the training days was an orientation on parenting. A student’s academic and all-round development is not just up to the school. The parents need to be involved at every step so as to keep track of the progress in academic and extracurricular activities. The trainee learned about the significance of conducting parents-teachers meetings at school and consulted/counselled the parents about their roles and importance in the healthy development of child psychology.

Throughout the training for 21 days, the Project Coordinator and staffs of Namaste Nepal were always there to observe the training so that the participating teachers stayed motivated and focused on the training.

Closing Ceremony of Montessori Express Training:

On 9th August 2022, a closing ceremony of Montessori Express Training was held. The program begins after lighting the oil lamp by the founder president of Namaste Nepal Mr. Megh Ale. Then the program began after everyone sang the national anthem. Namaste Nepal board member Mr Budha Shrestha gave the opening speech. Then a demonstration of the Montessori teaching method was presented by the trainees/ participant teachers of the Montessori training. The entire participants beautifully presented their learning throughout the training days. Then the teachers received the training files records in four subjects: Practical Life Exercise (PLE), sensorial, language and math. The files contain over 1000 pictures of the course content learned during the Montessori training, which later helps the teachers with the task analysis. Later, a short speech was given by Namaste Nepal Treasurer Mrs. Griha Laxmi Tamang, Founder president Mr. Megh Ale, President Mr. Mohan Lal Shrestha and Education director of Best Montessori, Mrs. Susma Lama. Everyone congratulated our participant’s teachers for the successful completion of Montessori Training. As well as they requested all the teachers to use skills in practical life learned during Montessori training. Then, the participant’s teachers were provided with a certificate of the training with their evaluation paper. Each teacher has received a good grade on their evaluation given by Best Montessori Trainer. Similarly, a cloth bag and a teacher survival kit and cloth bags were distributed to the entire participants as a token of love from Namaste Nepal to carry out educational material prepared by teachers themselves to present to the students the teachers’ survival kits include all those stationery items teachers must have with them.

Lastly, a few participating teachers came up on stage and shared their learning experience and thanked the Namaste Nepal team and our development partner for providing teachers of our project schools support to become better and qualified teachers. The program concluded with group photos.