Friday, March 11, 2011

Big's BIG Moment - MPS Board Hearing April 2011

My name is -<B-I-G>
I am a 4th grade student from a <milwaukee public montessori school>.

I have been at <a milwaukee public montessori school> since I was 3 years old.  It was during this early childhood educational time that I learned how to write the letters of the alphabet, began exploring how words are created, I learned practical life skills like sorting and organizing.  I learned to share in hospitality, interact with my classmates with kindness and how to learn about the world by exploring it.

Now, I have never been to any other type of school.  So I guess I cannot say if it is better at Montessori than traditional school.  I can say that my school works!  It works for all types of kids, all types of learners and it really sets the stage for a lifetime of learning.

My school has changed a lot since I was a K3.  We now have very little gym or art time.  We have lost most of our teaching assistants in the upper grades and next year we are looking at having to dismantle some of our classroom communities because we may be losing some teachers.  I know many other schools will have cuts to their services too.  I hope you will look at the programs and schools that are working and help them to continue to be successful.

I would like my school to have these very basic requests:
Classrooms with teachers with 30 kids per class (10 from each age group by level)
One paraprofessional per classroom every morning every day to assist with the lessons and reinforce the policies of the class
Those same paras would go on in the afternoons to help with recess and lunch and be those special trusted adults every school needs
We would have gym two times per week
We would have art at least one time per week
Finally- our teachers and leaders would be able to implement our Montessori program and train our Montessori teachers in a way that enhances our good thing.

If you strip away all of the things that make our specialty school – a Montessori school- you will find us to be a bunch of kids sitting on rugs with a bunch of beads and some really nice textbooks.

Our school logo has the words: Discover, Grow, Achieve, Inspire.  Those things go on at my school everyday, even with cut after cut.
I ask the Board to help us continue to Discover, Grow, Achieve and Inspire they way we have been.    THANK YOU.

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