Sunday, September 5, 2010

Montessori in Utah


Hi all,
 I would like to start a list of Montessori schools and organizations
by state, province or country. Please send your list by commenting on
this post. Since Utah is my home state at present, I will start here:


http://www.evergreen-montessori.com/
http://www.montessoriutah.com/
http://www.utahmontessori.org/
http://www.montessorislc.com/
http://mydancingmoose.com/
http://www.montessori-at-riverton.org/index.html
http://www.soaringwings.org/
http://www.millsmontessorischool.org/
http://www.anotherwaymontessori.org/
http://www.newdiscoverymontessori.com/
http://www.dayspringmontessori.com


 Utah Montessori Council
Thursday, 19 March 2009 07:57 | Written by Duna Strachan
USA: Utah

The Utah Montessori Council was founded in 2004 with the intent

of creating a support network for Utah Montessorians.  The

Montessori movement has been growing in Utah since the early

1980’s and today there are about 40 schools in the state.  Most of

these schools are small and find it difficult to send teachers out of

state to training programs and professional conferences.  The UMC

set out to provide support accessible to every Montessorian in the

state beginning by offering an annual professional conference.

In establishing an annual conference the objective was to keep

costs low so that every director, administrator, teacher, assistant

and parent could afford to attend. The first conference offered a

variety of workshops presented by local talent and was attended

by 100 enthusiastic fans of Montessori. Registration was kept at

$50 per person which included an evening of registration,

appetizers and a school tour as well as a full day of workshop

options, lunch and snacks.  In February the UMC held its 6th annual

conference featuring keynote speaker Catherine McTamaney,

author of The Tao of Montessori.  This was attended by 200

participants including some from neighboring states. Because of

members volunteering their labor registration remains at $50 per

person.

New to the UMC this year is a website with links to all member

schools and services (www.utahmontessori.org). The group is also

offering consulting services and a UMC school certification

program that meets or exceeds local state daycare standards. 

UMC Treasurer, Bruce King, spent long hours testifying before the

state legislature and committees over the past year to speak up

for the self-regulation of private schools. He was successful in

establishing an exemption for Utah Montessori schools. He took

the idea a step further and created a series of certification

programs demonstrating the health, safety and environmental

consciousness of qualifying schools. “The next time this subject

comes up before the legislature,” King says, “we’ll have our own

certification programs in place which will demonstrate our ability to

remain self-regulating.”

Contact Duna Strachan at duna@soaringwings.org

No comments:

Post a Comment