It was great seeing so many dear friends in Houston at the Refresher Course. Many of you asked me what I had been up to lately and I couldn’t think of a thing. We had just flown in from Mexico and I guess my mind was blank. So here’s to catching you up!

At Austin Montessori School I have been giving presentations to the parents on enriching home life so that it partners well with Montessori education. I have 25 or so topics that highlight and expand upon Montessori principles and practices related to meeting children’s needs through the prepared environment and prepared relationships at home. Click the “Presentations” tab for a complete list of topics. The guides of each of the six children’s houses and the three lower elementary classroom communities each makes a request of one presentation per year from this list. So that adds up to eight evenings a year!

Also at Austin Montessori School, I have been observing a lower elementary community to support the points given by the AMI consultant during the accreditation visit.

In an upper elementary community at our school, I am observing to photograph and document the self-managing procedures and customs in place that make it run so smoothly. We have already completed such documentation for the lower elementary level.

In Paris and Lyon, France, I have given a week-long workshop on the self-managing elementary classroom community, according to best AMI training and practices. I have supported this workshop intensively through a PowerPoint of photos and a collection of handouts.

One of the Paris workshop’s participants met Don and me in Houston at the Refresher Course to return with us for a week of observations at Austin Montessori School. She is also our house guest. Sandrine Mallet has had both primary and elementary levels of AMI training and years of practice. She has founded a nonprofit for finding and supporting Montessori initiatives in the poorest places in the world. Her website is www.kidsrfuture.org.

y book is scheduled for publication in French in September so I’ve dedicated considerable time to working with the second translator as she revises the work of the first translator. It is harrowing to think about the ravages that could be visited upon my stories of 38 children living and learning together in my self-managing lower elementary classroom community if the text is not translated just so, to say nothing of the Montessori phrasing and terminology.

I’ve also given keynotes and shorter workshops from time to time throughout the school year.

So that’s what I’ve been up to!