About Tall OaksAt Tall Oaks Montessori School, caring teachers trained in Montessori philosophy and technique prepare dynamic learning environments that encourage each child to reason, cooperate, collaborate, negotiate, and understand the world. The teachers guide each child's development as facilitators for learning: observing, giving lessons, and allowing the child to work towards his or her own greatest potential.
Tall Oaks Montessori School helps children build within themselves the foundation for a lifetime of creative learning. Each classroom offers a wide variety of Montessori materials, current educational supplies, and custom made materials where children are free to move toward work which stimulates and satisfies their inner motivations. The Montessori curriculum is organized as a continuum with one step building upon the previous one and mixed ages that promote an atmosphere of cooperation, teamwork, and peer teaching.
Our Montessori classrooms at Tall Oaks encourage the development of:
The skills learned here help Students thrive throughout their academic careers and life. Our school was started in 1976 in Blacksburg, Virginia by Christa Drummond to create a place of learning based on the Montessori philosophy for children ages 3 to 6 years old. Terry Cook, our current director, holds a degree in Education with a Masters in Curriculum Instruction. She is also trained in both 6-9 and 9-12 year old Montessori Elementary Education and has over 35 years of Montessori teaching experience. She began the Tall Oaks Montessori elementary program and eventually purchased the school in 1992. Over the years, the school has expanded its buildings and grounds to incorporate a beautiful outdoor environment and gardens.
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Montessori PhilosophyDr. Maria Montessori, the Italian pediatrician and founder of the philosophy that inspired Children's Houses around the world, believed that children posses an intrinsic desire to explore, discover and learn about their environment. A Montessori classroom is a
carefully prepared environment for learning. Our primary goal is to help each child reach his or her potential in all areas of life. The Montessori method is a comprehensive, carefully measured system created for the youngest of children and develops with them throughout childhood. The child, making use of all that he finds around him, shapes himself for the future. The Montessori Curriculum is organized as an inclined spiral plane of integrated studies, rather than a traditional model in which the curriculum is compartmentalized into separate subjects, with given topics considered only once at a given grade level. Lessons are introduced simply and concretely in the early years and are reintroduced several times over the years at increasing degrees of abstraction and complexity.
The Montessori course of study is an integrated thematic approach that ties the separate disciplines of the curriculum together into studies of the physical universe, the world of nature, and the human experience. Literature, the arts, history, social issues, civics, economics, science and the study of technology all complement one another in the Montessori curriculum. This integrated approach is one of Montessori's greatest strengths.
Learning the skills of everyday life in an atmosphere of kindness, community, and respect. Success in school is directly tied to the degree to which children believe that they are capable and independent human beings. As we allow students to develop a meaningful degree of independence and self-discipline, we also set a pattern for a lifetime of good work habits and a sense of responsibility.
In Montessori, students are taught to take pride in their work. Montessori students develop a clear sense of values and social conscience. Montessori consciously teaches students every day ethics and interpersonal skills from the beginning. Even the youngest child is treated with respect and dignity.
Further information about the Montessori method and philosophy:
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