Erasmus Bilingual Montessori Project Newsletter no. 2

Greetings to all of you from the Bilingual Montessori project team! 

As we are entering a new school year, we are happy to share news about the progress of our project work during the last couple of months. 

If you missed our first newsletter, here is a quick summary of what the Bilingual Montessori project is all about: 

Supported by Erasmus+ funding, an international group of experts, including AMI Trainers, school administrators, Montessori guides and ESL teachers, are working on developing a design process methodology and an online course on how to build bilingual Montessori programs. The project started in February 2022 and will run for 3 years. All outcomes of the Erasmus funded activities will be shared free of charge. 

We will keep you, our beloved global Montessori community, informed about all developments, activities and outcomes in this newsletter. If you have colleagues and friends whom you know could benefit from this work, please, resend them this newsletter. They can subscribe here. 

And here is the promised report: 

PAST EVENTS:
The Basics of Bilingual Montessori Lecture series

In the spring, the project team organized a unique series of lectures on basics of bilingual education in Montessori schools. 

What was so unique about it? 

The four talks combined the perspectives of AMI Montessori methodology, second language scientific research, with the perspectives of Montessori guides, school administrators and second language teachers across all of the planes of development. It is the first time in the history of a global Montessori community that this dialog is being held. 

Lectures were given by three AMI Trainers: Heidi Philippart spoke about core Montessori principles of language learning in children 0-3 years of age, followed by Teng-Chien Yu, an AMI 3-6 Trainer, and Kyla Morenz, AMI 6-12 Trainer. The series was started by professor Aoife Ahern from the Department of Language Pedagogy at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 

We will continue to lead this dialogue during the whole period of our project. If you missed the series and you want to watch the recording, you can purchase access here. The proceeds from the event will be used to co-finance our Erasmus funded project work, outcomes of which will be shared freely as we go. 

Bilingual Montessori Deep Dive 1

In June 2022 we held our first Transnational Project Meeting which took place at The Montessori Farm of Montessori Schools Andílek. We thank the adolescent students for letting us use their beautiful land and premises for this working session. 

View more photos from our first deep dive meeting below. We drafted a basic vision for the research which needs to happen in bilingual Montessori schools. We started a discussion on basic bilingual Montessori terminology, relating Montessori with Second Language Acquisition. As you know, bilingual education means many different things to many people and there is a strong need for a unified vocabulary. We created a timeline and basic vision for The Bilingual Montessori Design Process Fieldbook, which will be one of the basic outcomes of the project. And we drafted a vision for the online course for teams and individuals who are working in bilingual schools and wish to improve their practice. 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 
Bilingual Montessori Deep Dive 2

In November 2022 we will reunite for our second deep dive into the topic of building bilingual elementary programs. The event will again be held in the Czech Republic near Prague. Our goal is to create structure of the fieldbook and continue to develop all other outcomes of the project. 

HOW YOU CAN ENGAGE AND HELP: 

• Send this newsletter to your colleagues and friends who are also working in this field and could benefit from it. 
• Send us your school information – the name of the school, a website, and contact information – if you are building a bilingual program and feel you can add value to our project. 
• Contact us if you are an ESL teacher in a Montessori school. We want all voices to be heard and we are looking for experienced ESL trainers and second language practitioners working in Montessori settings. 
• Give us a shout if you have any questions, ideas, thoughts which can help us create all this for the global Montessori community :). We want to include you in the project! If you think you have something valuable to contribute and would like to be considered as part of our fieldbook, let us know about it! 

WHAT ARE WE SHARING WITH YOU?

Download this free outline of the basics of bilingual education by Dr. Aoife Ahern, a professor from the Department of Language Pedagogy at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 

Thank you. On behalf of the Bilingual Montessori team, Miroslava Vlčková

Contact email for all communication regarding the project is amy.tobias@amiprague.cz.