✉️Newsletter: Make your Montessori dream come true in 2023!
Dear Montessori friends and colleagues around the world,
I just came back from our farm. I am sitting in front of my computer, thinking about you and about something nice and encouraging to say to you at the start of the year.🤗
At the farm, I took a small walk around the property, thinking about the past year and about what is to come in 2023. Just the other day during our team meeting, we shared that 2022 felt like a “shitty” year to us (forgive me the language, but there is just simply no better word :).
And, so I was thinking, was it a “shitty” year?
One could certainly think that, right? Just as the world got out of covid, without having a moment to take a breath, the war broke out in Ukraine, prices of everything increased, and everyone was having a lot of anxiety about the future. Hmm, I am thinking to myself. When a crisis hits, there are several ways humans can react. We freeze, run away or fight, making the crisis an opportunity for growth.
I personally, for a moment there at the beginning of 2022, felt like giving up completely.
My health was compromised, and it just all seemed like too big of a job. But then, who else is supposed to make it through this crisis, if not Montessori Institute Prague with its most amazing team, right? We wanted to encourage people and show that it is possible to keep going and helping others, no matter what…
So, we got to work.
We hosted 10 AMI Assistant Certificate Courses (they are now called Orientations), we announced a new 3-6 AMI Diploma course (last chance to join, module 1 is held fully online), we finished our 0-3 Diploma Course with the most amazing trainer in the world, Heidi Philippart (waiting list for the next one is here), and our students in this course had the highest marks in exams I have ever seen, in spite of all adversities they had to fight.
We also held an AMI Administrators Course in a new wonderful hybrid format, so people who could not come were able to take the course from the comfort of their homes and people who could come came to MIP and created a wonderful community together with the online people.
We organized numerous very accessible, highest-quality professional development events, and we launched a video library where you can watch events and courses which you missed.
Oh, and I mustn’t forget my love project, we co-designed absolutely fabulous cloth washing, dishwashing and handwashing stands for 0-3 and 3-6 environments and we are now selling them all around the globe.
And, there is more!
We gave you a gift – a free 6-hour course on Montessori and Formative Assessment lectured by our amazing friend Letty Rising.
If you want to see our 3-6 and 6-12 environments, you can take a 3d tour of our training centre here. And if you have heard how fabulous our 0-3 environment is, you can take a look here. When Judi Orion visited MIP a couple of months ago, she said to me that our 0-3 environment is probably the most beautiful environment she has ever seen. Wow, what an honour, right!!!!
We also won a large three-year grant from Erasmus, to work on building Bilingual Montessori Elementary programs. The project has a new website and all outcomes that we will create together with our partners in Spain, Estonia and France will be freely accessible for no charge. Stay tuned for that.
And, I cannot forget!!!, we bought a farm and a huge piece of land for our Montessori Andílek school and we are hosting AMI 12-18 Orientation courses there, together with our students! And, you can rent it too, for a school retreat or an event, or a family vacation, if you wish!
From 2008, when I started our school as a small family centre, I went to opening a Primary Program in 2009, to hosting the first AMI 3-6 Diploma Course for Central and Eastern Europe in 2010, to opening an Elementary program in our School in 2013, to hosting the AMI Congress in 2017 which was attended by 2 000 Montessorians from the whole world, to opening an Adolescent Program in 2019 and to buying the farm for our students in 2021, and to MIP as you know it today, always being there, working to support you in your amazing work, leading the way and shining the light of hope and inspiration on all of our paths.
2022 was a year of good service, it was not a “shitty” year at all…
So let’s continue our journey in 2023 together, and let’s celebrate that we are blessed to do this amazing work…
We have a new set of Orientation Courses, Diploma Courses and Events ready for you, you can check and mark your calendars for what is of interest to you.
But before I finish, two more things.
I have been receiving many emails from you, asking me to help you start your own Montessori organizations, and learn how to write grant applications to help you with funding your start-ups. Having reflected on all the work I have done since day 1, when I was a mother pregnant with a child and not having a penny, but having a big dream, to bring Montessori to you all, I decided it is time I share my knowledge and expertise with you. I know I can help you and you have been asking me for this so much!
It took me 14 years to get where I am. It does not have to take you that long at all, with the right support. I agree with you!
If you have a big dream on your own if you are thinking of opening your own Montessori school or a Montessori organization of some other kind, a training centre, or some type of a Montessori business, come and work with me. I WILL help you jumpstart your vision and make your dream come true!! I am so happy you asked me to do this :)!
I am starting a 6-week group online mentoring program for 6 wonderful and courageous people (starting already in January!), and I am calling it Make Your Montessori Dream Come True in 2023!
You will be able to pick my brain and learn from my story and from my lessons. We will look at your vision, you will create a mission statement, I will help you with a feasibility study and you will walk away with a core of a business plan, encouraged, and ready to do it.
Like I did it. I made my dream come true in 14 years. You can do it too! And much faster! Because you do not have to do it alone! You can benefit from all that I have done and learned myself.
So, if you want to work with me to make your dream come true, email me at miroslava.vlckova@amiprague.cz. I will share more about what I need from you to consider you for this group of 6 motivated people who will be mentored by me. I cannot wait to hear from you and about your big dream! Write to me. We are starting very soon!
And, the second thing – it is very important to me.
Please, share this letter with your colleagues and friends. We want EVERYONE to know that we are here to help, that you have friends in Prague, and that you are not alone. Nobody out there needs to be alone, if you just share and help them know about us.
Sharing is Caring! We trust that you will share and become part of our work this way.
With much love and gratitude to you, for being able to do this amazing work, for my team, for our trainers and speakers, for everything we have received, and for everything we will be able to give to you in 2023.
May your dreams grow big like this apple tree which our students planted at our farm.🤗
Please, share this letter with your colleagues and friends. We want EVERYONE to know that we are here to help, that you have friends in Prague, and that you are not alone. Nobody out there needs to be alone, if you just share and help them know about us.
Sharing is Caring! We trust that you will share and become part of our work this way.
With much love and gratitude to you, for being able to do this amazing work, for my team, for our trainers and speakers, for everything we have received, and for everything we will be able to give to you in 2023.
May your dreams grow big like this apple tree which our students planted at our farm.🤗
Best wishes!
Yours,
Mirka
