NHMA Meetings
New Hampshire teachers meet for theme-based discussions, visit various New Hampshire Montessori classrooms and schools and attend workshops for state required credits with certified professionals. We had our first conference in the summer of 2006 with a Montessori trainer who gave a overview and review of the Montessori math materials. We have had quarterly meetings and workshops since that time at various members' schools.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
NH Montessori Association presents
The Nurtured Heart Approach in Classroom Settings
Saturday, October 22, 2011
9:00am-1:00pm
A Lakes Region Montessori School, New Hampton NH
About the Workshop
The Nurtured Heart Approach was developed in the mid 90’s and has proven to have resounding results in working with children who have challenging behaviors. It is an approach that parents can use at home. It is also an approach that has tremendous impact in the learning environment as well. Schools that have adopted this approach have found that bullying goes away, teachers feel very effective, need for medication referrals go way down, but most importantly children feel empowered as learners. The basic premise of the Nurtured Heart Approach is around the relationship we develop with our students which chooses to focus our intense attention on them when they are being successful while simultaneously avoiding intense attention to poor choices by giving the poor behavioral choices an unceremonious consequence. Children respond well to this approach because as they say it feels fair. Teachers love this approach because they feel very effective in keeping misbehaviors to a minimum.
For more information visit, www.difficultchild.com
Dorothy Derapelian, M. Ed, LCMHC has been in private practice in the field of mental health for over 25 years in Meredith NH. She is the creator of Core Attachment Therapy. She specializes in play therapy and attachment related issues with individuals and families. Dorothy also teaches several classes for Granite State College in the Education and Training Partnership. You can learn more about her and her practice at www.coreattachmenttherapy.com.
Location:
The workshop will be held at A Lakes Region Montessori School, 60 Shingle Camp Hill Road, New Hampton 03256.
Cost:
The cost will be $40.00 per attendee*, payable to NHMA and includes instruction, a book and handouts.
*An alternate option will be for a school to pay full price for one attendee, and pay $20.00 for each other staff member from the same program to receive instruction but not the printed materials.
To register please rsvp to Laura: Info@NH-Montessori.org
======================================================================
NHMA Board Meeting
Monday, June 13th 2011
Present: Laura Mammarelli (President), Erin Woo (Treasurer), Chris Brown (Secretary), Gail Bannon (Membership Secretary), Deb Hogan (IT guru!).
Principal agenda item: Website, uses and regular servicing.
A wide ranging discussion ensued on how we use the various current technologies to provide for the needs of the organization.
Principle items that were agreed on:
a) Website should provide a link between member schools and possible parents/employees.
c) There is a need for authentic Montessori communication between teachers, and possibly between school administrators. Deb will set up a Constant Contact account for NHMA. We will also make sure that communication from NHMA is tailored to our Montessori membership.
d) The possibility of a teachers' blog that was discussed. Also a monthly newsletter is being considered that would be posted on the website, again just once a month, with all relevant information in it, to avoid overloading members' in-boxes too much.
Administrators may set up a "linked-in" account to communicate between each other. and once some of these changes are in place, we may use Survey Monkey to get feedback from members.
submitted by Chris Brown
======================================================================
March 2011 Meeting Notes
Meet NHMA
March 25, 2011
Newport Montessori School
Annual Meeting
Present: Janice Nichipor, Sher Loomis, Juliet Fleischer, Erin Woo, Jordan McDaniel, Christy Whipple, Laura Mammarelli
1. We accepted the minutes from the last meeting.
2. We proposed that we have one person manage certain areas, with others contributing.
Membership-Gail Bannon
Website-Laura Mammarelli will work on bringing someone in on maintaining the website.
Workshop planning.
NHMA organization events.
3. Erin presented the financial information and the list of current members.
4. For Gail, Laura presented the new brochures Gail has designed and printed, costing the organization nothing. They will be shared at meetings and mailed to schools to encourage members. Gail will work on building membership in the summer.
5. Laura will work on compiling school information in an excel spread sheet during the summer. (Thank you to Carol Dodge at Newport Montessori for sharing her document that we can use). We will work on updating the website.
6. We will discuss whether we want to continue with quarterly workshops, or try a larger, annual event, incorporating the annual meeting.
7. Members will vote by email for officers this month:
President-Laura Mammarelli
Vice president-Juliet Fleischer
Treasurer-Erin Woo
Secretary-Chris Brown
Membership coordinator-Gail Bannon.
8. The officers will meet in June to plan for the next year.
9. Those present felt that the statewide open house has not been as effective as expected-mostly because the scheduling is not convenient for different programs.
10. We would like to continue with participating in the International Day of Peace in September, which schools promote in their own communities.
11. When the next meeting is planned the announcement will be sent to the email list.
Submitted by Laura Mammarelli