We all have those moments, when it feels like you are banging your head against a concrete wall full of metal spikes. When it doesn't seem to matter how many times you speak, there is no one out there to listen.
This is true in everyday life but especially in the classroom. We all have those moments when we wonder where we have gone wrong and why these sweet children have suddenly turned into deaf monsters? I had this experience this week. It is nearly the end of term and we have had a very rainy miserable week. The children were fed up being indoors and I was fed up with having to talk ten times. It was a moment when it felt like there has been a mass memory wipe of all the rules and beautiful routines being established. Where has all the Montessori magic of an ordered class gone? I remember visiting a Montessori school when I was first qualified and it resembled this chaos. There were children choosing the simplest work or just wondering around with no visible purpose, the noise level was headache inducing and the classroom just looked a mess. I remember thinking 'how can this be a Montessori class with normalised children and an ordered environment?' What I didn't realise at the time, when I judged the school far too harshly in my mind, was that life happens. Montessori has ideals that we strive for but every classroom in the world has days like mine. I stood amongst the chaos in my class and took a deep breath and instead of blaming myself, I decided to forgive myself. These are young children and it is okay to have days like this sometimes. So instead of trying to force these full of unused energy bouncing beans to sit and work; I asked everyone who wanted to use some energy to stand up. I put my CD player on and we danced for about twenty minutes. Did this help our math lesson plan or teach us a new grammar symbol? No. Did it help the sanity of everyone involved, I think so. I think we need moments like this. We need to get over ourselves and our perfect ideals. We are not perfect and neither is life. Some moments we just have to go with the flow and be happy in our imperfection.