We need your help!

I cannot emphasize enough our need of your help! We are committed to excellence as a society and are planning several steps of research to validate our work with children. The first step in the process is for each of you to complete the "Heads Survey" that was made available to you via Email and is also accessible through the AMS website. This component is crucial to securing the necessary funding for the rest of the project, and we are at a standstill until we have information from enough schools to have valid information.

Please go the the website (www.amshq.org) and download the survey. You can complete it on-line if you have the time to finish it and submit it. If you will need more time to work on it, please print a copy and work on it as you can, and then fax it back to our national office (212-358-1256). It is very important that you include any standardized test scores that you have available as well, and there will be a place to enter that information.

The preliminary data from this study will assist us in securing additional funding and continuing the research process. Many of you are asking for more research about Montessori to share with your families and communities. This is the route to that research, and I want to personally thank all of you for your help with this process!

Another document available on the website is called "Voices from the Field." Each time one of your teachers shares a wonderful "Montessori Moment" about a student or students, please hand them a copy of this form and ask them to provide the story to the AMS. These anecdotal records are another important piece for the research that is being conducted, and those special stories have to come from our teachers. Please help your faculty members see the importance of their participation.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to networking with many of you at the Winter Conference. Those of you who have met with me in the past are aware of the discussion process facilitated by open space technology. We will be having terrific discussions together through the Open Space forum that will be provided to us by Bob Bates. Hope to see you there!

MARIE PENDLETON heads the Montessori School of Bowling Green (OH), teaches in the Montessori Teacher Education lnstitute of Bowling Green, and chairs the AMS Heads Section.

Copyright American Montessori Society Winter 2003
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