The Moveable Alphabet: The Diary of a Montessori Theorist.

 

 

For many years I wrote the blog I designed and created titled, "The Moveable Alphabet: The Diary of A Montessori Theorist." I truly loved that blog, but when blogging became fashionable, another bought the domain for my page and my blog disappeared. I tried over a period of years to regain it and its contents, seven years worth, but it just didn't happened. It was widely read and I truly enjoyed reading comments from across the globe. I still treasure those words and can see the blog in my mind now. 

I initially started writing it for one of my Montessori classroom assistants at a school in Newton, Massachusetts. I just didn't have the time during the day, which was dedicated to the child, to explain theory and all the whys of what I was doing. One day, a very dedicated classroom assistant was weeping. It was the end of the day, the students had all gone home and she just wept. I asked her what was upsetting her. She answered with a quivering voice, "You are what's upsetting me. Early this morning, you gave me a copy of your lesson plans for the day. I read it and attached it to my clipboard. I thought I knew what was going to happen today, but then POOF ! You changed everything! You always say that you follow the lead of the child, but who do I follow? You?!  But, how?! And you always seem to be in some state of exuberant wonder at what every child does. Do you have some kind of special glasses that you see through that nobody else can?! Let me know where I can buy a pair." She put her head down and continued to weep. I gave her space and told her that she had given me much to think about. 

That evening, I designed my first blog, "The Moveable Alphabet," and wrote the very first post. I shared the link with her in the morning. I wrote one blog post after another, pictures included (children's faces excluded) and she read them all. Afterwards, she seemed lighter on her feet than before. When time allowed, she would wander through the classroom, lift a Montessori material up in her hands, visually admire it, trace her fingers around it and then softly smile. She was falling in love with the Montessori method. Our fellowship grew to be one of true friendship and shared respect. 

That was more than a decade ago. I am still a teacher. I am now a Pubic Montessori educator teaching 2nd grade in Alaska. Along the way, between that Montessori classroom experience in Massachusetts and now in Alaska, I began watercolor painting. I taught myself to paint when I lived and worked as a first grade teacher 350 miles above the Arctic Circle. More on that in another blog post, or two.

Painting has become a sacred companion. It demands my attention. Asks why I don't spend more time with it when my day, and night, is filled with teaching tasks. It nourishes my soul and speaks to me in colors and shapes. Fish awaken and swim across the page. Flowers bloom under the sea. In quiet I paint, but each composition sings its own anthem.  I am a painter. My work is now nationally published.

Today, I start this new blog, "A Sea of Watercolors: The Diary of a Watercolor Painter." It is in its very early format and will bloom like watercolors on hot press paper. I invite you to join me on this next leg of blogging and comment when you feel you want to converse with me. I will respond. 

A note on the name. I am a long lover of the sea and the wave. A sailor by heart and heritage. There is this wondrous feeling shared between navigating a sailboat and navigating a painting: the planning, the plotting, preparing all the tools and supplies, the joy of starting, and then the wave of water or color, or both. It is so beautifully intense and you are focused on every detail. Too, a speedboat whizzing by a sailboat can cause a wave to wash over the deck. An unplanned, heavy drop of water from my paintbrush can wash colors from a flower into the sky. Hence the name of my new blog: "A Sea of Watercolors."

Sail with me and my paintbrush across the white sea of watercolor paper.  ©

- Susan