Read part 1 of Tatenda’s interview here.
What are some of the projects Montessori on Wheels has implemented?
Tatenda: We have four distinct programs that we have implemented within the Denver Metro area.
Our first program which, I think really sort of defines our mission, is what we call Montessori Exposure, where we take the bus to your parking spot and then we introduce people to Montessori education. [Participants] get on the bus and they get to touch the materials, ask questions, and really engage in this hands-on learning with a little write-up on each material or in each area of the Montessori curriculum. The idea really is to just give that exposure that this is Montessori education, these are the materials. You can touch them; you can explore them; you can ask questions. We get to know you; you get to know Montessori education.
Then we have our School Partnership where we [partner with neighborhood schools that BIPOC students attend] with this asset best mindset that there is already some offering of education there in our community. We come and do either intervention through the Montessori approach or offer public school teachers an opportunity to see us doing math [or language] in a Montessori way, so that they can enhance and expand their toolkit to then offer to those kids in their classroom that they might think would thrive more in a hands-on way of instruction.
We have another program that we also do similar to our School Partnership; our Community Partnership. We partner with existing organizations, nonprofits that are already doing good work within the community to enrich their program. We work with programs that work with refugee women and refugee kids, be it with social services or mental health, and [we bring] that education enrichment to their programs or to their offerings because they already have the community or already have people who are accessing some services within their organization. We then partner with them to offer Montessori education as a way of understanding who their child is as a learner and how children learn best when they’re exposed to hands-on learning or sensory-based learning.
Fourthly, we have Parent-Child Partnerships where we bring parents and their kids on the bus for ten-week programs. The main focus of this is to change the experience of our parents, especially the BIPOC parents in public school spaces, or even some in private schools where normally they are called to school when there is a problem with their child, when there is a behavioral issue with their child. So, they’re going into school to see how their child behaves, if their child is listening; they don’t really get to see their child as a learner, but how are they in relation to the other students or to their teacher. But on the bus with the parent-child classes that we offer, it is an opportunity for parents to really see their child as a learner, understanding how [their] child learns when they’re exposed to these math materials or language materials. They get to really understand who their child is as a learner. And also, [allowing them] to interact with the Montessori materials and lessons so that they can go back home and recreate what’s available for them in their own families.
What are some of the future projects Montessori on Wheels hopes to implement?
Tatenda: We’re getting a second bus. We got funding for a second bus, so we hope to have a steady growth in the next coming two years as we really polish our programs and understand our offerings so that we have a good model of Montessori on Wheels, a mobile unit that offers Montessori education, that we’re able to share with others who might want to implement this in their community, in their states, in their countries, in different spaces.
We’re so excited to think about how we can scale Montessori on Wheels by really not having a fleet of busses, but how can we also have a strong program that we can share with others so that they’re able to implement Montessori on Wheels in different communities, in different states, in different countries. We’ve had so much interest from people as far as Australia, in Africa, Canada, people who really want us to be able to come and help them implement a mobile Montessori unit. They call it the magic school bus, the Montessori magic school bus.
We really hope to do more of that as our 2.0 outreach where we’re really thinking big picture, like how [we can] move away from [our] influence from our area here in Denver, in Colorado, to other states and to other places. So, we’re really working on program development and having a very strong model that we can then replicate and share with others so that they can tailor it to their needs and what fits very well in their community.
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