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Middle School Career Investigations Immersion, November 10-14

The MCS Middle School’s second cycle (6-week period) of the year focused on “Changes,” in literature, in the natural and physical world around us (fungi, protists, and matter), and how we can be catalysts for positive change in society. The immersion week offers students an opportunity to apply and integrate what they have learned throughout the previous five weeks. For Cycle 2 the immersion was a Career Investigations week. Leading up to the immersion, students utilized expository writing methods to research possible careers. During the immersion week, they investigated different professions through interviews, field trips and job shadowing.

The first professional to visit was a local paramedic and firefighter. He brought his fire gear along, which weighed about 30 pounds, not including an oxygen tank. Nearly everyone in the class took the opportunity to try it on. He also brought his medical supplies and allowed the students to experience the powerful smell of ammonia tablets that paramedics use to rouse unconscious people. He told the class the process for becoming a firefighter, which involves a written test and then a physical one. The physical test includes being able to hold 100 pounds and run a large number of stairs. Firefighters typically work 48-hour shifts (they’re able to sleep if there isn’t an emergency) and then they have four days off. Robert explained that the pay for a firefighter is about $42,000, and a fire captain makes about $82,000. A paramedic can make about $60,000. The pay goes up for all of these jobs the more relevant degrees one has.

A local documentary filmmaker showed the students trailers for four of her films. She was a social worker for about twenty years and then went to film school at the University of Utah because she felt that filmmaking would allow her to have a greater impact on society. She finds documentaries to be fascinating and a good way to learn. She explained that being an independent filmmaker allowed her to have a flexible (though busy) schedule. She has to do fundraising for her films on her own, which is typically very time-consuming. She said that her salary varies over time since she has her own business.

The students also heard from a Basic Life Skills (BLS) instructor and midwife’s assistant (she’s training to become a midwife). She teaches birth classes, and she assists with births at The Birth Center in Salt Lake City. She explained that midwives are trained to be able to do numerous medical procedures as needed, including monitoring a mother’s and baby’s vital signs, giving Pitocin if a mother is losing too much blood after a delivery, and giving stitches as needed. She showed the class a movie about unmedicated births and explained the differences between a doula and a midwife (a doula provides emotional support during labor but does not do medical procedures). Adrianna has assisted with more than 200 births.

On Thursday, November 13th, the class visited the music studio of John Hancock, MCS parent and a local songwriter. He showed the students his equipment and explained that he is hired by companies to create songs for commercials as well as to remix existing music. Companies usually pay songwriters between $300 and $1,000 in advance to create a demo song and then between $3,000 and $5,000 if they use the song. John explained that songwriters also receive royalties on songs they write that are subsequently used.

The next day, Dr. Mary Dickerson, MCS parent and a veterinarian, visited the students along with two of her coworkers. She works in Laboratory Animal Science in the Office of Comparative Medicine at the University of Utah. She takes care of the animals in the lab where she works. She explained that a veterinarian can make between $50,000 and $175,000. She brought scrubs for the students to keep and had them do a relay race to see how quickly they could put the scrubs on.

An anesthesiologist visited the same day. He explained that his job is basically to keep people from dying and to keep them comfortable. He uses morphine, local anesthetic, and sometimes laughing gas in his work. He gives epidurals as needed to mothers in labor. He typically works 65 hours a week but sets his own schedule, and he said that anesthesiologists makes between $250,000 and $700,000 depending on the year. He explained that he went to school in the United Kingdom and that the structure there involves going straight to medical school immediately after completion of high school.

The final professional to visit was MCS parent Chris Fischer, who has been a helicopter pilot since 2008. He said that helicopter pilots make an average of $40,000 per year. His most common assignment is giving tours of the Grand Canyon, and he works either seven days on then seven days off, or else 14 days on and 14 days off.

The Middle School class was excited to learn about so many different professions and was grateful to all of the professionals who shared their time and knowledge with the class.

By Carla Moquin, Middle School and Lower Elementary parent

 

Early Childhood Commences Outdoor Classroom

Early Childhood students receive their first lesson of the 2014 – 2015 school year in the Outdoor Classroom. They had the opportunity to explore our Outdoor Classroom area, located on near the northeast corner of our school building.
Nature plays an important role in the development of the whole child. Works of gardening, raking, weed pulling, and other outdoor tasks assist in this development. The Outdoor Classroom is rich in science lessons, such as bird watching and naming, insect and leaf investigations, and rock classification.
Early Childhood students explore the basic nature of land, air, water, and the creatures that inhabit those spaces.They also learn about the needs of plants and animals and creating homes for these creatures.

Summer Fun

MCS Elementary Summer Camp

The Elementary students are having a blast at Summer Camp this year. We are looking forward to the next two sessions and a lot more fun times. Our new Elementary students are fitting in well and having an excellent time.

Nature Education

Montessori Community School offers a unique outdoor education program at each level.  We value the opportunity for children to become stewards over the earth and explore their natural environment. You can read more about our Outdoor Classroom and Great Outdoors programs here.

In Celebration of Earth Day

MCS would like to wish our community a Happy Earth Day.  What a lovely opportunity to celebrate the beauty of our miraculous earth. Montessori is known as a method that advocates environmental education and invites children to become stewards of the earth.  Maria Montessori herself said that “children are inspired with a feeling for nature” and believed that nature plays a most important role in the development of the whole child.

Unconstructed play and exploration in nature foster creativity and independence.  Students learn the value in community and their interconnectedness as they begin to recognize and care for living things.  Richard Louv, author of ‘Lost Child in the Woods’ and proponent of the need for nature in education noted, “multisensory experiences in nature help to build the cognitive constructs necessary for sustained intellectual development.“ At present, electronics have an overwhelming presence in society and in the development of the child.  Research indicates that this presence has the ability to hinder children’s overall development. So what do they need to counter all this visual stimulation?  Outdoor experience! Time and effort in nature gives children the opportunity to experiment with cause and effect and avoidance of immediate gratification, which they experience so frequently with electronics.

One of the most unique principles of Montessori programs is the Cosmic Curriculum, an overall Montessori approach to education that involves helping children develop an awareness that everything in the universe is connected and interdependent and forms a harmonious whole and that they themselves are part of and contribute to that whole. The Cosmic Curriculum lends itself to exploration and appreciation of nature. Environmental education is a curriculum that encourages children to explore the wonders of nature; including botany, zoology, preservation of the earth, and other scientific concepts that are present in Montessori such as the study of the earth, water, weather and the universe as a whole. These subjects come alive with hands-on experience.

And so, in honor of this world wide celebration, we offer thanks to Maria Montessori and all those who join us in bettering our children’s future as we share insights to miracles of the universe through education of the child.

“When the child goes out, it is the world itself that offers itself to him. Let us take the child out to show him real things instead of making objects which represent ideas and closing them in cupboards.”  Maria Montessori

Read more about our environmental education here.

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