Our Guest: Chip DeLorenzo
Show Notes
Chip DeLorenzo discusses the importance of holding regular class meetings as a tool to build students’ leadership skills. He advocates that class meetings are essential to developing a sense of community and belonging for the students in your classroom.
Chip describes the structure and processes involved in successful class meetings. He also shares how to teach the components of the class meetings in isolation at the beginning of each school year, so that the students have the skills to run them, and how to support students during meetings if needed (without taking over).
Through the class meeting process, children learn empathy and to see things from other people’s perspectives. They practice advocating for themselves and others, problem solving, collaborating with others, and making amends. Class meetings encompass Grace and Courtesy, SEL education, conflict resolution, and peace education all in one elegant bundle.
When we trust children to solve their own problems, students are invested in the solutions and help remind one another of the class’ shared agreements. This becomes shared leadership!
About our Guest
Chip DeLorenzo
Author, Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom; Teaching Professor, Xavier University Montessori Program
Chip DeLorenzo has been a Montessori educator since 1995. He is a Teaching Professor at Xavier University, and the former Head of School of the Damariscotta Montessori School, where he spent 20 years as a teacher and administrator. Chip is the co-author, with Jane Nelsen, of Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom. As a teacher trainer and school consultant, Chip has worked with thousands of Montessori teachers and parents in teaching the principles and practices of Positive Discipline through various workshops and lectures. He holds Early Childhood, Lower and Upper Elementary AMS certifications, and has worked extensively with Montessori Adolescent students. Chip is the father of five Montessori children, and he and his wife, Kathy, live in Loveland, Ohio.
Resources
Positive Discipline for Montessori Schools and Families
https://chipdelorenzo.com/
Blog post: “How Do You Know It’s a Class Meeting?”
Positive Discipline in the Montessori Classroom by Jane Nelson and Chip DeLorenzo
Voices in Montessori Podcast
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