Anne-Marie Parnell – Safe Montessori Workshop During Covid-19 ‘Increased My Confidence’

Anne-Marie Parnell is an ECCE and Montessori student who recently attended an optional Montessori workshop at Portobello Institute, under Covid-19 safety measures, and said that the experience was hugely worthwhile and gave her a huge confidence boost having never worked in early years before.

She said this opportunity to attend the Montessori workshop gave her the hands-on practical experience she needed to develop her knowledge from the online classes.

Montessori Workshop

“It was hands-on with the learning materials, touching them and presenting them for the first time whereas before we would have learned all the theory, written up and watched lots of videos so it was great to be able to get hands-on.

“For me personally I don’t have any childcare experience or any chance to get into a Montessori at the moment.

“That was really important, you can look at YouTube and find stuff and you know what things look like but just to get your hands on it and go through the presentations in person.

“The workshop was great, I was a bit nervous personally going in just because it was probably my first time out in the real world for a while with strangers so you’d be a bit nervous, but everyone was careful and did everything they should have done.

“From a Covid-19 perspective it is perfect, people felt safe and there is no obligation to even go to the workshops now if people don’t want to they don’t have to go in.

“Amy and Sarah (tutors) are being really kind and considerate of people’s feelings,” she said.  

Anne-Marie said the workshop gave her ‘increased confidence in presenting the material’ and a ‘clearer idea’ of how to carry herself throughout her skills demo.  

“I definitely came away with a much clearer idea of how I would do it and how I would feel when I was doing it because at home you can pretend to do it but watching Amy’s really careful movement you mirror her, and you can see it when she does it online but it’s just not the same. You get a much bigger picture of her and the whole body movements really which you could miss on camera.

“It definitely increased my confidence because we have to do skills demos and I would have been a bit nervous about that but less so now,” Anne-Marie said.

Montessori practical workshops are held on one Saturday each month in Portobello Institute. All Covid-19 safety measures are adhered to. Students are given the opportunity to feel and see the Montessori materials they have been learning about in online classes during this Montessori workshop. There is no obligation to attend, they are set up as something that is to be of benefit to students. 

Simply contact your support tutor to book a time slot for you to come into the institute to gain practical hands-on experience with the materials under the supervision of one of our experienced Montessori tutors.

You can apply now and start studying the materials online straight away with the option to attend safe, practical Montessori workshops throughout your time studying if you would like to learn and know more about the materials used in a Montessori setting.

Follow @portobelloearlyyears on Instagram for more information.