IMS Consultation at New Way Montessori School
 Since January, 2007, Lee Havis, IMS executive director, has been conducting a series of consultation visits to New Way Montessori School (Meridian, ID) to study and improve the practical use of IMS technology with children. His latest visit, January 12-29, 2008, focused especially on controlling the adult personality to deal with various abandonment issues. During this visit, Lee helped Wendy Lieberman, school director, to establish a plan for more closely supervising the children at critical transition times in the daily schedule.
Through these consultation visits, Lee has been resolving certain key issues in the use of IMS technology, including:
Disobedience— obtain child’s attention before giving clear direction, using full-body embrace if necessary; however, be brief and use patient waiting and repetition as well, in the nature of “planting seeds”;
Transition procedures— fully complete each activity in an orderly manner before moving on to the next;
Abandonment to fantasy— interact with children at an early point in any fantasy scenario, using specific clear direction and questioning;
Dependency— stay as neutral and uninvolved with child as possible;
Social disharmony— allow free, active movement and interaction among children, as long as it is not too aggressive or wild, even if it seems odd or unusual;
Physical aggression— stay physically closer to hub children, using more verbal interaction, as well as gentle cooperative touching to model good behavior;
Lack of work with materials— take out materials and place on table for children who show tendency to fantasize or who are otherwise unable or unwilling to choose work from the shelf on their own.
Lee plans to continue consultation visits to the New Way School as needed in the future. He is using these visits to clarify and refine the presentation of IMS technology for his new book on the subject.
 New Math Materials
Replacing the Seguin Boards
In 1907, Dr. Montessori began her scientific educational approach to children by using math materials devised by Eduard Seguin many years before. One Seguin device, the “Teens Board”, includes large wooden boards, which Dr. Montessori combined with colorful golden beads to show the place value concept. In equipping the New Way Montessori School, however, Lee Havis has been seeking ways to replace these bulky old materials with new alternatives that are more compact and uniform.
Lee proposes to replace the Seguin Teens Board with a tray containing numeral cards, written numbers and plastic 10-base decimal counters. He says, “The layout for this new material is similar to the old Seguin Teens Board, except that the numerals are placed two on a card, instead of five on each wooden board as before. This new design is more uniform and compact, allowing children to easily carry the entire set of materials from the shelf to the work-space in a single tray. In format, this follows closely such protocols as take out everything and enhance independence”.
The new place value math work also includes written words to match each number as well. For example, the word “eleven” matches with the “11” numeral and its respective quantity of one plastic ten rod and unit. Lee says, “Field tests with these materials at the New Way School show that children use them precisely as intended, with very good results”.
Lee is also designing other math materials using the same compact, uniform approach. He says, “These new designs provide more order, clarity, and economy of space in the presentation of various math concepts to children. Hopefully, others may find them useful as well, once they are more fully developed and field tested at the New Way School.”
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