Getting Inspired

Everyone has someone or something that inspires them. If they don’t, they ought to find one. It may seem easy to be “original,” but you have to know yourself and your influences in order to know what you are going for.

I like to think of myself as being pretty original. Doesn’t everyone?  That doesn’t mean that I don’t aspire to be like someone, though. In fact, there are four people, all very different, whom I adore and wish to be like.

The first of these people is Audrey Hepburn. I must give my roommate credit for introducing me to Audrey. (Thanks, Lauren!)  She is a recent love of mine, but I don’t know how I could have ever missed her. Audrey is beautiful, classy, and fun. Looking through her photos, you can see her inner beauty radiating, no matter how old she gets. She has a tender heart for animals, which is something I value most of all, considering how my life revolves around animal rescue.

I love this sweet photo of Audrey and her deer.

Ellen DeGeneres is the second person on my list of inspiration. Ellen gets a lot of bad attention for being a lesbian, but look at her.

  (No, really, look at her!)

She does not care what others think. She lives by a philosophy of being happy and enjoying life, which I respect to the highest degree. She is caring and devoted to helping others, whether they are famous or not. In my opinion, Ellen should be everyone’s role model. Ellen also has a huge compassion for animals, and she makes it well known. For someone so popular, Ellen does fame right.

This is a link one of my favorite episodes of Ellen. She is talking with actress Kaley Cuoco about her rescued pitbulls enjoying a hot tub. It is too funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gXjuAorDk

My third role model is someone less well-known, but equally important. Her name is Ellie Laks. She founded the Gentle Barn. The Gentle Barn is a sanctuary where mistreated animals go. They are rescued and cared for as they rehabilitate. The coolest part, however, is that every day of the week different people can come love on the animals. These visitors range from handicap children to at-risk youth. Anyone who needs a little compassion from a furry friend is welcome.

 I find the Gentle Barn to be a magical place. I wrote Ellie Laks to tell her what an inspiration she is to me, and she sent me a hand-written letter back, telling me that I was a hero to her. Nothing could mean more to me. To learn more about The Gentle Barn go to www.thegentlebarn.org

Look, here is Ellie from the Gentle Barn with Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia. Of course they are friends!

Finally, I come to my most personal role model. My grandmother, Carol Dean Keys, is the most inspirational person in my life. She has never treated anyone with anything less than a heart full of love, and the devotion that she has put into our family is incomparable. My grandmother is my most valued treasure, and I could not respect someone more. I want to give the same amount of love and care to people as my grandmother does.

So, why are these role models so vital, you ask? Why are any role models “vital,” for that matter?

I am my own person, but without guidance, I could follow a misleading path. Seeing the way that these women have influenced so many people inspires me. Because of the respect I have for these four women, I hope to grow into a classy, happy, beautiful, loving, and compassionate (especially towards animals) woman, just like them. 

--Kelsey Keys

Montessori Children's House of Fort Worth

I went and toured the Montessori Children’s House in Fort Worth yesterday. I was definitely impressed. That’s an understatement. For those of you who don’t know what the Montessori Children’s House is, it’s a school dedicated to a different approach at learning: hands on learning.

            From walking in, you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s a school. It’s a small house in the middle of a neighborhood, but once you walk in, you can see that they have five buildings and over and acre of land in the back. The learning tools they give to the children are much different than the tools given in a conventional elementary school. The Montessori Children’s House doesn’t believe standardized testing. They believe in creative learning and a self-paced movement. However, that’s not to say that the children are lazy. It seemed to me that almost every child wanted to participate. Their children are reading by the time they are 5 years old. Now, I work with children and many of my second graders, who are 7 years old, can’t read.

            Interested? Check out their website and schedule a tour. http://mchfw.com/

--Adam Moron

My Experience at Montessori Children's House of Fort Worth

Most people are skeptical when first introduced to the Montessori methodology of teaching. Before visiting Montessori Children’s House in Fort Worth, I was too because I was unfamiliar with the concept and how it could benefit children more than a public or private school education. However, after I saw what Montessori Children’s House had to offer its students, teachers and their families, I was convinced that Montessori’s alternative teaching method helps students reach high academic achievements.

The front entrance of the MCH of Fort Worth

I was concerned when I researched Montessori because when I Googled images of the “school,” all I saw was a house on a neighborhood street. The school is in a house, but the backyard is spacious and offers more room for academics. After talking to the administrators, I could tell that the teachers and students have a very strong relationship because they treat one another as family, probably because they form and nurture relationships with their students from a very young age.

The environment was not typical of any school I had seen before because this was the first “alternative” school I had ever visited. The tools that the students have to develop their creativity and intelligence is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I feel like that is what sets Montessori apart from traditional school; they teach their students to think and see things differently.

Overall, I was impressed with Montessori Children’s House. The website does not do the Montessori method nor MCH justice in showing a potential students and parents what it is all about, so I would strongly suggest a tour of the school to get a realistic feeling of the Montessori educational environment.  

-Jessica Edwards

Learning as Unique as You

As I entered the door of the Montessori Children’s House for the first time I was astonished by the work ethic and maturity of each child; and it only grew as I walked through and saw each age group.  At such an early age, each child had clearly mastered a variety of tasks such as doing laundry, washing dishes, making pizza and even cleaning up after themselves. These are tasks that I never would have been able to do at that age (considering I just learned how to do laundry two years ago.)  The children at MCH were extremely self-sufficient for their age. 

Not only was the maturity of the children apparent but their intelligence stood out as well.  My two 12-year old tour guides were extremely articulate and mature for 6^th graders.  They shared with me their love for MCH during my entire tour.  They had both been at MCH since a very young age, and because of that they were able to provide me with great detail about each school and age group.  They showed me the different paintings and crafts they had done at that age, the tools they used to assist their learning and even the class garden they were all a part of.  As I walked through the different schools I saw students interacting with their teachers one-on-one, kids working on their spelling assignments, preschoolers cutting carrots, and toddlers painting portraits.  They also showed me the many different learning mechanisms that they used to assist them with their spelling, counting, and even object identification.  Some of the tools I had recognized from when I was their age, but there was one that I had never seen before.

They first introduced me to the beaded cube  while in the preschool.  It is a cube made up of singular beads in a 10-by-10 fashion.  The preschoolers would take the cube to help them learn how to count.  They would touch and feel the cube to understand how each row of 10 made up the cube of 1000, called the thousands cube (See picture above).  As we continued on through the school they showed me many different variations of the beaded cube that made it more complex for the older children.  They had different sized cubes, different chains of colored beads, and even single beads.  The older children used these to help them with learning their addition, multiplication, and even division skills.  I was astonished as to how complex this one beaded cube had become, but at the same time just how simply helpful it became in their learning process. And it didn’t stop there. 

The upper elementary was the last stop of the tour and the first thing I spotted was a 2-by-2 foot wooden cube.  I had a feeling this had something to do with the beaded cube; and it did.  This was the life size cube for the older children to use to continue with their studies of mathematics.  It is amazing how something as small as a beaded cube that pre-school children played with had turned into something as large as the wooden cube that the 6^th graders still used to learn their mathematics. 

 -Annabelle Javellana