Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photographs by Vicki Thompson

At My Pace: Hammer Montessori School principal Diane Hemmes works with third-grader Aziah Griffin on a multiplication problem. The school is the only free Montessori program that is part of the Santa Clara County public school district.

High Marks

Hammer Montessori turns 10 years old

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Children are spread throughout the classroom, but there is a sense of order. One young girl sorts colored beads. A boy fits yellow triangles together to form different shapes. There's a gentle hum in the room as children talk among themselves and ask each what they're doing and why.

"When we started the process of looking for a school for our daughter, we wanted a unique program," says Hammer Montessori School PTA board member Jessica Lewis.

The search led Lewis to the magnet programs in the San Jose Unified School District.

"I had some experience in Montessori, but by no means was I an expert," Lewis says. "I walked into this kindergarten, and it was an amazing atmosphere. It was focused. Kids were sitting on their mats, doing their work."

Lewis wasn't sure if it would match her daughter's personality, but after she researched Hammer, it became her first choice.

"I was impressed by the teachers; they were strict yet really warm," she says.

Lewis also appreciated the program's focus on independent learning. It has had a positive impact on her daughter Rachael, who has become focused and independent through the program.

"Not only in her social development, but also her internal development. She's getting to know herself as a kindergartner," Lewis says.

Hammer parent and PTA president Tamson McGinley chose the school specifically for its Montessori program and its philosophy. Both of her children went to Montessori preschools.

McGinley's background also played a part in deciding where to send her children.

"I am a mathematician," she says. "I love all the materials, and how they teach mathematics."

The choices the children have during their daily curriculum were another plus for McGinley.

"They're not limited by the level of the class," she says. "They are free to work on jobs that are more challenging or more basic. They are free to pursue things that are more interesting to them."

This pursuit, however, is all done through structure that the teachers provide, she says. "This way, the kids get a good foundation in all the subjects they need to master."

Before the relocation

It's hard to believe that a mere three years ago, this Willow Glen school was in the middle of a contentious uphill battle.

Hammer Montessori Elementary School, which opened in the fall of 1996, was embraced by the district as one of three magnet schools. The others were River Glen and Hacienda Environmental Science Magnet School, and all were part of the district's efforts to desegregate its schools.

"We wanted to attract more students to our schools," says Bill Erlendson, San Jose Unified School District director of external programs. "All kids come to us with different learning styles, and the more school options, the better."

Although Hammer had gained ground on student diversification, it wasn't enough to keep it off the 2003 list of school closures, which included Hester and Erikson schools. The downsizing was mandated to make up for a $10 million budget deficit.

"Our student enrollment was in decline and we were forced to close the elementary school," Erlendson says.

Parents and staff fought hard to keep the magnet school open, but the school board voted 3-2 in March 2004 to close the school along with two others.

The district, however, wanted to keep the program, as did the Montessori community, Erlendson says.

"I was sick about it," says McGinley, whose child began at the former location. "The school was a great small campus with a tight-knit community. I worried that we would lose that."

In 1984, the San Jose Unified School District was found guilty of intentional discrimination against Latinos, and a court-supervised desegregation plan was put into place creating magnet schools with specialized programs and open-choice enrollment based on racial criteria.

In the fall of 2003, the Montessori magnet program was relocated to the Ernesto Galarza Elementary School campus on Bird Avenue, where it is still housed.

"It's a different feel, but it's good," McGinley says. "We have a bigger environment now. While we still have the Hammer parents, we have a bigger community to enjoy. We lost the small campus but gained a bigger family."

The school weathered budget cuts, desegregation and relocation issues, yet once it was resettled Hammer had another task: selling the program to families unfamiliar with the philosophy.

"Although the idea of a Montessori education is a difficult sale to Hispanic parents," Erlendson says, "the teachers and staff have done an outstanding job of marketing their school and the benefits of a Montessori education."

McGinley agrees.

"They do an incredible job," she says. "There's so much emphasis on state testing. It's the antithesis of Montessori. The teachers do a great job teaching. The California standards are a natural fit with Montessori because all of that is already emphasized in the Montessori materials."

Today, the school continues to be the only Montessori School program that is free and under the jurisdiction of a public school system in Santa Clara County.

The school's location inside the predominantly Hispanic Ernesto Galarza Elementary School and people who run the program have made it a success.

"All the teachers were hand-picked and have been dedicated to building the school from the ground up," Erlendson says.

After 10 years

This year marks the school's 10-year anniversary. In the last decade it has achieved a California state ranking of 7, putting it in the top 7 percent of schools in the state. Its 2006 Annual Performance Index score is 783 and enrollment numbers are up. But there have been bumps along the way.

"Meeting all the state standards in conjunction with the Montessori philosophy was our biggest challenge," says principal Diane Hemmes.

The first thing the school did was to compare the guidelines with the Montessori model side by side and then tried to mix the two.

It wasn't easy.

The first issue the staff faced was the differences in splitting the age groups up.

"In the Montessori model, we have developmental stages vs. grade levels," Hemmes says.

Instead of traditional kindergarten through fifth-grade classes, the Montessori approach has two primary development levels--birth through age 6 and age 6-12.

It was a trial and error model and as each year progressed, the model was streamlined. The students were then moved through the lower grades according to their skill levels.

The school's second biggest challenge was the diversification of its student population.

"Our school needs to match the entire district's numbers on diverse populations," Hemmes says. "The district schools have between 33 and 36 percent Hispanic populations. We now have more than 40 percent."

The school's location at Ernesto Galarza and its predominately Hispanic neighborhood makes it easier for the school to meet the diversification numbers.

"We are now more centralized in the district as well," says Hemmes regarding the school's current location.

The Montessori program at Hammer focuses its teaching methods on a child-centered education that gives children freedom within structure, Hemmes says.

The Montessori philosophy is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Founded by Dr. Maria Montessori in 1907, the teaching method and philosophy were designed to motivate children intrinsically to be independent so that it's the work itself and not the grades that motivate them, Hemmes says.

"We want them to have some control over their environment and themselves," she says.

To that end the classrooms are divided up into different work stations, depending on a student's skill level. Montessori also divides students according to subject, such as practical life, sensorial, language and mathematics.

"Each job has a lesson and specific instruction to it," Hemmes says.

For instance, sorting beads from one container to another helps develop detailed motor skills.

Teachers in the classrooms present the lessons, and the children mimic the lesson and learn that intrinsic sense of order, Hemmes says.

"Gradually, the student progresses to the upper grades, moving from concrete materials to more abstract ones," she says.

Kindergarten teacher Valerie Hornstein adds that this progression through the subject matter stays with the students long after they leave the school.

"During the younger years, we as teachers are planting seeds, watering and never knowing when they are going to bloom," Hornstein says. "That seed that you planted when the student was small, you never know what will come out of it."

Last year, Hornstein received an e-mail from a former student. He is now an adult studying computer robotic design.

"I had put out a question to his class to inscribe a pentagon in a circle using only a compass and straight edge with no measurements," Hornstein says. 'He e-mailed me and told me he finally was able to do it."

Along with lasting lessons, grace and courtesy are also part of learning for the students.

"They learn to help each other and work together instead of competing against one another," says kindergarten teacher Ann Tennant. "We do what we can to support that. Learning to be part of a group. Taking their place in society. Help them be strong individuals, to make a stronger society."

In the first weeks of school, the students get into this mode of thinking with the guidance of the teachers, she says.

Structure is in the materials and the sequencing of materials, Tennant says. There are variations to the basics and step by step instruction--"very careful steps," Tennant says.

This attention to each step in a student's development is important to make sure they don't miss any essential steps, says kindergarten teacher Holley Lisbeth.

"It's an important part of why this program works so well," Lisbeth says. "It's wonderful and great that the students are interested in their education and not just motivated by stickers or letters."