• Owner: Vivi Teng
• Phone: 510-845-6969
• Email: globalmontessori@sbcglobal.net
• Neighborhood: 2830 Ninth Street
• Zip: 94710
• License #: 013420951
• Capacity: 56
• Website: http://www.gmis-berkeley.com/
• Bilingual: Mandarin
• Ages: 2 years - 12 years (preschool and K-6)

An update on the new location for GMIS: The school will be relocating to a new address in Berkeley across the street from Ecole Bilingue and near one of the Berkeley Bowl groceries. The move will take place over the summer and be ready to start in September! I encourage all interested parents to look at GMIS and consider enrolling. Vivian

I am thinking about sending my daughter to GMIS (Global Montessori International School) next year but heard that the school may be forced to move/leave the location where they are at today. Does anyone have any information on this? Would love to hear from current GMIS parents. Thanks! Julie

Re: Seeking excellent Pre K program with 2011 openings
My son has been enrolled in Global Montessori International School in Berkeley since the age of two and we love it! Small class size, wonderfully kind and attentive teachers and staff, and immersion education of children in Mandarin are what make this program special. They provide potty training as well. The kids have dual exposure to english and mandarin at the upper levels. Extracurricular activities include gardening, cooking, art under the guidance of MOCA, Soccer shots, field trips to various museums, visiting musicians, and education on various topics ranging from dental hygiene to Asian cultures. The kids achieve a very high level of proficiency in math at a early age. Because they are learning both languages at such an early age, both come naturally and pronunciation seems to be quite clear for each respective language without accents or crossovers. The kids just seem to know to speak Mandarin to the Chinese speakers and English to the English speakers. If you really want your child to fully develop both sides of his or her brain in an attentive, loving environment, this is the place for you. Over half of the kids enrolled come from backgrounds with no Mandarin, so no need to worry if you're a non-speaker like me :)I Vivian

Re: Mandarin afterschool programs in the East Bay
I would recommend the after-school Mandarin program at Global Montessori International School (http://www.gmis-berkeley.com/prog_afterschool.php). Classes meet from 3:30pm to 4:45pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week. I'm continually impressed by the Chinese-language artwork and written worksheets that my 3-year-old brings home from these classes. - GMIS parent

Re: How is Montessori style Mandarin immersion

We investigated PRINTS, Shu Ren, and GMIS before deciding to send our child to GMIS for preschool. (We chose not to explore AIM because we were concerned that having Japanese, Chinese, and English combined together in the early stages would dilute the language experience. We felt this was a slight disadvantage of PRINTS as well.)

The way I would characterize the Montessori philosophy is that it is very dedicated toward encouraging the child's self-reliance at a developmentally appropriate level. Montessori-educated children are known for learning how to take care of themselves at a basic level at a very young age (even before 3 yrs), doing things such as dressing themselves, helping to clean up after a spill, and preparing and sharing food with others. Another life skill which I think is even more important in the long term is becoming self-directed in choosing what to pursue and following through on their interests. Montessori kids are expected to choose their own pursuits, rather than constantly waiting to be told what to do next. Whereas traditional kindergarten in the U.S. may often have kids bouncing from one activity to the next after only 15-30 minutes, the Montessori approach will allow kids to pursue an activity for an hour or longer if they desire, enabling them to develop a longer attention span.

One possible concern about this is that in a Montessori school, children may miss out on the opportunity to explore new activities that don't initially appeal to them. I always ask Montessori educators about this on interviews, and I continue to inquire about this frequently as my child grows. At GMIS, the teachers monitor the kids' activities to make sure that they're not missing out on something important, which I can see from the periodic "report cards" that they send home containing evaluations along multiple dimensions expected for children at a particular age. They will check for gaps in what a child has been exploring and present a new activity or lesson to a particular child when s/he is ready.

Another possible related concern is that children may spend more time in individual rather than group social settings, if the nature of the education is primarily self-directed. GMIS adopts a flexible approach and includes group circle time several times throughout the day, in addition to providing multiple opportunities for unstructured indoor and outdoor play with classmates across age groups. Small groups often spontaneously emerge during class, because children are curious about what other children are doing or because a teacher is giving a mini-lesson. In fact, the Montessori philosophy is considerably less age-stratified and rigid compared to traditional U.S. educational settings, encouraging cross-age interaction so that older kids actively help younger kids learn. We see this as a tremendous benefit to supporting positive social development.

As you note, what's important is how a school implements the Montessori philosophy, since there is a lot of variability here. One difference is that the American Montessori Society (AMS) approach is less rigid than the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) approach, in that AMS-certified teachers will use outside materials and resources to supplement traditional Montessori materials. Most of the GMIS staff are AMS certified, while a couple are AMI certified; I don't know the credentials of AIM or PRINTS teachers. Another difference is in the administrators' and teachers' application of the Montessori philosophy; some are stricter than others. From my observations of GMIS, I feel the school provides a very warm and nurturing environment, responding flexibly to the children's needs and including ample time for unstructured, imaginative play. At the time that I observed PRINTS, I felt it was more rigid and less nurturing. This is something that you will want to look for yourself in all the schools that you visit because it can be so subjective and depend very much on the individual.

One final point I wanted to mention is the truly exceptional qualities of GMIS Director Vivi Teng. She is a passionate and dedicated educator with many years of experience in early childhood and elementary education. In addition to working well with the children, she demonstrates a genuine interest in understanding the parents' particular needs, going out of her way to address their concerns. She has also assembled a fantastic team of teachers and works with them closely to support their development and ensure that the children receive the best education for their needs. All of the Chinese-language teachers are native Mandarin speakers, in addition to their training and experience with early childhood education.

In summary, we are delighted with GMIS because of its excellent Mandarin-language education, its thoughtful implementation of the best parts of the Montessori educational philosophy, the excellent teaching and administrative staff, and the dedicated parent community. - Very happy GMIS parent

Re: Mandarin Immersion Elementary Schools?
My son attends the Elementary program at Global Montessori International School in Berkeley. He enjoyed the warm environment, opened up his shy personality, and made good friends. We like the supportive parent community and receptive school teachers and administrators. I find my son becoming more confident, responsible, thoughtful and inquisitive, since joining the elementary group. The English part of the Montessori program led by the head teacher Ms Nugapitiya is great. In a little over 5 months he went from not able to read by himself to a beginner reader of chapter books, and teaching me stuff he learned from school, e.g. leaning tower of Pisa. I doubt the Chinese part was taught strictly using the traditional Montessori material, as I have seen a 5th grader used the recording feature on IPhone to practice tone pronunciations for a tongue twister. I really like the innovative media introduced by the Chinese teacher Ms Ma, which made it more relevant to the kids and more engaging. The children are naturally more proficient in English and often speak that among the peers so the teachers had introduced show and tell in Chinese, word games... I find it a good mix between Montessori philosophy of C,follow the childC. and willingness to engage kids using effective methods. To me the learning skills and the excitements toward the language and cultures achieved have been invaluable. happy mom

Another reason GMIS is so special is the culture. It is a warm, loving, kind place for the kids that also focuses on their education and making sure they learn. The kids love going to school and you can see what they are learning. And, they all do speak Chinese during the day, to the other kids as well, even those who don't have Mandarin spoken to them at home (like my son).

Additionally, this school is going places and will make a name for itself. Vivi has a tremendous amount of energy and she always has her eye to how to make the program stronger and reaching out to the community to bring resources and relationships to the school. Not only did they improve the art and music education this year (MOCHA comes to the school) she is reaching out to other schools in the area to create relationships for those graduating.

And lastly, but not least, the parent community is strong. there is a lot of parental involvement, which is great for the kids as well as the school.

GMIS was a wonderful decision for us as a family and we couldn't be happier. I hope you find your way to GMIS as well. A Happy Parent

Re: American Int'l Montessori and Global Montessori
This is the second year our child attends Global Montessori International School (GMIS), and we are extremely happy with how the school has become especially over the past 6 months. After the school made the change from trilingual (Chinese, Japanese, and English) to the current bilingual (Chinese and English) environment for the two lower classes (Young Children's House for less than 3, and Children's House for 3 to 6 yr. old), the level of Chinese learning among the students have improved dramatically. Since our child was fluent in Chinese to begin with, we were somewhat unsure about whether the Chinese curriculum was going to be challenging enough, but we are definitely not disappointed by the outcome (if not expectation exceeded) so far. The new curriculum director (who's terrific) for the CH has integrated arts, music and other subjects into the language program, and we are still constantly amazed by how much math the kids there are learning by age 5...The staff has created a caring/nurturing environment, and the parents are a group of great individuals. The school is by no means perfect, but given it's only the second year in operation, we think it's on a solid footing already. We have considered all the alternative Chinese immersion schools in the area, and we are very happy with our decision. Happy GMIS Parents

We have been thrilled by our kids' progress in Chinese since this summer when the school changed from a trilingual to bilingual program. All in all, we are very happy with GMIS and will keep our kids there for a while. GMIS parent