Observations and documentation are an essential element of the Montessori method, and brightwheel makes it easy to track progress for each child every time they explore Montessori materials and activities.
Quickly select from a comprehensive set of materials, and log progress, photos and notes for one or multiple children.
Specific materials can be also linked to lessons to make logging observations even easier! Add these lessons to weekly lesson plans and have a cohesive learning and tracking tool that your teachers can leverage for easier planning and reporting.
Table of Contents
Set Up the Montessori Learning Framework
Add Montessori Milestones to Lessons
Log Observations
Set Up the Montessori Learning Framework
Any administrator can set the learning framework for your program's brightwheel account. This is done from the School Profile, listed under the School Settings section of the admin dashboard.
Once enabled, this framework will become available to all of the classrooms in your school account.
From the Admin Dashboard on the mobile app
Tap School Profile
Choose Learning Frameworks
Select the Montessori framework and tap Apply
Add Montessori Milestones to Lessons
(Only available on the web)
Linking specific milestones to lessons within lesson plans makes it even easier for teachers to log observations and track progress.
Select the Learning tab at the top of the screen, then select Lesson
Select New Lesson
Enter the name of the Lesson
Create the lesson by filling in the fields with as much information as desired
Link your lesson to specific milestones by clicking + Add Milestone
Select the Montessori framework from the Framework dropdown and then use the Domain field to further filter the milestones list. Or, use the search option to search for a specific milestone or by category
Click the Add button that appears when you hover the desired milestone
Log Observations
There are two ways to log observations in brightwheel: from the learning tab at the room level, or directly from a lesson. By logging observations you will be able to later report on progress.
Manually Log an Observation
Go to Learning from the home screen, tap Observation
Select students for which you’d like to add an observation & tap Next
Select the milestone with which you’d like to affiliate the observation. Note: you can search by keyword or filter by milestone domain & category
Tap a milestone to add it to your observation, then tap Record Progress to view the activity, before saving
You can also add notes and/or photos/videos to the observation if desired
Tap Create to save this record
Please Note: If you wish to log observations for multiple milestones all at once, simply tap the + next to Milestones, again.
Log Observations from a Lesson
With brightwheel's Lesson Planning feature, teachers and staff can create individual lessons to organize and structure their day. You can even log Observations for Milestones addressed in a given Lesson! Here's how:
From the Learning tab tap on the Lessons icon
Search for the Lesson you are intending to log an observation for and tap on it
Tap on Add Observation at the bottom of the screen
Select the students you wish to log this observation for and tap Next
Add any additional notes, pictures, or edit as needed; once ready tap Create
