Last week, Margaret Wilson’s post about read-aloud books for launching discussions of hopes and dreams mentioned Matthew’s Dream, in which the title character realizes that he wants to be an artist. I thought immediately of my sister Beth, who teaches first graders in Charleston, West Virginia, and a story she told me recently. When she asked her students “What are you most excited about learning this year?” one child jumped up and said, “I want to be a dentist!” [...]
Continue reading “I Want to Be a Dentist!”
Last week I sat in on a Responsive Classroom Level 2 course in New York City. What a treat for me to spend time with teachers who are learning to use the Responsive Classroom approach! … I jotted down some notes about online resources that might help my classmates with some of their questions – or simply reassure them that other teachers have similar struggles. Since I figured you might have the same challenges, too, here are some of those ideas [...]
Continue reading “Ideas and Inspirations from RC2″
Did you know that two-thirds of the achievement gap in reading can be related directly to unequal summer learning opportunities? Even though I’ve seen firsthand how students can lose ground in their learning over the summer, that statistic shocked me.
Continue reading “Will Your Students Keep Learning This Summer?”
I was so moved by your responses to my last post about the importance of bringing joy to classrooms! The images of college students being read to, classes dancing at “boogie breaks,” and teachers letting students help decide what to do at centers brought me my own measure of joy. Your feedback also made me think about how equally vital it is for each of us to reconnect with our passion for teaching — and to hold on to that in the face of stress and obstacles.
Continue reading “Our Passion for Teaching”
Margaret Wilson: There were so many times when you could have been drawn into power struggles with Sammy, but you resisted. How did you do that?
Caltha Crowe: It’s easy to get sucked into power struggles with children. Early in my teaching career it happened to me a lot. [...]
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A couple months ago I had the chance to read an advance copy of Caltha Crowe’s new book, Sammy and His Behavior Problems: Stories and Strategies from a Teacher’s Year, and I wrote about how much I loved it and learned from it in a previous post. Recently, Caltha and I talked about her experiences with Sammy for an article that will appear in the April 2010 issue of the Responsive Classroom newsletter. Today and tomorrow, I’m previewing parts of that interview [...]
Continue reading “Ask the Author: Caltha Crowe (Part 1)”
I am so excited about the release of Caltha Crowe’s new book, Sammy and His Behavior Problems: Stories and Strategies from a Teacher’s Year! When I got my advance copy, it was a very busy time, and I thought I’d just browse it. Instead, I was so drawn into the inspirational and moving story of Caltha’s remarkable relationship with one third grader—Sammy—that I read the whole thing in one sitting! … Caltha’s stories about avoiding power struggles with Sammy made me think of students I’ve taught over the years and of one student in particular [...]
“What I Learned from Sammy and His Behavior Problems”
Have you noticed an age shift in your class now that it’s the middle of the year? It always seemed to me that when we’d come back from February vacation, my students had all grown an inch, seen some new movie that changed the lingo in the room, and were suddenly more mature, for better or worse. [...]
Continue reading “Do your students seem older?”
