Ideas & inspiration from the developers of the Responsive Classroom approach
From the category archives:
How do you introduce students to their classroom and its resources? The Responsive Classroom practice of Guided Discovery is a focused, purposeful, and engaging way to begin. Guided Discovery stimulates creative thinking and teaches students how to use classroom materials independently and responsibly. … Here are some video clips and links to articles about Guided Discovery [...]
Continue reading “Exploring the Classroom”
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Knowing the typical schedules and routines of the classroom helps children feel secure and competent. Here are some links to articles that will help you create schedules and teach routines that fit your students’ needs. Check out one or two and let me know what you think: Have you found ways to make a tight schedule more child-friendly? Does a particular routine really make a difference in your classroom? [...]
Continue reading “Schedules and Routines”
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Is Sammy and His Behavior Problems on your summer reading list? Here’s a video of author Caltha Crowe describing her new book and her inspiration for writing it [...]
Continue reading “Caltha Crowe: Why I Wrote Sammy”
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Last week, in a post on Two Writing Teachers, the terrific blog she co-authors with Stacey Shubitz, Ruth Ayres wrote about how powerful the words, tone of voice, and manner a teacher uses can be: “My voice does matter. Your voice matters. Everyday we are given the opportunity to encourage and strengthen and uplift” … and I thought about how helpful it can be to actually hear real teachers using positive language strategies. Then I remembered that we have some sample video clips from the new Teacher Language Professional Development Kit that we haven’t shared here yet. [...]
Continue reading “The Power in a Teacher’s Choice of Words” and watch the video clip.
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Children of all ages enjoy “Dum Dum Dah Dah.” In this quick movement break, a leader establishes a pattern and the group chants or sings the words as they echo the leader’s actions.
Continue reading “Energizers! A follow-the-leader activity for all ages”
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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 [...]
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Many of us are longing for spring, but it’s still February! It’s a great time to perk up your class with quick energizers sprinkled throughout the day. Here’s one called “Double This Double That”—especially fun for students in grades three through six.
Continue reading “Energizers! Double This Double That”
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We’re counting down the days until early January, when the Teacher Language Professional Development Kit will be in stock at our warehouse and ready to ship. (You can pre-order now and be one of the first to get it.)
Like the Morning Meeting Professional Development Kit, this multimedia kit contains everything a school-based facilitator needs to run an eight-session study group [...]
Continue reading A New Way to Learn about Teacher Language
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Caltha completes the story she began in Part Two by describing the problem-solving strategy she and Sammy agreed to try when either of them felt Sammy was starting to lose control. [...]
Continue reading this post and watch the video interview with Caltha Crowe (Part 3).
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In the first part of this three-part interview, Caltha Crowe said that knowing a child’s triggers could help with solving behavior problems. In Part 2, we asked for a specific example. [...]
Continue reading this post and watch the video interview with Caltha Crowe, Part 2
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