Ideas & inspiration from the developers of the Responsive Classroom approach
From the monthly archives:
… in the Responsive Classroom online bookstore:
For a new teacher, I’d get one of the Responsive Classroom DVDs and its companion book. It’s hard to find time to read, especially when you’re starting a new career! Those DVDs let you watch and listen to master teachers and real students interacting in their own classrooms. I’d [...]
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Yesterday somebody who’d read Margaret Wilson’s post, “Handling Halloween High Spirits” asked “What’s the ‘Magic Box’ activity she refers to?” I wasn’t familiar with that one either. Since Margaret is presenting at one of our one-day workshops today, Babs Freeman-Loftis filled me in:
Magic Box – Begin by ceremoniously gathering up an imaginary box and setting it in front of you in the circle. Tell students this magic box contains items that each person in the class enjoys using. [...]
Continue reading Magic Box Activity
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Even if your school forgoes Halloween celebrations or costumes, I know from my own classroom experience that many children come to school on Halloween (or this year, the day before Halloween) keyed up and counting down the minutes until they “trick or treat.” With some careful planning, you and your class can have a happy and productive Friday this week despite the added excitement some of your students may bring to school. Here are some ideas to help you channel that extra energy [...]
Continue Reading Handling Halloween High Spirits
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We’ve just posted all the articles from the new issue of the Responsive Classroom newsletter on our website.
Continue reading Goodbye, August; Hello, November! to learn about the contents of the November newsletter — or go ahead and check out the new issue online now!
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My work as a consultant keeps me in contact with teachers all over the country, and for the last few weeks I feel like I’ve been hearing a lot from teachers who are feeling frustrated by students’ “chattiness.” I’m hearing things like “Mike, they’re not bad kids, they just won’t stop talking to each other. As soon as I stop talking, they start,” and “The constant chatter is interfering with their learning. They’re not paying attention.” [...]
Continue reading Do You have a Chatty Class?
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I recently had the privilege of witnessing an encounter that made me think about how important it is to communicate our faith in children’s positive intentions.
The assistant principal of a school I was visiting had just delivered a brief but powerful message about “great expectations” in the morning news broadcast. He’d spoken about how “we [...]
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Here’s a preview from the next issue of the Responsive Classroom Newsletter: “Small Changes, Great Gains: Adapting Morning Meeting to Help Children with Autism,” by Lauri Pepe Bousquet with Elizabeth Nash, explains how the routines of Morning Meeting can help students with autism and their classmates. The article is packed with practical suggestions and ideas that will make Morning Meeting a more successful experience for children on the autism spectrum.
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… Although they sometimes laughed at my poor accent, the children in my class who were native Spanish speakers were very excited whenever I introduced a Spanish version of a song. The native English speakers also loved learning songs in a new language. For both groups, knowing the melody and the meaning of the words made the experience more successful, so I taught Spanish versions of songs we’d already learned in English.
Some songs are easy to translate. For instance, after I taught my class “Head and Shoulders” in English, I “translated” it by [...]
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The Fall 2009 issue of the Origins newsletter is packed with great articles written by teachers! … I especially enjoyed Amy Alpaugh’s “Teaching Expectations,” about her efforts to improve her kindergartners’ hallway behavior, and Julia Garczynski’s “Crisis Control,” about developing and teaching a procedure for students to follow while a teacher attends to a child in crisis. [...]
Continue reading Great Teachers, Figuring Things Out
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Today’s recommendation: “What Do Insects Do All Day?”
I love the glimpse this article from gives into a classroom where the learning cycle is spinning beautifully and the teachers are using the structure of academic choice as a catalyst for that cycle.
Continue reading “ Have You Read This? What Do Insects Do All Day?”
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