Often, when I talk with teachers who have started trying out Responsive Classroom practices such as interactive modeling, they reflect, “Interactive modeling worked great for a while. My students did really well with whatever I modeled and they practiced. Then, things slowly started to slide.” Of course, I’m not in these teachers’ classrooms to know exactly what is going on, but I have a pretty good hunch — and an idea for how to change this trend. [...]
Continue reading Use Reinforcing Language to Keep the Learning Going
Perhaps you’ve seen the news that First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Hollin Meadows Science and Math Focus School in Alexandria, Virginia, last week as part of their promotion of the Obama administration’s Healthier U.S. Schools initiative. Their visit was timed so that they could help students and parents harvest lettuce from the school’s garden for a school community Thanksgiving dinner … Raising a garden is just one of many components of a strong and healthy school community at Hollin Meadows, where staff implement many Responsive Classroom practices. [...]
Continue reading RC Works!: Hollin Meadows School
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).
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
This week on Responsive, we’re featuring a three-part interview with Responsive Classroom author Caltha Crowe. In this first part, we asked Caltha to expand on what she said about getting to know students in the Responsive Classroom newsletter in August 2009. [...]
Continue to read more and watch the video interview with Caltha Crowe, Part 1
Transitions are often an area children seem to struggle with — and they can be challenging for teachers, too! Watch this video clip, taken from the “Putting It All Together” section of the Teacher Language in a Responsive Classroom DVD, to see how third grade teacher Kerry Tuttlebee uses several different positive language strategies to keep students moving during a transition while maintaining control in the classroom. [...]
Continue reading Teacher Language & Transitions
Responsive Classroom co-founder and author Chip Wood is floating a “trial balloon” over on his Yardsticks blog this month: he’s looking for parents who’d like to share questions about their children’s development, behavior, or school-related issues with him and the blog’s readers. So far, he’s responded personally to each question that’s been asked. [...]
Continue reading Chip Wood is taking questions from parents!
We all have funny stories about things children say as they try to make sense of what they’re learning in school, such as this one a teacher shared with me recently:
The teacher and one of her students were looking at a book about animals. The child pointed to a picture of an elephant and said, “It’s a frickin’ elephant.”
The teacher took a deep breath and said, “What did you call it?” [...]
Continue reading What Students Hear
A great new e-book called Supporting the Whole Child has just been published by ASCD, and you can download it for free for the next two weeks (through November 17).
The e-book includes thirty articles published in Educational Leadership from 2006-2009 as part of ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative. … I’m delighted to let you know that there’s a chapter by Responsive Classroom consulting teacher and fellow NEFC author Caltha Crowe, and one by me. [...]
Continue reading Supporting the Whole Child
