Written by Sarah Scavone At this point in the school year, we have spent a great deal of time intentionally building our learning community. The strong relationships we build with our students, both student-to-teacher and student-to-student, are intended to provide them with a strong feeling of belonging and significance with their peers. This will support Read More »
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DEC
10
2019
Rediscovering the Power of Reflection
There are days when, as educators, so many tasks are vying for our attention that our to-do lists feel endless. During these hectic days, reflection — a key piece of teaching and…
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OCT
20
2019
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Re-establishing Balance in Your Classroom
With the changes in fall weather outside, the weather inside the classroom is likely changing too. As a result, teachers often find themselves responding to misbehavior more than they did earlier in…
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JUN
03
2019
The End of the School Year: A Time to Pause and Celebrate Successes
The walls of the classroom look emptier than they looked a month ago and a few remnants of the presence of students remain: a pencil here or a sticky note there containing…
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APR
25
2019
Six Ways to Celebrate Poetry Month in the Classroom
Did you know that according to poets.org, National Poetry Month is actually the biggest literary celebration in the world? It’s never too early to start fostering a love of the English language…
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DEC
26
2018
Healthy Teachers Make Healthy Classrooms
Responsive Classroom Consulting Teachers Joe Tilley, Luke Mason, Jenny Spero, and Ramona McCullough, and Professional Development Designer Michelle Gill weigh in on the importance of self-care. You already know that social…
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OCT
25
2018
Restoring Trust After Bullying
We do our best to create positive learning communities and stop bullying before it starts, but when bullying has already happened, how do you repair the classroom community? We asked Responsive Classroom…
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JUL
26
2018
What Are Your Hopes?
As we prepare for our upcoming Teachers and Leadership Conferences, we’ve been thinking a lot about hope. Students’ hopes and dreams are, of course, an integral part of the beginning of the…
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MAR
22
2018
It’s Time to Reconnect
Helping students build relationships with each other is a key to creating an optimal learning environment. Stronger bonds mean students will be less likely to be unkind, to exclude others, to call…
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DEC
21
2017
The Natural Learning Cycle
It’s the perfect time of year to pause and reflect on your personal teaching and learning goals—the hopes and dreams you set when school began. First, let’s take a step back and…
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OCT
24
2017
What is Quiet Time?
Consider the energy and intensity that often accompany the middle of the day. Lunch and recess provide students with opportunities to run, play, eat, and socialize, and teachers often see this energy…
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OCT
12
2017
Stop Bullying Before It Starts
National Bullying Prevention Month is an opportunity to reflect on a serious problem that not only deprives students of a joyful learning environment, but can have toxic effects on the recipient that…
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JUL
20
2017
Getting Started with Responsive Classroom
No matter where in the year you are, when you’re feeling ready to start using the Responsive Classroom approach, that’s the right time to begin! But where do you start? “It’s all…
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OCT
05
2016
Self-Assessment and Goal Setting Go Hand in Hand
When built into daily schoolwork, goal-focused self-assessment fosters academic achievement by helping students develop lifelong skills.
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MAR
14
2016
Breathe Life into Learning with Engaging Academics
Building the characteristics of engaging academics into lessons helps students do rigorous learning in a dynamic way. Students not only engage with and enjoy their learning, but are more willing to tackle…
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NOV
03
2015
Our Classroom Walls
During the school day we spend most of our time in our classroom and so do twenty to thirty students (give or take a few!). Many of us feel that our classroom…
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OCT
08
2013
Whose Classroom Is It?
One way the Responsive Classroom approach has changed my teaching is that I have learned to think of the classroom as a space that belongs to all of us, rather than as…
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AUG
05
2013
Envisioning Your Classroom
I started setting up my classroom a few days ago, and of course I was thinking about the first days of school, but what really guided my decisions was a vision of…
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DEC
12
2012
Are You Having Fun?
One afternoon in late October, my third grade class laughed together for the first time this year. It happened as we were getting ready to transition from science to math. "Okay," I…
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NOV
11
2012
November Blues
What teachers have to deal with at this time of year (in addition to teaching, of course) can be daunting—writing report cards, meeting with families at conferences, grading papers, adjusting to a…
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AUG
29
2012
Classroom Display Ideas
Last spring, I encouraged you to take a good, hard look at your classroom displays and think about how, in the future, you might increase the emphasis on displaying student work and…
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NOV
16
2011
Need a New Mattress?
At this time of year, people who work in schools often start feeling a bit frayed. Now that the school year is well underway, the "honeymoon period" of the first weeks is…
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JUL
25
2011
Downtime
By mid-July, my two children had finally settled into summer. I knew when I got downstairs one morning and saw my nine-year-old son, Ethan, coming through the back door in his bathrobe…
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JUL
01
2011
Mudge
How can you create a powerful sense of community in your classroom? With the leisure of summer, we can ponder questions like this and plan ahead for next year.
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NOV
01
2010
Welcoming Hannah
One November morning, I learned that Hannah, a transfer student, would join my third grade class the very next day. Feeling fortunate to have a little notice, I shared the news with…
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JUL
26
2010
Success for Substitutes
Just about every teacher needs to be away from the classroom at some point during the year. Whether you're away for a half day, a day, or several days, you'll want to…
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APR
15
2010
Our Passion for Teaching
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,”…
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