The beginning of the school year is a time to get to know our students. We prepare community-building activities and lessons to help students feel safe in their classrooms and Read More »
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OCT
01
2021
I’m Not Acting as Role Model, I’m Serving as a Role Model: A Conversation with Authors Julie Kelly and Kirsten Howard
Julie Kelly and Kirsten Howard are Responsive Classroom consulting teachers and contributing authors for the forthcoming Empowering Educators series (Julie worked on Empowering Educators for Grades 3, 4, 5; Kirsten Read More…
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SEP
24
2021
Empowering Educators to Get to Know Their Students: A Conversation with Authors Andy Moral and Heather Young
Early in the school year, all educators are faced with the same important task: getting to know their new students. To learn some effective strategies for making connections with Read More…
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SEP
23
2021
Peanut Butter, Grape Jelly Song
As seen in The First Six Weeks of School, 2nd edition! “Peanut Butter, Grape Jelly” Peanut butter, grape jelly, peanut butter, jam Peanut butter, grape jelly, peanut butter, jam Read More…
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SEP
10
2021
A Successful Start to the Year – One School’s Story of Adults Making a Difference by Working Together
In the first week of my teaching career, I had a colleague say to me, “You get only one chance to start the year off in a good place Read More…
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MAY
21
2021
Celebrating a Year of New Learning
This year tested us, our students, and their families as everyone worked to meet new and challenging expectations. Yet our students, when faced with seemingly impossible circumstances, were able to Read More…
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MAY
04
2021
Responding to Learning Loss
In June 2020, the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company released “COVID-19 and Student Learning in the United States” a report that outlined the alarming potential impact of school closures Read More…
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MAR
09
2021
My Superhero Cape is a Bathrobe
This school year, more than ever, teachers have been labeled by many as superheroes. According to Wikipedia, “a superhero or superheroine is a stock character that possesses abilities beyond those Read More…
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NOV
12
2020
My Approach to Virtual Kindergarten
Last spring, when terms like global pandemic, virus, hybrid-, distance-, synchronous-, and asynchronous-learning first became a regular part of educators’ vernacular and most educators across the country were thrown into Read More…
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NOV
12
2020
How Responsive Classroom Practices Can Act as the Glue for a Virtual Classroom
Ever since March 23, 2020, when the school where I work, Steel City Academy, transitioned to virtual learning, I’ve found myself constantly asking what education will look like moving forward. Read More…
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SEP
28
2020
Taking Risks for Our Students
The excitement of a new school year generally greets me in a place of confident anticipation. Like the edge pieces of a newly begun jigsaw puzzle, cherished September routines provide Read More…
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SEP
22
2020
Using Interactive Modeling to Create Consistency in a Changeable Situation
As they step into the 2020-21 school year, teachers across the country are facing a wholly unique set of challenges brought on by the novel coronavirus, including the question of Read More…
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SEP
17
2020
Creating Space for Students to Discuss Social Issues
Along with new structures and strategies teachers are employing in response to the multitude of changes to their teaching environments, the beginning of this school year is defined by the Read More…
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JUL
23
2020
Running on Empty? You Need a “Refill Station”
This spring, many educators and administrators experienced working from home for the first time. We were teaching, leading, and planning in the same spaces where we cook, clean, parent children, Read More…
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JAN
01
2020
Goal Setting: An Ongoing Method for Channeling New Energy
Every January 1st, we all receive a chance to start fresh. While many of us set a New Year’s resolution, often we only manage to stick with it for a week Read More…
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DEC
16
2019
Use Envisioning Language and Goal Setting to Promote Student Reflection
Showing Students What Is Possible The language we use with students every day influences how they see themselves. Our words can shape students’ views of themselves years after our direct Read More…
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OCT
21
2019
What to Do When Students Start Testing Limits
The school year is in full swing: hopes and goals have been established, classroom and school expectations are in place, and learning is in high gear. Everything is off to Read More…
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SEP
17
2019
Creating a Place for Learning
We all can think of stores that felt inviting and organized, places that created the optimal shopping experience. Classrooms, like stores, can be places where we frequently want to spend Read More…
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SEP
05
2019
Preparing Students to Become Independent Learners using Routines & Procedures
It’s the start of a new year! Day one is either right around the corner or has just recently taken place. The beginning of the year is filled with so Read More…
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SEP
03
2019
Setting Goals, Hopes, and Dreams: Connecting Students to the Community
Watching a student show up to school each day excited to learn is one of the great joys of teaching. We give our students that spark when we help them Read More…
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JUL
31
2019
Establishing Balance at the Start of the School Year
Summer’s adventures and excursions are dwindling, and your email inbox is filling up with welcome back notifications, professional growth opportunities, new initiatives, and meetings. These clear signs that a new Read More…
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JUL
10
2019
Relax, Reflect, Recalibrate
It’s the middle of the summer, another school year is successfully in the books, and preparations for the new school year are not quite in full swing. Now — while Read More…
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MAR
07
2019
Clearing the Way for New Growth
Recently I was in a school conducting observations, and I noticed that all of the classrooms were picture-perfect. The decorations on the walls looked like an advertisement for a teacher Read More…
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DEC
06
2018
Responding to Misbehavior with Empathy
Taking proactive steps to build a strong learning community, with practices like positive teacher language, interactive modeling, and investing students in rules through Hopes and Dreams, does a lot to Read More…
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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 Read More…
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JUN
20
2018
This Room Was Made for You and Me
Children need a classroom environment they can understand and trust. They need to understand the routines and to know where to find things, they need uncluttered spaces to do their Read More…
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FEB
08
2018
Teaching Students to Speak Confidently
“As their teachers, we hold in our hearts our own hopes and dreams for [our students]. We want them to engage in academic rigor and to be ideamongers who contribute Read More…
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