Students come to ACS Cobham International School in England from all over the world. Some stay for their entire pre-collegiate school experience and others make a home there for just a few years before the next stop on their globe-trotting journey. “There is a huge range of cultural expectations [among ACS families] about how schools Read More »
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NOV
05
2018
The Challenge of Kindness
National Bullying Prevention month may have ended last week, but the work of stopping bullying in our classrooms and schools continues throughout the year. By committing to The Challenge of Kindness we…
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SEP
21
2018
Creating Lasting Change
Michelle Gill is a professional development designer at the Center for Responsive Schools, and former educator at Garfield Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. During her time at Garfield, she was part…
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AUG
23
2018
Building a Joyful Foundation
I can remember my first days as a principal as if it were yesterday. The vividness of the memory is largely because my first days of being a principal were also the…
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OCT
01
2015
Taking Positive Language Schoolwide
Positive language is a powerful tool for building a calm, safe school climate. The words we use when we talk to students, the intention behind these words, and how we deliver them…
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AUG
18
2015
Strong Communities Build Strong Schools
Ask Dr. Nicole Evans Jones what the key is to creating a positive climate for children and she’ll tell you it’s all about the people and their relationships. Sure, the curriculum matters.…
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APR
03
2014
Three-Year Survey of Students
Principal Dennis Copeland had one goal in mind when he decided to survey a group of 200 students in his school over a three-year period:
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MAR
20
2014
High-Morale Schools: Readying Students to Take on the World
Morale can be hard to define, but you know it when you see it. When you walk into a school and everything immediately feels calm, safe, respectful, rich with learning, you know…
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DEC
19
2013
Cyberbullying: A Resource for Educators
Do elementary educators need to proactively protect their students against cyberbullying? Elizabeth Englander, in her engaging and readable new book Bullying and Cyberbullying: What Every Educator Needs to Know, makes a persuasive…
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DEC
13
2013
Q & A with Matt Miller
Last week, when the national news media picked up a story about a 2nd grader's idea for making recess work better at his school, Roundtown Elementary principal Matthew Miller contacted us right…
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OCT
31
2013
Teaching Love
I recently had the pleasure of spending two full days at Garfield Elementary School in Springfield, Virginia, a school that has been using the Responsive Classroom approach for close to ten years.…
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DEC
19
2012
More Resources for Educators and Parents
Our appreciation for social media grew quite a bit when we asked "Educators, how was the day?" on the Responsive Classroom Facebook page on Monday afternoon, and over 100 people responded. We…
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DEC
16
2012
No Ordinary Monday
Teachers, principals, and other school staff nationwide are thinking about what to do and what to say tomorrow when they and their students return to school in the wake of the horrific…
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DEC
04
2012
Bullying and the New Kid
"There's a new girl in my class," my grandson told me. "She's from Russia, and she doesn't speak English yet. Her name is Petra, but kids call her 'Comrade Communist.' " It…
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OCT
15
2012
More Bullyproofing on the Bus
The school bus is a hot spot for bullying, one of the least supervised and least programmed parts of children's school day. With nothing to do and no one to stop them,…
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AUG
01
2012
Close the Gateway to Bullying
An adapted excerpt from Chapter One of the award-winning book, How to Bullyproof Your Classroom
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JUL
05
2012
Whose Job Is It to Stop Bullying?
When adults start thinking about bullying prevention, I've noticed we often go right to wondering how to teach children to "stand tall." This idea—that a child who is being bullied can stop…
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JUL
03
2012
Bullying and the Bus Monitor
Have you watched that video that shows middle school students on a school bus, bullying their bus monitor? I watched it a few days ago. The video is painful, even disgusting, but…
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JUN
25
2012
Bullying: What Are We Teaching?
Did you see the recent news report about a kindergarten teacher who lined her class up and directed each child, in turn, to hit a classmate who'd been accused of bullying other…
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JUN
13
2012
Working with Students to Stop Bullying
Bullying behaviors go on under our radar. Children report far higher levels of bullying in their classrooms than their teachers do. They see it when we don't. It happens while we're helping…
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JUN
08
2012
Extraordinary Acts
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the amazing things teachers do, often almost without thinking. While working on my latest project, a book about behavior challenges, I've been interviewing some experienced…
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MAY
31
2012
Bullying We Ignore
Louis announces, "Paul's feet smell, eww." His classmates laugh, and his teacher goes on teaching. "Look at your ugly lunch," "You have on boys' socks," "Your hair is nappy and you'll never…
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MAY
21
2012
Bullying We Don’t See
Teachers are supposed to have "eyes in the back of our heads." When I was teaching, I believed I did see everything—I certainly thought I knew when children misbehaved. Then, while researching…
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MAY
08
2012
We Can’t Stop Bullying Alone
It seems to me sometimes that children's teachers and children's families live on different planets when it comes to the issue of keeping our children safe in school. Personally, I've lived on…
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APR
10
2012
Bullying Prevention and the Responsive Classroom Approach
Your latest book is called How to Bullyproof Your Classroom. What got you interested in the topic of bullying and bullying prevention? Bullying is in the news. As I read accounts of bullying…
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OCT
24
2011
How We Want Our School to Be
Several years ago, teachers at Ironia Elementary, a suburban New Jersey school with 600 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, began working with their students each September to create classroom rules—simple but…
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AUG
19
2011
Joplin Schools Open On Time
One night this week the national news included two snippets related to our country’s schoolchildren: one I found very discouraging and the other really heartening. The discouraging news was that one in…
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