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Early this school year, our director, an enthusiastic supporter of the Responsive Classroom approach, suggested that I create a display in our school’s main entryway to introduce the approach’s core ideas. I…
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On a winter afternoon, a group of third graders has settled down for a class discussion. Their teacher, Nancy Kovacic, holds the book the children made last fall—pictures and words embodying their…
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It's hard for many children to have the right conditions at home for doing homework successfully. Yet teachers often must give homework. What are some things you do about this?
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Four classes of second graders have just begun a new science unit on insects at the University School of Nashville in Tennessee. I and the other three second-grade teachers have Read More…
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When each school in her district was required to convene a literacy team, Karen Casto, then principal of Penn Valley Elementary School, saw it as an opportunity for the whole school to…
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Megan’s Great Uncle John was dying of cancer, and she needed to share this distressing experience with her fourth grade classmates. During a Morning Meeting Sharing in October, Megan explained that her…
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Sheffield Elementary, a grade 3–6 school in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, faced a challenge familiar to many educators: how to develop a more consistent approach to discipline from classroom to classroom and in…
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Q: "Specials" teachers often see each child for only one hour a week. What's one way that you and a special area teacher have worked together to help him/her get to know…
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School Spotlight: Dame School, Concord, New Hampshire
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“Helping others in need” is a theme I like to use for focusing classroom activities with upper-grade students. The recent Asian tsunami disaster offered a good opportunity for an activity. It connected…
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Teachers work hard during the first six weeks of school to get to know their students and to establish a safe and welcoming classroom environment. This early investment makes the Read More…
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Question: Do you have a theme that you like to use occasionally to guide Sharing during Morning Meeting? What makes it work well with your students?
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After you’ve been teaching for even a little while, you’ll probably find yourself in this situation: You’ll be attending a reading workshop tomorrow. Today, you talk with your students about how they…
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"Good morning, friendly learners. Today we have a visitor joining us for Morning Meeting!” This is an announcement that students hear frequently when they begin their Morning Meeting at School 14. Every…
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Our school celebrates and welcomes our new kindergartners with a special all-school Morning Meeting affectionately known as “Crowning Day.” Planning for Crowning Day begins before the kindergartners start school. The fifth graders…
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For students, teachers, and parents alike, few events bring more hope and nervousness than the start of a new school year. As the summer winds down, many teachers begin to have conflicting…
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Question: What’s one activity you’ve found effective for the interactive part of the Morning Meeting News and Announcements chart?
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On a sunny October afternoon, kindergartner Chloe welcomes her mom into her classroom for a conference. Together they review a map Chloe had created with symbols representing the activities that the class…
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It’s language arts time in Mr. Jeffrey’s third grade class. The children have settled into their writing assignments. Mr. Jeffrey is working with a small group when he notices Lucia across the…
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One of the most valuable things we can teach students is how to assert themselves in respectful ways. In spontaneous and planned moments throughout the day, teachers can work with students to…
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In many classrooms, after the children and teacher create classroom rules during the first weeks of school, they revisit the rules at various points during the year. When do you do this…
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A whistle blows, signaling that the day is about to begin. The children scamper to organize themselves into grade-level lines. On an adult’s signal, one line moves toward the building, pausing at…
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Derek was a fifth grader who was avoiding writing. Whenever we had writing time, he would ask to go to the bathroom, and there he would linger. After observing this for a…
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Morning Meeting is over and writing workshop is underway. The children are scattered around the room sketching and then writing about objects that “called out to them.” Erin's dad is leaning against…
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Question: Think of an instance in which you used a teacher-child problem-solving conference. Why did you choose that strategy?  A: Edward often clowned around during work times, keeping everyone from getting work…
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“They’re fine when they’re with me. But when they step outside the walls of my classroom, their behavior falls apart,” says a fifth grade teacher. It’s a common lament. Many teachers have…
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The fifth graders and their teacher, Mr. Lomax, sit in a circle. In front of Mr. Lomax is an array of five dictionaries. The largest dictionary has a worn leather cover and…
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