When I taught fourth grade, I introduced two-digit multiplication around the middle of each year. This would always stump a number of students who had breezed through math up until that point. Patty was a classic example. Frustrated when her initial attempts at this new level of math failed, she declared that she just couldn't do it, not now, not ever.

During my thirty-nine-year teaching career, I’ve walked school hallways in five states and taught many students in public, private, and parochial settings. Over all those years, I’ve seen the power of group gatherings, whether daily, weekly, or monthly. In schools where those gatherings are purposeful, fun, and tied closely to the curriculum, I’ve seen the social-emotional and academic learning that’s happening in classrooms concentrate in the gatherings and then ripple throughout the school.

In many classrooms, it's during transition times that things get a little chaotic, possibly resulting in behavior problems that frustrate in the moment and spill over into the rest of the day. Many teachers resign themselves to the chaos. For years I did that myself. Then one year, I decided to tackle transition problems head on. Here's how I worked with fourth grade students to make transitions calm, orderly, efficient—and even fun!

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 away. "I want you all to share in the excitement and celebrate this," he said, "because the idea of the Buddy Bench has its roots in Responsive Classroom and the positive environment we've created at Roundtown. We would not be where we are without you!"