Articles

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 conversations across the country regarding social justice issues. Middle school students are going to want to have rich, deep conversations…

Our students have experienced unprecedented changes in their daily routines and communities. The focused attention on racial injustice after George Floyd’s murder and calls for societal and governmental change at all levels have brought uncertainty and in many cases turmoil into the lives of our students and their families. When…

I once observed a classroom where a teacher attempted to gain the attention of a classroom actively and excitedly engaging in a science experiment by using her loudest voice possible to announce, “USE YOUR QUIET VOICES IN SCIENCE!” Her command blended in with the noise. I remember thinking to myself,…

Research doesn’t have to tell us the effect teachers’ mental and emotional health has on the classroom community (though it does). As we all know from experience, it impacts not only ourselves and our successes at school but our students’ experiences and school successes as well. Responsive Classroom’s second guiding…

According to the Child Mind Institute, there has been a 17% increase in anxiety disorder diagnoses in young people. When these children show up in our classrooms, they want to be successful just like every other student but face many more challenges than their peers. Irritability, fatigue, and sleep difficulties…

Responsive Classroom strategies, structures, and techniques offer a wide array of practices we can use for culturally responsive teaching. One of these strategies is student sharing. Providing opportunities for students to share about themselves and learn about each other helps build a positive classroom community, which is foundational for building…

Ensuring that all our students are academically engaged is our highest priority as educators. We want to teach our students the skills needed to creatively engage with content while becoming critical thinkers— to be effective communicators and problem-solvers while successfully collaborating with their peers. These are skills our students will…

Imagine walking into a family member’s home and seeing your photograph on the mantel, or being in class and hearing your professor use a cultural reference you connect with. These experiences make us feel like valued members of a community. This is the way students feel when they see images…

Recently, as I was returning a rental car, the associate behind the desk asked me an all-too-familiar question: “How was everything?” Without very much thought, I smiled and provided my routine answer: “Everything was fine.” She then asked me, “Is there anything that you feel we could do better?” I…

Black History Month is an opportunity for us as educators not only to teach students about historic contributors to our American history, but also to help students experience and find value in different cultures. This important work of raising awareness and appreciation shouldn’t be confined to one month; rather, we…

Helping students get back on track when they are engaged in off-task or rule-breaking behavior is an important goal when responding to misbehavior. We want students to quickly get back to positively participating in the lesson or activity. Our ultimate goal is for students to recognize when they are off-task,…

According to stopbullying.gov, between one in four and one in three U.S. students say they have been bullied at school. October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and this provides an opportunity for schools to focus on a serious, prevalent problem that affects the social and emotional well-being of students. Bullying…

It was the morning of the first day of school and for the first time in four years, I was preparing my daughter to attend a school where I was not one of the teachers. She was wondering many of the same things I was wondering: Would she like her…

Every interaction we have (or don’t have) with parents does, to some degree, reflect how much we value families’ input and the extent to which we see caregivers as our partners in educating their children. Conversations with families can be powerful vehicles for bringing the sixth guiding principle of Responsive…

A guiding principle of Responsive Classroom is “How we work together as adults to create a safe, joyful, and inclusive school environment is as important as our individual contribution or competence.” In order to create meaningful and lasting change in schools, we must have good working relationships with our co-teachers…

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 prevent misbehavior before it starts. However, there will still be occasions when you need to respond to misbehavior. These moments…

In 1991, Ruth Charney, co-founder of Responsive Classroom, wrote a book that impacted K-8 educators all over the world, Teaching Children to Care. A reflection of her 20-year teaching career as well as the stories and observations of colleagues, her practical and empathetic guidance has inspired teachers for decades and…

As the bustle of the after-school and after-work hours wound down for the night, I found my eight-year-old daughter in tears in her bedroom. She was hunched over her sketch pad. Colored pencils and multiple versions of self-portraits were spread all over the desk. When I asked her what was…

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 each other names, or to stand by in the face of mean behavior toward a classmate. The safer…

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…

Do you have a child in your class who is invisible to the other children? I'm thinking about the child who is forgotten when children choose work partners, who plays alone at recess, who may sit with others at lunch but isn't part of the conversation. I sometimes had such…

Natasha hurls a block when her carefully constructed tower falls down. Jose's flower drawing fails to resemble what he envisioned. Ripping up his paper, he stomps away. Abby tells Zara she can't join a math game. Zara scowls and shoves her classmate. Welcome to a fairly typical afternoon in my…

A new girl joins Chloe's class. Maya's clothes are old and ragged. Despite the fact that there's snow on the ground, Maya's shoes look like they're meant for spring. The teacher seats Maya next to Chloe. Maya smiles, offers to play, and tries to make friends. Chloe and the other…

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 teachers about how they managed challenging situations over the years. I've been moved to tears by stories of…

I was fortunate to hear Parker Palmer speak last week in a program sponsored by Courage in Schools (an initiative of Courage & Renewal Northeast) at Wellesley College. There were 120 educators in the room listening to and discussing his wise and timely thoughts on the five "habits of the…

My fifth grade class was about to welcome a new student—I'll call him Mark—who had a number of medical challenges. For instance, he had a feeding tube, and he suffered from uncontrollable and severe flatulence as a result. It was November, and we were his fourth school of the year.…