1st 6 Weeks Basics and Key Terms

Intentions During the First Six Weeks

1. Create a climate and tone of warmth and safety.
2. Teach the schedule and routines of the school day and our expectations for behavior in each of them.
3. Introduce students to the physical enviornment and materials of the classroom and the school, and teach students how to use and care for them.
4. Establish expectations about ways we will learn together in the year ahead.

Basics of the Responsive Classroom Approach

1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
2. How childern learn is as important as what children learn (balance of teacher directed and child initiated experiences)
3. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
4. Children need a set of social skills in order to be successful academically and socially. (acronym CARES - cooperation, assertion, responsibiliy, empathy, and self-control)
5. Knowing the children we teach is as important as know the content we teach.
6. Knowing the parents of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children.
7. Teachers and administrators must model the social and academic skills which they wish to teach their students.

Morning Meeting (more to come as I read the Morning Meeting book); Four components:

1. Greeting: Children greet each other by name - handshke, singing, clapping, etc.
2. Sharing
3. Group Activity
4. Morning Message

Guided Discovery --- deepen understanding of activities, encourage sharing, establish common language, generate rules and procedures, reinforce guidelines for working cooperatively. Format for Guided Discover: 1. Introduction - naming; 2. Generating ideas and modeling exploratory work; 3. Children Explore; 4. Children share their explorations and observations; 5. Cleanup and care for materials.

Academic Choice - children learn best when they are given choices about what they're learning and plenty of opportunities to explore, make decisions, to take risks, and to make mistakes.

Modeling - ex. how to carry chairs in classroom, how to show that you are listening, how to line up at the door, how to use the drinking fountain, how to give a friendly handshake. Steps..... 1. teacher names and presents the desired behavior. 2. Teacher demonstrates the desired behavior. 3. Teacher asks students to notice and name the elements of the behavior. 4. The teacher focuses on "tricky" parts. 5. Students practice "tricky" parts by demonstrating and noticing what works. 6. Students practice behaviors as a whole class. 7. Teacher reinforces observed positive behaviors. 8. Teacher continues to reinforce, remind and redirect as needed.

Logical Consequences - primary goal is to help children develop inner control by looking closely at their own behavior and learning from their mistakes. Three R's: Related; Respectful; and Reasonable.

• Making reparations: You break it, you fix it. - if a child spills, cleans it up. If child accidently rips another students drawing, helps tape it back together.
• Mishandling responsibility - more limits set
• Time- out. ie. if disturbing group - time away from group (not miss rcess)

Quiet Time - 15 to 30 minutes after lunch for a breach from the rigors of academics and demands of social interaction --- allows them to be more porductive and engaged in the afternoon. The rule is that the children must work completely alone in their own space and the room must be silent. Children might be drawing, writing, working on the computer, resting, or doing an assignment. It is a reflective and restorative time for students and teachers.