Responsive Classroom

Over the summer, I attended Responsive Classroom training in Brooklyn Park. 

The website (http://www.responsiveclassroom.org) describes it briefly as a "widely used, research-backed approach to elementary education that increases academic achievement, decreases problem behaviors, improves social skills, and leads to more high-quality instruction." 

I always knew a little bit about Responsive Classroom and incorporated little bits and pieces of it in our classroom, but the training opened my eyes to why those little bits and pieces are effective and how to encompass this approach to teaching. 

Here are a few things that Responsive Classroom promotes/includes:

•   Community Building
•  High Expectations for all learners
•  Morning Meeting
• We will always begin with a greeting, sharing (however, no toys-we will share things about ourselves), an activity, and then we will read our morning message.
• Logical Consequences  
• Three consequences will be used: 
• Loss of privilege 
• You break it, you fix it  
• Take a break (in our room or in a buddy room) 
• Ownership of work & Intrinsic motivation   
• Doing a good job for themselves, being proud of themselves
•   CARES (cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, self-control)  
• Creating Hopes & Dreams and Rule Making

There many more things that go into this approach but the 7 listed above are the ones that will be most visible and that you will be hearing about the most from your child. 

For the first weeks of school, we will base our lessons on CARES. Each week, students will learn how to work with others, to be assertive, to be responsible, to be empathetic, and how to have self-control. Many of these things will be learned through literature, modeling behaviors, and through activities.

Our classroom already has a wonderful community feeling, but I think that this approach will help us become even stronger as a community, academically, and socially. I am excited for the school year to begin to implement Responsive Classroom to its fullest.

~Tiffany