Mitchell is a Responsive Classroom School

The Responsive Classroom is a general approach to teaching, rather than a program designed to address a specific school issue. It is based on the premise that children learn best when they have both academic and social-emotional skills. The Responsive Classroom approach consists of a set of practices that build academic and social-emotional competencies and that can be used along with many other programs. These classroom practices are the heart of the Responsive Classroom approach:

• Morning Meeting—gathering as a whole class each morning to greet one another, share news, and warm up for the day ahead
• Rule Creation—helping students create classroom rules to ensure an environment that allows all class members to meet their learning goals
• Interactive Modeling—teaching children to notice and internalize expected behaviors through a unique modeling technique
• Positive Teacher Language—using words and tone as a tool to promote children's active learning, sense of community, and self-discipline
• Logical Consequences—responding to misbehavior in a way that allows children to fix and learn from their mistakes while preserving their dignity
• Guided Discovery—introducing classroom materials using a format that encourages independence, creativity, and responsibility
• Academic Choice—increasing student learning by allowing students teacher-structured choices in their work
• Classroom Organization—setting up the physical room in ways that encourage students’ independence, cooperation, and productivity
• Working with Families—creating avenues for hearing parents’ insights and helping them understand the school’s teaching approaches
• Collaborative Problem Solving—using conferencing, role playing, and other strategies to resolve problems with students

As we work together to build our classroom community you may hear your child talking about activities or procedures in our classroom that are part of Responsive Classroom.  For example we start our day each day with a Morning Meeting where we greet each other, participate in an activity or song, and share news with each other.  We also worked together to create classroom rules and have used Interactive Modeling to practice our rules.  Students are learning that when we forget the rules that Rest and Return is a place to go in our classroom to regain self control and handle mistakes in a positive way.  One strategy students have used to regain self control is to take 3 deep breaths.  Each student then decides for him/herself when they are ready to rejoin the group.  You can find more information about Responsive Classroom at http://www.responsiveclassroom.org