Kuunari

Responsive Classroom is a curriculum for social, emotional, and academic growth. More can be seen about it here. It has become very popular here in Minnesota, with many schools throughout the state using it, to great success. I believe it is based on a book called teaching children to care.

I was talking to my future sister-in-law, and we both agreed that any teacher who is against responsive classroom doesn’t really understand it. It starts with the basic premise that all kids want to be good. If you don’t believe that, it’s hard to see how you could possibly succeed as a teacher. Responsive Classroom then gives you a simple framework to teach the children what it means to be good in school. It’s not about giving students a ton of choices, but rather, teaching them how to make a choice when they have the opportunity.

I would hope that more teacher preparation programs incorporate Responsive Classroom. Everyone I talk to wishes that they had received some kind of behavior management training before they had walked into a classroom. Sure, some teachers walk into their first classroom ready to control behavior, but for most of us, it’s a lot of trial and error, which hurts our ability to teach, leads us to leave the classroom, and ultimately hurts the students.