Responsive Classroom

A few weeks ago I received a newsletter for educators from Origins. It was a great reminder for me that what I have been trying to do in my classroom was important. After break, I had a number of students who struggled in getting back into the routine and we dealt with behavior problems, it didn't seem to help that I was out sick for a few days either. However, I have went back to reviewing our behavior expectations and incorporating those values and ideas in my morning message. The newsletter mentioned reviewing rules and positive behavior during morning message time. As a result, I included ideas and sentences pertaining to respectful behavior in my morning message. We also spent time reviewing respectful behavior during our greeting and sharing components. We still have work to do but I truly feel that it has helped get many students back on track.
I will continue to give those reminders through my morning message in striving to build a more caring and respectful environment.  The past few weeks have made a difference.
One thing I struggle with the most is finding the time to consistently get my morning meeting in each day. With our schedule this year, I lose reading/language arts time in order to get all components of our morning meeting in.
What is more important? The academics or continuing to working in building classroom community. I know what is valuable but I feel we need that time for academics as well. I will say that investing time in creating classroom community and modeling positive behaviors this year has alleviated wasted time in dealing with off task and behavior problems. In other words, I have many more students this year that are on task and engaged in their learning compared to last year. We still have our moments but I do enjoy working with my students.
Is it the classroom community or is it better behavior from students?

Responsive Classroom Games

Watching, Reflecting, Modeling, Practicing

Winter Newsletter 2012 (RC)