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LEICESTER, Mass. — In an effort to help reinforce best teaching practices in their classrooms, on Friday teachers at Leicester Primary School continued a five day training in the Responsive Classroom approach, a progam educators hope will further improve student behavior and support academic growth.
The training was prompted by different populations of staff who were looking for school-wide behavior management policies "so that regardless of where a child is in our school, they know what the expectations are," said Principal Kathy Pelley.
The principal added that for children, it can be hard if they go to their class where there is one set of rules and one way of a teacher dealing with the organization of a classroom, while in the next class or even during lunch other staff members have another set of rules and regulations.
"The children can get very confused, so the desire is to, number one, make sure that it's developmentally appropriate," Pelley continued. "That what we expect of kids we know that they can do based on where they are developmentally, having high standards and high expectations for kids academically, behaviorally and across the board, and making sure that kids have a clear understanding of what's expected."
A lot of the work toward that goal was done over the years past, and last Spring the school began with a one-day overview of some of the premises associated with Responsive Classroom.
The feedback from instructors was tremendous, according to Pelley, which led to further staff training this past week.
"A lot of teachers feel validated, and some of their best instructional practices are highlighted and celebrated with responsive classroom," the principal added.
A group of 30 teachers from Primary, and six additional teachers from Memorial School were able to attend the training this week.
Taking a three-fold approach toward optimal student learning, the elements of responsive classroom include a focus on the adult community, schoolwide practices, and classroom practices.
"Our goal is really to create safe, joyful, and academically rich and challenging classrooms," said Sara Fillion, the Responsive Classroom instructor. "It's a combination of ways that we can help students meet social and emotional learning, as well as help enrich academics and help students really be part of the learning community throughout the day."
The ten different teaching practices include ideas like a morning meeting, rule creation, interactive modeling, positive teacher language, logical consequences, guided discovery, academic choice, classroom organization and collaborative problem solving, as well as working with families.
In a strategy like morning meeting, the class has the opportunity to gather as a whole, greet one another, share news and warm up for the day ahead with a group activity.
"We've kind of look at it as, how has it helped us as a learning community as adults, and then we look at it again for what are the benefits for the children as well," said Fillion.
Additionally, the teachers learned about the different logical consequences for when students break rules, and how to respond to misbehavior in a way that allows children to fix and learn from their mistakes while preserving their dignity.
For instance, Fillion explained the "you break it you fix it" rule, where if a student were walking in a hallway and were to knock down the artwork of another student, then that student would go back and pick up the artwork and get the supplies they need to hang up the display.
"It's really about moving away from the idea of punishment, and thinking more about helping students be part of the learning community, and really be in control of themselves, and make it right if they do break a rule," she added.
In February, the school plans to put together an implementation team in which ten of the members of this week's training will help spread the strategies schoolwide.
"I've actually seen positive results," said Pelley. "I'm very excited and I hope for good things. It is all about raising the expectations academically so that you have a setting that is optimal for student learning."
