Posted by Chip on March 16, 2010
Parents, how are your kids doing this week with the time change? If you notice that they’re a little more worn out and fussier than usual, it may not be something going on at school or with friends—or then, again it might be, because all that stuff is harder this week, and they can’t figure [...]
Categories: Developmental Needs, Managing Behavior, The School Year |
Tags: adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, children's need for sleep, daylight savings time, Developmental Needs, Managing Behavior, The School Year | 
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Posted by Chip on March 15, 2010
Some call this week at school “March Madness,” with a nod to the endless basketball parade on television this time of year. The analogy does fit if you think about the college kids who are sometimes playing three and four basketball games in as many days, the ones with the greatest stamina often the ones [...]
Categories: Developmental Needs, Managing Behavior, The School Year |
Tags: adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, children's need for sleep, daylight savings time, Developmental Needs, Managing Behavior, The School Year | 4 Comments »
Posted by Chip on September 9, 2009
The room was still as the diverse group of ten- and eleven-year-olds waited for the President to come on stage. They seemed interested in the goings-on in the energetic high school audience and applauded when the President appeared, right along with the high school students.
It was a short speech with big ideas, and the fifth [...]
Categories: Diversity, The School Year |
Tags: Diversity, President Obama, The School Year | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on September 1, 2009
By now you may have heard that President Obama will be addressing our students nationwide on September 8th at 1 p.m. EST. It should be exciting and inspiring!
Here’s the letter sent out to principals by his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan:
Dear Principal:
In a recent interview with student reporter Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that [...]
Categories: Schoolwide Initiatives, The School Year |
Tags: Arne Duncan, Arnold Gesell, Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum, Michael Gurian, President Obama, Race to the Top, Schoolwide Initiatives, The Mind of Boys, The School Year, Time to Learn | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on August 28, 2009
“Listening and observing are two of the most important and underdeveloped teacher tools.”
As I watched the eager and sometimes anxious faces of children entering their new classrooms for the very first time this year, I thought about how quickly the social order—sometimes called the “pecking order”—in every classroom seems to get established. And I thought [...]
Categories: The School Year |
Tags: back to school, building adult community, listening and observing, The School Year | 7 Comments »
Posted by Chip on August 17, 2009
Schools are about to reopen after a two-month vacation in most locations, and parents everywhere are thinking about “back to school” shopping for new clothes and school supplies. Everyone has one eye on the swine flu and schools are preparing for immunization clinics and procedures to follow if children become ill.
These are all necessary steps [...]
Categories: The School Year |
Tags: children's need for sleep, National Sleep Foundation, The School Year | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on May 13, 2009
Paradox – a statement or situation that seems to be contradictory,
but in fact is or may be true.
The end of each school year presents itself to teachers, students, and parents in endless contradictions, stark and glorious contrasts of seeming absurdity and meaning-filled traditions and rites of passage.
With less than a month to go [...]
Categories: The School Year |
Tags: close of the school year, end of the school year, The School Year | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chip on May 1, 2009
As highlighted in my last blog entry, it’s that time of year when there’s more to do then there is time to do it. No one feels the anxiety of this more than the children in our classrooms, and the children who feel it most intensely are those facing the greatest challenges.
Whether we are a [...]
Categories: Developmental Needs, The School Year |
Tags: Developmental Needs, The School Year | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chip on April 28, 2009
Pretty much no matter where you live or teach or where your children go to school, this time of year, and in some cases, this particular week, marks the beginning of many annual rituals and transitions full of difficult dilemmas and wonderful paradoxes.
In some school districts, children are just returning from a week of April [...]
Categories: Developmental Needs, The Responsive Classroom® approach, The School Year |
Tags: Developmental Needs, end of the school year, Responsive Classroom approach, Responsive Classroom newsletter, The School Year | 3 Comments »
Posted by Chip on March 16, 2009
Well, last week, we did it again. Tinkered with time, moved our clocks forward a little earlier and fooled ourselves into thinking we can squeeze just a little more out of life by building in as much daylight as possible.
If you want to know what price we’re all paying for this, consider that we’re a week [...]
Categories: Developmental Needs, Managing Behavior, The School Year |
Tags: children's need for movement, children's need for sleep, Developmental Needs, John Ratey, Managing Behavior, The School Year, Time to Learn | Post a Comment »
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