Falcon Heights Elementary School has been on the road to becoming a Quality School for many years. Early in that journey, staff made an agreement, which identified us as a member of Dr. William Glasser's Quality School Consortium. That agreement was reaffirmed during the 2001-02 school year. Dr. Glasser, a psychiatrist, has worked for over thirty years to improve schools. We have a number of books in our professional library that describe his vision in great detail. In brief, Dr. Glasser identifies three main goals that define a QS:
- Eliminate Coercion
- Focus on Quality
- Foster Self-Evaluation
Many of us continue to believe in these goals and our school might still be on the QS journey if training in its related practices was readily available. Given that QS training is a challenge and that Falcon staff are highly desirous of this kind of approach to leading our school, we have begun to embark on a path that parallels the QS ideals. This newer road is entitled: The Responsive Classroom approach. The seven guiding principles to RC are:
- The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
- How children are learning is as important as what they learn.
- The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
- There is a specific set of social skills that children need to learn and practice in order to be successful academically and socially: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control (CARES).
- Knowing the children we teach - individually, culturally, and developmentally - is as important as knowing the content we teach.
- Knowing the families of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children we teach.
- How we, the adults at school, work together is as important as our individual competence (see accompanying "Conditions of Quality" staff agreement).
The RC approach to learning is designed to create a safe, engaging, and joyful learning experience. The components of RC are:
- Democratically Set Expectations - A clear and consistent approach to discipline that fosters self-responsibility and self-control, which includes the use of consequences and restitution. Creating a safe and increasingly self-disciplined environment requires defining critical behavioral expectations and a process that effectively insures their continuance. The process should be preventative and one that includes teaching/learning provisions for students who make poor choices. The process should involve all the parties in knowing their rights, responsibilities, as well as the steps that will occur when a poor choice is made. Teaching students how to solve problems and make wise behavioral choices are our major goals in promoting self-discipline.
- Morning Meetings - A daily routine that builds community, creates a positive climate for learning, and reinforces academic and social skills. The time one commits to MM is an investment, which is repaid many times over. The sense of belonging and skills of attention, listening, expression, and cooperative interaction developed in MM are a foundation for every lesson, every transition time, every lining-up, every upset and conflict, all day, and all year long. MM is a microcosm of the way we wish our schools to be.
- Guided discovery - A format for introducing materials that encourages inquiry, heightens interest, and teaches care of our school. GD is used intensively the first six weeks of school to help children become acquainted with their classroom and its many opportunities for learning.
- Academic Choice - An approach to giving children choice in their learning that help them become invested, self-motivated learners. AC allows children to work more often at their own ability levels and/or interest areas. As a result, children feel more successful at their work which breeds even more success.
- Classroom Organization - Strategies for arranging materials, furniture, and displays to encourage independence, promote caring, and maximize learning.
- Reaching Out to Families - Ideas for involving adult family members as partners in their children's education.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed,
but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
James Baldwin
*Much of the information above was taken from Responsive Classroom materials.