Next Step Adventure :: mindful, creative, fun approaches to help people and organizations reach the next level
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Everything you’ve always wanted to know about worms, and more! Create your own worm composting bin. Learn about the important jobs worms do for us. Talk about garbage!
At the Creative Arts Festival, we had lots of materials for experimentation–dry pigment, spray bottles for water, hair dryers, materials for collage. We let each group play with the materials on large sheets of high quality water paper.
Use this award-winning picture book to help young kids talk about the serious issues we face in our communities. “Sometimes when you’re surrounded by dirt, CJ, you’re a better witness for what is beautiful.”
“Breathing exercises get them back on track,” she says. She decided to try teaching her students controlled breathing techniques and now uses a breathing exercise for a few minutes after recess each day.
“I have 25 kiddos. I just feel like, as a teacher, I have to help all of them – including that one child whose struggles with focus or emotional regulation result in classroom behaviors. When they are stressed, their behaviors can escalate quickly.”
Turning over more control of class conversations to students can be scary, but I’ve found that as long as I’m doing my part, students don’t disappoint me.
School has started now, and I’m reflecting on our summer together–trying to decipher what made it so special. Although our calendar looked wide open, never once did I hear the words, “I’m bored.”
Teachers can improve student to student conversation nonverbally by paying attention to their position in the classroom…Thoughtful classroom movement also helps the teacher manage the classroom by discretely redirecting students.
…the way teachers respond to their students greatly impacts the authenticity of the discussion. It’s not surprising that teachers who interject their own ideas and/or reject or rephrase students’ ideas, kill the conversation off quickly.
Teachers ask a lot of questions, but many of those questions target basic knowledge or recall. We can make our discussions more effective by beginning them with “What”, “How”, “Why”, “If…then”–open-ended questions that require more thought.
