I know I’ve written before, about my gratitude for starting my career as a teacher with such a strong support system in utilizing The Responsive Classroom approach to classroom management. One of the guiding principles of RC is that teaching the academic curriculum is just as important as teaching the social skills. The approach reminds us that we cannot assume that students arrive at school learning important social skills such as cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self control.

There have been a few incidents over the last few days, that have reminded me that this is an integral part of our work as educators. In our school entryway, there is an easle where a morning message is posted each day for the entire school. Sometimes, we highlight a current event, a school event, or celebrate something great happening around the school. Just like on classroom morning messages, there is an interactive part of the message where students can share a thought or answer a question. Lately, there have been some silly (and sometimes less than appropriate) responses. So, I wrote a little sign to post of the easle, “One way we can take care of our SES community is to make sure we read and respond appropriately to our morning message…” Today’s responses were all on topic.

Then, today as I was finishing up a meeting in my office, a kindergarten class was walking by. The teacher popped her head in. “Can J stay with you for a minute?” J came and sat down and looked a little sheepish just as I heard his teacher from the hall tell another student, “This is why we need to keep our hands off of the walls.”

This gave me a clue as to why J was sitting with me. “Were you touching the tree out there?” I asked referring to the schoolwide tree our class had made after reading a text together.

J nodded but he didn’t seem to understand why this was not a good idea. “Did you know I hung that tree up there?” I asked. His eyes lit up.

“You did?” he asked. I went onto explain that all the fun and beautiful things hanging on our school’s walls was put up by someone. I used similar language to the poster on the easle, “One way we can take care of our school is…” J and I brainstormed things he could do with his hands besides touch the things on the wall, like putting his hands in his pockets (he actually checked his pants to see if he had pockets) or just hold our hands together while walking.

After our little chat, J and I made our way to the gym to join his class for PE. On our way, we admired all of the things on the walls of our school. As we passed by the bulletin board that holds photos of each staff member, J exclaimed, “I bet Ms. Messler (our principal) put that up there.”

I really believe that J never thought about how the things on the walls got there. But a little teaching and perspective may be all he needs to look around our school in a fresh new way. He wasn’t trying to be a nudge…he’s still learning.