The Caring Classroom: A

Curriculum of Care in the

Classroom

How to encourage the growth of competent and

caring students who are prepared to be productive

citizens in a 21st century society.

• % of every message is communicated

through the use of BODY LANGUAGE

• % of a message is communicated

through your TONE

• _____% of a message is communicated by

what you SAY

The Caring Classroom: A

Curriculum of Care in the

Classroom

How to encourage the growth of competent and

caring students who are prepared to be productive

citizens in a 21st century society.

TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD

Objectives

• Understand the importance of an safe, orderly

and caring environment that builds true

community in your classroom.

• Understand the importance of focusing on

students’ moral development as well as

intellectual growth in order to prepare them to be

caring citizens in our society today.

• Create a safe, trusting, self-managing

environment by building a sense of community

within the classroom.

• What is the ultimate aim of public education today?

• What do our students need from their education, and

what does our society need?

• What does a classroom community look like?

• What are your most frequent challenges with

students?

Guiding Questions

“The popular response today is that students need

more academic training, that the country needs

more people with greater mathematical and

scientific competence, that a more adequate

academic preparation will save people from

poverty, crime, and other evils of current society”

~Nel Noddings

5 Ways to Build a Community of Caring

Citizens in Your Classroom

• Self Assessment of YOU

• Know and Notice all of your students

• Social Contract

• Accountability

• Redirection

Evaluate your own behavior

1. If everybody where I work was just like me, what would

this place be like?

2. If my face froze in my most common expression, what

would it be?

3. If as many people helped me today as I helped others,

how much help would I get?“

4. If today was videoed for my peers, what would be their

criticisms? What would be their accolades?

5. If I became just like the two people I choose to be

around the most at work - what would I become?"

How are you "the change you wish to see in the world"?

~Mahatma Gandhi

Are we always aware of

what we’re communicating?

• 55% of every message is communicated through

the use of BODY LANGUAGE

• 38 % of a message is communicated through

your TONE

• 7% of a message is communicated by what

you SAY

• SHAKE HANDS– Make it

your PRIORITY to

acknowledge every

student that walks

through your door!

• Builds mutual respect

• Models social and

professional skills

Know & Notice All of Your Students

If you really knew me you

would know….. • Reflective writing

• Small group discussion

• One on one discussion with students

Social Contract

1. How do you want to be

treated by me (leader)?

2. How do you want to be

treated by each other?

3. How do you I (leader) want

to be treated by you?

4. How do we want to treat

each other when there is

conflict?

EMPOWER YOUR STUDENTS

How many of

you get tired

of your

teachers

nagging you

and telling

you what to

do?

If you help each

other and I

don’t have to

get involved,

there will be no

consequences!

4 Redirecting Questions

1. What are you doing?

2. What are you supposed to be doing?

3. Are you doing it?

4. What are you going to do about it? • So what’s going to happen if you do this

again?

Dealing with disrespect

1. How were you talking to me?

2. How are we supposed to talk

to each other?

3. Are we doing it?

4. What are we going to do

about it?

“You earn the right to discipline a child. If you haven’t

won their hearts, you haven’t earned the right.”

~Flip Flippen

• Be consistent in referring back to it daily.

• Ask students for feedback after you

implement it?

• Address Conflict

• Use “non-verbal” signs • A signal the leader uses with the group

• The signal the group uses with each other

Accountability

Resources

• Challenge Day:

o http://www.challengeday.org/mtv/downloads/IYRKM_IntroGuide.pdf

• Capturing Kids Hearts

o http://www.flippengroup.com/education/ckh.html

o http://www.pinterest.com/hbolles/capturing-kids-hearts/

• Developing Social Contracts

o http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-louisville-sel-protocol-

for-developing-the-social-contract.pdf

Resources

• The Flippen Education Group

http://www.flippengroup.com/education/ckh.html

• Noddings, N. (2002). Educating moral people: A caring

alternative to character education. New York: Teachers College

Press.

• Noddings, N (2006). Critical Lessons: What our school should

teach. New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Watson Marilyn (2003). Learning to Trust: Transforming Difficult

Elementary Classrooms Through Developmental Discipline.

Jossey-Bass.

Every Kid Needs a Champion

Will you be a champion?