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Social and Emotional Development

Classroom Practices that Support Students Social, Emotional, and Academic Growth

Children’s emotional well-being is supported by creating a safe environment for children. At New Heights we do this by establishing routines, setting clear expectations, teaching communication and problem-solving skills, teaching children to identify and understand their own feelings and the feelings of others, and developing knowledge and skills for healthy living.

Guiding Principles

  • The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
  • To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
  • 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 essential to children’s education.

Classroom Practices

Morning Meeting—gathering as a whole class each morning to greet one another, share news, and warm up for the day ahead.

Rule Creationhelping students create classroom rules that allow all class members to meet their learning goals.

Interactive Modelingteaching children to notice and internalize expected behaviors through a unique modeling technique.

Positive Teacher Languageusing words and tone to promote children’s active learning and self-discipline.

Logical Consequencesresponding to misbehavior    in a way that allows children to fix and learn from their mistakes while preserving their dignity.

                        You Break It, You Fix It

                        Loss of Privilege

                        Time Out / Take a Break

Collaborative Problem Solvingusing Problem-Solving Conferences and other strategies to engage students in working through challenges in collaboration with their teacher.