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 Creation—helping students create classroom rules that allow all class members to meet their learning goals.
Interactive Modeling—teaching children to notice and internalize expected behaviors through a unique modeling technique.
Positive Teacher Language—using words and tone to promote children’s active learning and self-discipline.
Logical Consequences—responding 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 Solving—using Problem-Solving Conferences and other strategies to engage students in working through challenges in collaboration with their teacher.