Episode 20 Wow, Episode 20! A milestone. At the end of this podcast I announce a contest. E-mail me for a chance to win a copy of the Supportive Classroom curriculum. I will announce 2 winners on June 13, 2006....

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A group of 4th graders from the Swanton Central School planned a presentation and an interactive game to share with other children visiting the ECHO Center in Burlington as a part of their Earth Day celebration. The students presented...

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Episode 19 A short up-date on what is happening with the Vermont Partnership for Character Education project and with me since the project will ending this year....

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Episode 18 This is Part 2 of the reflections of Swanton Elementary School students and staff on their experiences with the Supportive Classroom over the past 4 years....

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Little Quack's New Friend is a new book by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Derek Anderson. Little Quack and his four brothers and sisters love to play together, but when a green frog wants to play with them, all...

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Episode 17 Teachers, students and parents have a chance to reflect on the past 4 years of implementing the Supportive Classroom at Swanton Elementary School. This is part 1 of our reflections....

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Episode 16 This is a short episode about my visit to Ambrose School in Winchester, MA. I have a great time with the students and faculty....

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Videocast 5 Reflection and processing with students is a critical step when learning new skills. Reflecting on multiple examples of core concepts and collaborative skills across the curriculum, the music they listen to, the tv shows and movies they watch...

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Videocast 4 This is a short clip from the Supportive Classroom Video (2000) on Entry Routines. Enjoy!...

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My wife, son and I spent a week on the island of Maui in Hawaii. What a great place to visit in the middle of a Vermont winter. When we left here it was snowing and when we returned...

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Episode 15 This has been a vacation week for me. I share a little news, share a little about my family trip to Maui and play some clips of island music by Iz. My son Ryan bought a ukulele....

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Episode 14 In this episode I read a poem written to the words Respect and Appreciation by 5/6 graders from the Swanton Elementary School Kaleidoscope Leadership Team. I also talk about factors important to implementing change in schools....

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Last Thursday, I spend the day at the Swanton Elementary School visiting seven 3rd and 4th grade classrooms to share a lesson on respect. I shared with the students the book of respect letters written by the kindergarten through...

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Episode 13 This episode includes the reading of several Respect Letters written by kindergarten through 2nd grade students at Babcock School in Swanton, VT and more information on the Child Lures Prevention Program....

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Episode 12 I discuss Nora the Nonapus, blog up-dates and the Child Lures Prevention program for keeping our children safe from sexual predators....

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Nora the Nonapus is a great book for fifth-graders to address issues about bullying, trust, belonging, sharing, respect and responsibility. It was written and illustrated by four fifth-grade girls. The authors are Susan Cavender, Vaishnavi Krishnan, Alison Smith and...

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Gary Dulabaum, a singer/songwriter, recently worked with several classrooms at the Swanton Elementary School. Each class of students put their classroom experiences to popular tunes and presented to parents, students and staff. This was a great opportunity for students...

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Mrs. Hancock's and Ms. Jenkin's classes participated in a community service learning project this last trimester. The students chose a charity or project to research and support for the trimester. As part of their work, students were responsible for...

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Episode 11 In this episode I talk about teaching collaborative skills and share hinesburg Community School's new school norms....

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The Hinesburg Community School's Program Council has completed their new and improved set of school wide norms. As you will notice, it is based on the Core Concepts! Great job!!...

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The Snow Bear by Liliana Stafford is a wonderful book that tells the story of an Inuit boy and a snow bear from the wild. It is an excellent book to discuss the core concepts with children. In order...

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Episode 10 Happy Holidays! This episode is a Merry Christmas treat - I read three short Christmas Stories and play intros to a few of my favorite Christmas songs. The stories are: 1. A Christmas Sight by Kimberly Ripley (found...

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My wife and I went to the Scholastic Warehouse sale in Williston last week and I bought two new books. "I Like Myself" by Karen Beaumont and "Unlovable" by Dan Yaccarino. They are both short books for younger children...

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Episode 9 In this episode I discuss Prevention, Teaching and Responding in relation to Student Success Plans for students with challenging behavior. Also more music from NTK....

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Videocast 3 This short video is actually the beginning segment of the Supportive Classroom Video. It provides a brief description of why we developed the curriculum and the relationship between the Supportive Classroom curriculum and the inclusion of studens with...

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Episode 8 This episode continues the discussion of Student Success Plans for students who present challenging behavior. You will also hear my son, Ryan, play his guitar and a short song by NTK (Ryan and Ethan's band). Forms from the...

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Jo Evelti, the early childhood teacher at Hinesburg Community School, was kind enough to share this book with me. Last week I visited her class and read the book "The Lonely Scarecrow" with her students. We talked about belonging,...

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Episode 7 This episode is devoted to a discussion of Student Success Plans for all students. I also talk a little bit about Personal Learning Plans. Samples are available on the Blog in the Classroom area....

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Episode 6 In this episode we hear the comments of Mary Wood, the SCOPE Coordinator at Swanton Elementary School, about her team's trip to the Character Education Partnership Conference in Atlanta, GA....

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Yesterday I visited with Mrs. Barber's 1/2 class at Hinesburg Community School. Mr. Bear (see above picture) and I lead an activity I call "Where is the Care?". There are times when children act in ways that make each...

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Episode 5- Forever This is a short podcast of Mrs. Barber's 1/2 classroom's class song "Forever". I visited her class yesterday and promised I would put their song up today. Enjoy!...

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Videocast 2 Hey, it works! If you subscribe through iTunes, the videocast will be automatically downloaded to your computer. In this clip we hear Sonja Burbank, 3/4 teacher from Thatcher Brook School, in Waterbury, VT, tell us what she like...

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Videocast 1 This is my first attempt at video. This is a short clip from the Supportive Classroom Video produced at the time the curriculum was developed. Let me know how you like it....

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Episode 4 This episode is devoted to great music from the Mosaic Project which is located in California. The songs are sung by Brett Dennen and his friends. There is a link to their website under the heading Quick Resources...

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On Friday, October 14th students from Swanton Schools helped to dedicate the new $2.5M Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters and Educational Center. A representative from each classroom was invited to take part in the celebration. Students donned red, white,...

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If you listen to the podcast (Episode 3) you will hear Mrs. Lasher's kindergarten class at Hindsburg Community School creating this Y-Chart. They did a great job. Who says this work is too hard for kindergarteners!!...

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An earlier posting (Sept. 9th) described a "getting to know you" activity using Venn Diagrams from Sally Fuesner's and Micheala Whitman's 3/4 classes at Hindsburg Community School. As promised, here is a sample diagram for your viewing....

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Mrs. Marsh's 7/8 grade Living Arts class at Hinesburg Community School, in Hinesburg, VT has been busy creating works of art, quilts, for children. The quilts will be donated to ABC Quilts - a charitable organization which distributes quilts...

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Episode 3 In this episode I talk about the use of Y-Charts for teaching the Core Concepts of Belonging, Respect, Trust and Sharing. Included is a short audio clip of a kindergarten class from Hinesburg Community School creating their Belonging...

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Episode 2 Today I talk about Core Concepts. Included is an audio recording of Mary Wood and I teaching a lesson on Belonging to kindergarten classes at Babcock School in Swanton, VT....

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If you listen to my Podcast (Episode 2) you will hear audio of a lesson that Mary Wood, the SCOPE Coordinator of the Swanton Elementary School, and I did for 5 kindergarten classes this past Thursday. This was our way...

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The Supportive Classroom manual was developed with the help of a Federal grant from 1997 to 2000. The curriculum was developed by Vermonters (classroom teachers, administrators, students and parents) and piloted in Vermont schools. Since it's development the curriculum...

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Episode 1 Hi. I have been experimenting with podcasting to see if I can create an audio show that people might be interested in hearing! This is another attempt at my first episode. If you have listened to it before...

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Students across our model schools are working on the Core Concept of Belonging. One activity we ask our teachers to do with their students is to develop a Y-chart of each Core Concept at the beginning of each school...

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1,2,3 Music by Sylvie Auzary-Luton is about a little girl, Annie, who is crazy about music. Her passion for music gets her into lots of trouble with her family and limits her ability to connect with her cousins. Something...

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The Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston and illustrated by Maggie Kneen is a beautifully written and illustrated book. It is about a scarecrow who is understandably lonely since he was made to scare the animals from the field. The...

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"The Other Side" by Jacqueline Woodson is a great picture book to use with children when discussing belonging. It depicts a time in our country's past when a small town was divided by a fence. Black people lived on...

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My trip to Winchester, MA earlier this week was fantastic. I spent several hours with seventeen teachers, grades K to 4, and their principal, Lisa McManus. What a great group of people! Ambrose is a spanking brand new school....

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