| By: Committee for Children Book Review: Margaret and Margarita/Margarita y Margaret by Lynn Reiser Reading Level: Preschool–Grade 2 When two mother/daughter pairs arrive at a park one day, the little girls are reluctant to stay. “There is no one to play with,” says Margaret to her mother. “No hay nadie con quien jugar,” says Margarita to her own mother. Their mothers at first…Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson District Data on the New Second Step Program for K-5 See how fourth- and fifth-grade students name “feeling” words before and after Second Step lessons.Read More
| By: Committee for Children In the Aftermath of Newtown, Working Toward Safety and Healing Dear members of the Second Step family, By teaching social-emotional skills to your students, you are making real strides toward the realization of a vision we share: safe children thriving in a peaceful world. Last week, this vision was challenged as we learned of the tragic deaths of so many innocent children and caring educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The news of this event was heartbreaking to us at Committee for…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Serving, Learning, and Becoming Great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” Dr. King’s simple statement captures the essence of what is possible for all children when they are given the opportunity to act in the service of others: to make a difference, to matter, and to have a positive impact on the world. In short, to achieve greatness. How can we help our children become great? First and foremost, they need…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen and Elaine Greenstein Reading level: Preschool to grade 2 Every winter morning an old woman named Sarah watches out her window as neighborhood children gather at the blue spruce tree to wait for the bus. When she notices one boy without mittens, she worries all day. Finally she digs out her old basket of yarn and begins knitting. Early the next morning, before any of the children arrive, she sneaks…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Service Learning for Pennies a Day When most of us see a pile of pennies, we think it doesn’t amount to much. But the kids at Madison Middle School know better. Some of the students at Madison participate in an extracurricular activity called Read More
| By: Committee for Children Social-Emotional Learning, Parts 1 and 2 http://www.parentmap.com/article/video-social-and-emotional-learningRead More
| By: Committee for Children Film Spurs Change Nationwide http://globegazette.com/news/local/film-spurs-change-nationwide/article_c1c5ac52-36be-11e2-903c-0019bb2963f4.htmlRead More
| By: Allison Schumacher On the Importance of Being Crazy About a Child “Somebody’s got to be crazy about that kid, and vice versa! But what does ‘crazy’ mean? It means that the adult in question regards this particular child as somehow special—even though objectively the adult may well know that this is not the case… For the child, the adult is also special—someone to whom the child turns most readily in…Read More
| By: Committee for Children The Recipe for Creating Positive Teacher-Student Relationships All of us, if we were lucky, had teachers with whom we shared positive, supportive relationships. When in their presence and in their classrooms, we thrived: We learned more and enjoyed school more. But what were the ingredients that went into creating these positive relationships? Researchers over the years have worked to uncover teachers’ strategies for developing positive relationships with their students. It turns out that it’s a…Read More