Chapter 2: Beginning the Year

What are the core design principles of a healthy learning environment?

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Twitter sized messages from this chapter:

• “Old friends & new friends, come on in.” Loving #YearatMH (link to episode 2)
• #YearatMH encourages creativity and community. (link to episode 2)
• “What hooks me is the autonomy I have as a teacher.” #YearatMH (link to episode 2)

Mission Hill Voices

(Names and spellings of key people in Episode 2): Kathy Clunis D’Andrea (K/1), Nakia Keizer (4/5), Jenerra Williams ( 2/3)

Complementary Resources for Chapter 2

WATCH

• Visual Influence's take on A Year at Mission Hill: Beginning the Year
• Empathy 101: A Refugee Curriculum Informs South Bronx Students
• Elijah: We're All Individuals
• Maranda: Talking with Teachers
• Dr. Vincent Harding, Creating America at CDF Racial Healing Town Hall
• Dr. Pedro Noguera: Demanding Education that Matters
• Education’s New Era: TEDx Talk with Scott Nine
• A Glimpse of How Eagle Rock Makes Students Feel Welcomed
• What Do Kids Have to Say About Empathy?
• Quiet Transformation at an Embattled School (from Edutopia)
• Small Hearts: Social and Emotional Learning Overview (from Edutopia)
• The World Becomes What You Teach (from the Institute for Humane Education)
• Playlist of 9 Short Videos Focused on Teaching Strategies for the Beginning of the Year (from NEFC/Responsive Classroom)

READ

• How to Balance the Art & Science of Teaching
• To Praise or Not to Praise
• Crash Course at Stanford’s d-school
• “Rethinking every assumption” by Kirsten Olson
• “Teachers at Work: Six Exemplars of Everyday Practice” by Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman (Students at the Center, Jobs for the Future, April 2011)
• Collective Visioning by Linda Stout
• Democratic Education In Practice: Inside the Mission Hill School by Matthew Knoester
• In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization by Deborah Meier
• Day in the Life - New Student Orientation (from Eagle Rock School)
• Letting Students Lead at St. Ann School (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)
• Does Your Child's School Teach Qualities You Value? (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)
• Whole Child Education: Maurice Elias interviews Molly McCloskey (from Edutopia)
• Building a Positive, Trusting Classrom Environment (from Edutopia)
• Strategies and Reasons for Getting to Know Students Better (from NEFC/Responsive Classroom)
• Learn How to Engage Students in Creating and Following Rules (from NEFC/Responsive Classroom)
• Small Moments by Susan MacKay (from Center for Learning/Opal School)
• Healthy Neighborhoods/Healthy Kids (from Shelburne Farms' Sustainable Schools Project)
• A Year at Mission Hill: Beginning the Year (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)
• A Year at Mission Hill: Cultivating Creativity and Community at School (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)
• A Year at Mission Hill: Will I Have a Friend (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)

LISTEN

• Susan Oliver: A Teacher Unlocks Hidden Talents
• How Eagle Rock crafts a new student experience
• BAM Radio on 2/21/13

DO

• Explore Your Learner Sketch
• Who Are You? A Questionnaire for Students on the First Day of School
• Start the Year Off Right: Ideas for Creating a Happy Classroom (from Edutopia)
• Explore Classrom Displays of Students' Hopes & Dreams
• Discover Ideas, Articles, and Resources for Creating Meaningful Classroom Rules
• Attend the meeting of your local school board or site council
• Take time to listen to young people, teachers, and wise elders in your community over the next two weeks. What do they want for the community? What learning links to their visions?
• Draw out your own ideal school as a reference point in your own learning journey.