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Positive Classroom Culture = Happy Kids + Happy Teacher + Maximum Learning

Vibrant, positive, productive classroom culture is a foundation of learning. Students do their best work when their time is honored and when they feel safe, successful and known.

But easier said than done. It’s hard work building pitch-perfect cultures that maximize learning.

On May 11 and 12 in Troy, NY (just outside Albany) we’ll spend two days studying how to make that happen.

We’ll look for example at how important it is for teachers to to look!

See for example how Arielle Hoo gives a clear and concise observable direction and then makes it clear by looking carefully for follow-through that the directions matter. Her students are on it!

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Over and over her directions are crisp and clear and she takes a moment to make sure students see her looking at whether they’ve done it, as in this still shot, just after she’s asked for “books closed and eyes up here.��

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Her students respond and she rewards them with dynamic teaching and a bit of appreciation: a thanks, a nod, a smile.�� If students are not with her she makes an Anonymous Individual Correction such as, “waiting on one.�� The result is time on learning and a dynamic learning environment that students appreciate.

We call this the What To Do Cycle.

The 4 key components are:

What To Do Directions: Give clear concrete observable directions for the task you want students to do.Be Seen Looking: Look deliberately for follow through after you direction. Make sure that students see you looking so they know it matters to you and they know you’ll notice whether they do it.Narrate the Positive: Acknowledge (but don’t praise) students as they begin to do it: “Thanks, Chris, for getting started right away. Thanks Jasmine.”Correct When Necessary: Use the Least Invasive form of correction such as Positive Group Correction (Make sure your pencil is moving) or Anonymous Individual Correction (Still need two see two students writing).

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Speaking of “narrating the positive�� or describing positive behaviors in a way that shows appreciation and makes positive norms more visible to fellow students, watch how Janelle Austin uses that idea masterfully here:

The highlight of this clip is the moment when Janelle says, “I see hands up that are ready to read,�� and suddenly everyone’s hand goes up. Once students recognize that positive behavior is the norm, they are usually all-in.

We’ll also talk quite a bit about having strong routines for core academic behaviors such as Turn and Talk.�� Watch this clip of Christine Torres. Those silly kids. They seem to think vocabulary is about as much fun as a class can have. In part it’s because the routines for Turning and Talking and other behaviors are so crisp there’s no a second of down time. In pat it’s because when they know how to participate and be successful students feel a part of something.

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A happy productive positive learning environment is a gift to young people- and, we think, they deserve as much every day.

If you’d like to invest in your or your school’s capacity to build make sure the 23-24 school year starts off with maximum positivity and productivity, please join us at the workshop. Seats are open to everyone.�� Details here:

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If you want problem solving, make sure students are looking at the problem��

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Cognitive load theory describes the relationship between Working and Long-term Memory during learning.

Understanding cognitive load theory and its implications for the classroom is one of the most important things teachers can do to improve their instruction.��

Cognitive load theory focuses us on understanding and addressing the importance of building Long-term Memory. Kirschner, Sweller and Clark define learning as “a change in long-term memory�� for example. “If nothing has altered in Long-term Memory,�� they point out, “nothing has been learned.”��

It also stresses the limitations of Working Memory–thinking we are aware we are doing. Working memory is powerful but small. Barak Rosenshine’s work focuses teachers on sharing new information in small steps, for example, and then giving students an opportunity to process and reflect on chunks of information briefly before then encountering another small dose of new content.

One of the most important and perhaps lesser known applications of Cognitive load theory is the “Transient Information Effect.”�� Working Memory is powerful but its capacity is small, so when information that is important to a required task disappears it hinders learning because students have to both remember and think about/analyze it.

If you want problem solving and analysis, this is to say, it really helps to be looking at the problem. If we’re a group and you want us to discuss solutions, ideally all of us are looking at the same problem! If we’re looking at it we can constantly refresh our working memory about the details and thus use all of our cognitive bandwidth to analyze.

One easy way to apply this in the classroom is via the TLAC technique Show Call, which involves selecting an example of student work and projecting it to the class while discussion and analyzing. When students can see it they are best prepared to study it.

You can see Britt Carson of Memphis Rise doing that here:

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Britt’s asked her students to write a short response describing how the potential energy of a book changes when it moves to a new position.�� After they write she wants to have a brief discussion about the correct answer.�� She starts by taking one student’s work and projecting it to the class. Then, starting at about :50 in the video, they discuss it.

Notice that as they discuss the original answer everybody is looking at the example. This is far better than Britt reading the example to the class because they can constantly refresh their working memory about what it says and use all their capacity to reflect on its strengths and weaknesses.�� As they think about how to improve the sentence they can constantly refer back to what’s there.

But Britt is also easily able to direct students�� attention to specific parts of the answer by pointing or underlining. For example when she starts revising they can see and focus in on exactly the right part of the sentence.�� Now they have a clear and specific picture of how to improve it, not just a vague sense of what they might do. Both the initial work and the mark-up are visible to students and she can constantly direct them to specific parts of the answer, as when she underlines the word “store.��

Finally, because students are looking at the same image on the screen that they have on their page, it’s easy for them to transfer what they learn and revise to the written page.

You can see something similar at work in this video from Julia Addeo’s math class at North Stat Academy in Newark.

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Julia’s approach is both similar and different. Instead of starting by projecting a student’s written answer, she transcribes Hakim’s initial response and then the group gradually improves and clarifies it. But she’s projecting as the does this so students can see the full answer and the improvements each step of the way.�� So for example, at the end, when Julia asks a student to refine her initial answer with a�� clarification–they are not manipulating the x ‘axis�� but rather the x ‘variables’–her student can re-voice the entire revised answer clearly and easily. “Say everything you just said but with the x values,�� Julia says, and the student can create a full revised answer in a complete sentence easily because she can see it!!�� Because she can complete this summary with a lessened load on her working memory, she’s also far more likely to remember it.

In the end students are left with what we call a “Collectively Worked Example,�� a single answer that represents the best thinking of the group. The model response they develop is better than what any single member of the class could produce on their own. What a powerful tool.

So�� if you want to give students the opportunity to experience the full benefits of their own analytical abilities in thinking about classroom content and if you want them to be able to remember what they think about, make sure the object of their analysis is visible via Show Call or the slight variation that Julia uses, the Collectively Worked Example.

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The TLAC team will be in London April 20 and 21 for a two-day workshop on Engaging Academics.

I thought I’d tell you a bit about what we’ll be working on those days.

First the content:�� We’ll take a deep dive into a series of key techniques focused around the skill of questioning and how it can be used to cause students to engage fully in thinking rigorously about content. The techniques we’ll study include Wait Time, Cold Call, Everybody Writes. We’ll talk about how to cue students, so they know HOW to engage the questions implicit in a lesson via Means of Participation. We’ll talk about how to ask follow-up questions after initial student responses via Right is Right, Stretch It, and No Opt out. And we’ll talk about how to prepare a lesson to ensure full engagement from students.

Here’s one example of a clip we’ll study. This is Ian Bristo of Piper’s Vale Primary in Ipswich with his Year 1 students:

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Notice how he shifts deftly from Volunteers (ie taking hands of students who want to answer) to Cold Call (selecting himself who answers) to Turn and Talk to Call and Response. His students are happy and thinking hard, the fast and unpredictable shift in HOW they answer belying their deep and sustained thinking about the math.

But notice too how well he’s embedded his systems. Students know NOT to call out their answers when he’s taking hands but they know TO call out their answers when Ian uses Call and Response.

When he makes the Turn and Talk gesture with his fingers, off they go in a well-rehearsed routine.

Making the primary tools for thinking about questions well-oiled routines and making it clear and transparent which routine students should use allows them to engage un-selfconsciously and helps Ian’s lesson achieve a kind of “flow�� state where students are “happily lost�� in the work of learning.

After we watch videos we’ll engage in practice, with activities designed to help teachers and leaders reflect on how to cause what they WANT to happen during their lessons to ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

So we’ll watch this video of BreOnna TIndall Cold Calling

And then we’ll practice Cold Calling after letting students prepare–as BreOnna does–and with a warm smile–as BreOnna uses so that each teacher adapts the ideas to their own style and setting.

Finally we’ll reflect on how to build environments back at our schools that help teachers prepare and practice and succeed to they become the teachers they want to be.

Our goal is not only to study the craft of teaching but to work hard and have a great tie doing it. We think teachers deserve to love professional development. To have their minds lit on fire, to prepare to succeed, and to have a great time doing that.

If you want to know more or sign up to join us, .

Hope to see you there!

-Doug

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One of our favorite topics at TLAC Towers is Checking for Understanding. How do teachers prepare for and react to student errors and misunderstandings? Many of our best videos on the topic are of math teachers–the nature of math makes predicting and sequencing errors a bit simpler than in the humanities, say. So we were especially thrilled when we came across a great example of Emma Gray using some of our favorite moves at in the Bronx.�� Our own Sarah Engstrom shared this analysis of the clip:

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Planning for error might be an educator’s most powerful tool. When you spend time before the lesson anticipating specific mistakes �� What will they misunderstand? Where will the misconception be? �� you are more likely to notice these misunderstandings when they occur. In Teach Like a Champion 3.0¸ we share about researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons�� concept of intentional blindness, the experience of looking directly at something important and not seeing it. It’s an easy thing to do in the complex environment of a classroom, but overcoming this tendency is simpler than you might expect �� “make the unexpected object or event less unexpected.”�� By priming yourself to notice the error, you’re more likely to respond to it productively. This is the kind of off-stage magic we saw when we watched Emma Gray, a teacher at University Prep in the Bronx recently.

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Emma and her 5th grade class are reading Number the Stars when Emma asks why Lowry changes the mood to one that’s lighthearted after a tense moment. As students work independently, Emma scans for an anticipated error. Emma expects that although her students will be able to identify comic relief, they aren’t yet practiced at showcasing their analytical thinking, so Emma focuses on the “why.�� Identification is not the same as analysis and she wants to see her students get deeper. She knows this question is worth pausing for�� this is one of the key moments students need to grasp to understand this part of the novel.

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Emma pauses her students (“Put our pencils down for a second and turn over here. Thank you.��) and names that she wants to push them further (“Comic relief from what?��) She then gives them an entry point (“Turn back to your Do Now. What did we say our mood was at the beginning?��) and offers a beautiful pre-planned scaffold (“I want you to use this sentence starter: Lowry changed the mood from blank to blank because…��) Importantly, she then sends students back to work to revise their response (“I’m going to give you two whole fresh minutes.��) and restarts her monitoring. This move shows that not only does she care that students get this important idea from the novel, but she’s also going to help them get there. Emma is their coach �� the expert who can gently guide them to a more sophisticated understanding. It takes planning to know what to attend to and it takes a little more planning to know how to coax this thinking out of students.

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Other things we noticed and loved:

We also love the question she asks. Instead of the more simplistic “What is the mood?�� Emma asks, “Why does Lowry change the mood?�� Establishing the mood is important but it isn’t the stopping point.Emma’s sentence starter (Lowry changed the mood from blank to blank because��) is a great one not only because it causes students to think deeply about the key idea, but also because it’s evidence of her planning. She knew students could pinpoint the funny, lighthearted moment but might miss the significance of the timing of this moment in the text.‘Whoops my bad, put that right below your answer, no need to erase�� helps set up the nice Culture of Error �� or feelings of mutual trust and comfort intaking intellectual risks �� present in her classroom. An added bonus is that �� for students who hate to erase and start over �� it makes them more likely to see this as an opportunity rather than a chore.

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By the way, Emma is using our own writing-intensive, knowledge-rich Reading Reconsidered Curriculum middle school literacy. If you are interested in learning more about or in piloting the Reading Reconsidered Curriculum please visit: ��

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One of the challenges of good classroom management is that it’s often practically invisible- it’s happening off stage or on the margins of the stage; it’s usually built into habits and expectations. When it works it’s hard to see the moves that make it possible. When you can see the behavior management moves, it’s sometimes all you can see and the larger culture of positivity and productivity gets lost.

But the video I’d like to share today is, I hope, an exception.

It’s of Rebecca Olivarez�� math class at Memphis Rise Academy in Memphis, TN.

I’m going to show it in two parts.

First, here’s a longer segment of Rebecca’s lesson when students are working hard to solve math problems, largely on their own, but where in Rebecca observes their work, interacts supportively with individual students, gathers data carefully and then fixes a common misconception among the class. The classroom is an optimal place to learn. Students feel safe, successful and known, and they learn a lot.

Here’s the clip:

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How does she do it? How is she so successful at getting everyone productively and positively engaged?

One key is something my colleague Darryl Williams calls the “‘What To Do�� Cycle.��

The best teachers we’ve studied use this cycle, or a variation of it, with consistency throughout their lessons to build a warm, supportive culture of follow-through. The 4 key components are:

What To Do Directions: Give clear concrete observable directions for the task you want students to do.Be Seen Looking: Look deliberately for follow through after you direction. Make sure that students see you lookingso they know it matters to you and they know you’ll notice whether they do it.Narrate the Positive: Acknowledge (but don’t praise) students as they begin to do it: “Thanks, Chris, for getting started right away. Thanks Jasmine.��Correct When Necessary: Use the Least Invasive form of correction such as Positive Group Correction (Make sure your pencil is moving) or Anonymous Individual Correction (Still need two see two students writing).

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Here’s the equation: WTD ��> BSL ��> Narrate ��> Correct When Necessary (using Least Invasives)

Consistency is important. When you do it consistently you can be subtle and fast.

In light of that here is a re-cut of Rebecca’s video above showing the the three times she uses the What To Do Cycle within this short segment.

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As you can see, one of the keys to her successful classroom culture is her attentiveness to her direction giving. Each time: clear, crisp observable direction, scan for follow-through, acknowledge productive follow-though, correct if necessary (by now, it rarely is).

As in:

WTD: “Find this statement in your work and box it.”��BSL: Rebecca scans from the doc cam (using a Swivel) to ensure students are following throughNarrate: “Thanks, Mario for doing this.”Correct: Positive Group Correction: “I should see pencils moving.��

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Now you know the secret.

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Show Call is one of my very favorite teaching techniques and if you’re a reader of this blog you know that Spencer Davis is one of our favorite teachers to study. So what could be better than a video of Spencer modeling Show Call.

Context:�� Spencer’s sixth graders are reading Wonder. They’ve just read a passage about one character’s perspective on her friendship aith another character. the lesson plan–from our Reading Reconsidered Curriculum–pulls the two girls�� descriptions of the changes in their friendship and places them side by side.�� Spencer asks students to make notes on similarities and differences.�� He gives them seven minutes to do this. Then at the end, he Show Calls two students work. Both of them are exemplars- that is they’ve both done a great job.

Here’s the vid:

Spencer’s goal here is to build a strong incentive among students to do their best written work. He’s trying to make the written lives of students visible, to and to give students a model of what great note-taking looks like. [If you allocate 7 minutes of class time to a task you want to make sure students work hard at it and know what “good�� looks like!]

Spencer honors the two young women by sharing their work and having them describe it. He asks others to update their notes accordingly. The message (and incentives) around how hard you work when you given a written task are revised upwards. As we discuss on Team TLAC in our discussions of the technique Silent Solo this is a big deal. ��

Successful teaching often consists of sublime moments achieved in part via mundane tools. Changes in the ways we ask students to write can transform the ways they think and maximize the value and quality of other activities we engage in as well. If you can get everyone in the room to write for a sustained period of time, [with full effort] the benefits to student thinking and discussion will be many.

Spencer does just that here- using Show Call to socialize the habit of full effort at written tasks here.

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Raising Your Hand in Class Shouldn’t Work Like This

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Just watching some video this morning a recent lesson of Spencer Davis�� at University Prep in the Bronx. I’ve posted about Spencer’s teaching recently (and will post about again soon). He’s a master of subtly and lovingly building academic culture with his sixth graders. You can see plenty of that in this recent post of his retrieval practice.

But today I want to share perhaps the shortest clip I have ever shared on the blog. Short but perfect.

Background: One of the things that is necessary to a classroom with high Ratio–kids doing the cognitive work–is slowing down students who have internalized the idea that participation is a race. If you believe the goal is to get your hand up first–or even to call out your answer right away to get heard–then the maximum amount of thought you or anyone else in the room can put into an answer…even to a very good one…is limited. Rigor collapses when answers are arrived at in a fraction of a second.

So it’s important for teachers to be attentive to ensuring Wait Time and not immediately calling on the first hand–and more critically, not allowing students to call out. You’ll notice that Spencer has done that here. Super eager students but no calling out.

But the next step is to socialize students to take their time and think about their answers, to use the think time you give them.

And that is why I love this clip so much. Here Spencer refers back the the passage they’ve just read–they’re reading Wonder–and starts to ask about it.�� Five or six students�� hands shoot into the air. They are eager to answer. Hooray!

Or is it hooray? Because, as Spencer lovingly points out (in perfect nonjudgmental tone and with a smile) they don’t actually know the question yet!

A sin of enthusiasm? Surely, yes. But as we attend to our own teaching craft it’s also critical to help students become more mindful of their own behaviors as students. And so, rather than just allowing students to throw their hands up regardless of question, Spencer mindfully reminds them to be mindful.�� “We don’t know the question yet.�� [Smile]. A beautiful signal to students to take their time and think about their answers.

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TLAC team-member Beth Verrilli recently watched footage of Mandie Avila��s first grade lesson at MOSAICS Public School in Caldwell, Idaho and shared these notes:

One thing that struck me about Mandie’s lesson was how effectively she engages all of her learners, and authentically creates a sense of belonging in her classroom.

You can watch some highlights of her math lesson here, which begins as students are creating a visual model to represent an addition problem on their whiteboards:

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In the video, we see that Mandie carefully sequences her Means of Participation to engage students.

She begins with Everybody Writes, independent work time to allow students time to process content on their own.

A Turn and Talk follows, so students can verbalize their response and then hear it verbalized by a peer.

The sequence ends with a student coming to the board to share out the number sentence, so all students can stamp the correct response one final time.

This final whole-class share out after a Turn and Talk is a smart way for teachers to clear up misconceptions that might occur during paired conversations—though Mandie also does that during the Everybody Writes by carefully monitoring student work.

While Mandie’s thoughtful sequencing supports successful participation, it also creates a warm and positive classroom culture and fosters a sense of belonging. ��

Note, for example, that Mandie prepares her students for the Turn and Talk during their independent work (“…and put a star next to the representation that you want to share out with your partner��). Turn and Talk is clearly a routine (students will share out “just like we do each day��). There is a system—L and R partners are pre-assigned, Mandie explains who’s going first, checks that each student knows which partner they are, and reviews their role during the Turn and Talk. When there are familiar routines to engage in—and when students experience their peers engaging in these routines—it strengthens the sense of safety in the classroom.

Within this system, Mandie includes some variation to keep students engaged and to build a bit of student autonomy. For example, the partners are not always “L�� and “R.�� Somedays, the partners are “red and yellow�� or “sunshine and wind.�� Mandie intentionally selects the student pair and offers the labels, but within the pairing, students can determine who is sunshine and who is wind. Mandie explains that this promotes engagement: self-selecting their roles means that students won’t know whether they’ll speak or listen first, which can avoid students believing that “Oh, ‘L�� always goes first; they must be the smarter kids.��

Mandie’s sentence starters (“I believe the answer is ___and this is how I solved�� or “I respectfully agree/disagree with you��) are another helpful technique to help build students�� socialization skills. Although Mandie uses sentence starters throughout the day, she finds them especially supportive in math, where they help students frame their explanations in a full sentence, slow down to explain the steps involved in a math concept, and thoughtfully enter into the give-and-take of a conversation when they just want to shout, “The answer is 11!��

We thought there was lots to learn from Mandie’s attentiveness to socialization alongside academics. Taking turns, listening respectfully, learning when and where your attention is needed (“Cap your pen…pens on chins��) are all components of successful classroom interactions. They are also, as Mandie describes them, foundations of kindness and respect and “what the world will need me to do�� even when I’m not in a first-grade classroom.

As Mandie notes, we are all “still learning how to be humans�� and opportunities to engage in courteous, considerate behavior make classrooms safe spaces—communities where every child feels supported in their learning.

(Thanks to the Bluum Foundation for funding TLAC’s work with school leaders in Idaho.)

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TLAC team-member Beth Verrilli recently watched footage of Mandie Avila��s first grade lesson at MOSAICS Public School in Caldwell, Idaho and shared these notes:

One thing that struck me about Mandie’s lesson was how effectively she engages all of her learners, and authentically creates a sense of belonging in her classroom.

You can watch some highlights of her math lesson here, which begins as students are creating a visual model to represent an addition problem on their whiteboards:

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In the video, we see that Mandie carefully sequences her Means of Participation to engage students.

She begins with Everybody Writes, independent work time to allow students time to process content on their own.

A Turn and Talk follows, so students can verbalize their response and then hear it verbalized by a peer.

The sequence ends with a student coming to the board to share out the number sentence, so all students can stamp the correct response one final time.

This final whole-class share out after a Turn and Talk is a smart way for teachers to clear up misconceptions that might occur during paired conversations—though Mandie also does that during the Everybody Writes by carefully monitoring student work.

While Mandie’s thoughtful sequencing supports successful participation, it also creates a warm and positive classroom culture and fosters a sense of belonging. ��

Note, for example, that Mandie prepares her students for the Turn and Talk during their independent work (“…and put a star next to the representation that you want to share out with your partner��). Turn and Talk is clearly a routine (students will share out “just like we do each day��). There is a system—L and R partners are pre-assigned, Mandie explains who’s going first, checks that each student knows which partner they are, and reviews their role during the Turn and Talk. When there are familiar routines to engage in—and when students experience their peers engaging in these routines—it strengthens the sense of safety in the classroom.

Within this system, Mandie includes some variation to keep students engaged and to build a bit of student autonomy. For example, the partners are not always “L�� and “R.�� Somedays, the partners are “red and yellow�� or “sunshine and wind.�� Mandie intentionally selects the student pair and offers the labels, but within the pairing, students can determine who is sunshine and who is wind. Mandie explains that this promotes engagement: self-selecting their roles means that students won’t know whether they’ll speak or listen first, which can avoid students believing that “Oh, ‘L�� always goes first; they must be the smarter kids.��

Mandie’s sentence starters (“I believe the answer is ___and this is how I solved�� or “I respectfully agree/disagree with you��) are another helpful technique to help build students�� socialization skills. Although Mandie uses sentence starters throughout the day, she finds them especially supportive in math, where they help students frame their explanations in a full sentence, slow down to explain the steps involved in a math concept, and thoughtfully enter into the give-and-take of a conversation when they just want to shout, “The answer is 11!��

We thought there was lots to learn from Mandie’s attentiveness to socialization alongside academics. Taking turns, listening respectfully, learning when and where your attention is needed (“Cap your pen…pens on chins��) are all components of successful classroom interactions. They are also, as Mandie describes them, foundations of kindness and respect and “what the world will need me to do�� even when I’m not in a first-grade classroom.

As Mandie notes, we are all “still learning how to be humans�� and opportunities to engage in courteous, considerate behavior make classrooms safe spaces—communities where every child feels supported in their learning.

(Thanks to the Bluum Foundation for funding TLAC’s work with school leaders in Idaho.)

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�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� Virtues & character also deserve a curriculum

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We are excited to share a recent video featuring Tyler Moomaw, math teacher and grade team leader at in Cleveland, Ohio, a pilot partner for our . In this video, Tyler is supporting a group of students who have not completed their homework assignments for the week. While there are a number of ways schools can respond when students fall short of meeting expectations or fail to follow through on actions that help them succeed, Breakthrough Schools choose to respond with teaching. Tyler’s goal is to help his students recognize the benefits of routinely completing homework, so this important task becomes habit. His lesson, “The Benefits of Doing Homework,�� provides a window into how we might use reading, writing, discussion, and student reflection to teach replacement behaviors for unproductive actions.

It is evident that Tyler has put a lot of effort into preparing for this lesson. He has reviewed the material beforehand and planned for how students will engage during each section of the lesson. It feels like a class–that is a sequence of time dedicated to making students more knowledgeable and successful. In fact, the after school lesson is so well-structured that a student even asks “are we in class?�� Students are familiar with consequences in such settings but not with the idea of being taught–really taught, as in caused to think about and understand knowledge that can help them–in such settings.��

Tyler demonstrates a range of effective teaching techniques to enhance his students�� learning experience. For example, he uses active observation to gather information and assess students�� understanding. He uses cold call to engage students in sharing their thinking after they have had time to think in writing. Finally, Tyler offers opportunities for his students to revise their initial thinking after they discuss their answers as a group. These strategies help Tyler to keep students engaged and to ensure that they are walking away with a better understanding about the benefits of doing homework.��

At TLAC, we believe that teaching virtues and values to support student character development is essential and our is designed to do just that. It’s built on the idea that when students struggle to do what helps them succeed, teaching is our first tool. Our curriculum includes carefully curated lessons and activities organized by virtue. Their purpose is to develop students�� understanding of virtue and character through critical thinking, reflection and writing. The curriculum helps students understand the consequences of their actions and learn replacement behaviors for counterproductive actions.

The Dean of Students Curriculum is available for purchase or for piloting. For more information, visit our website: . We are also excited to announce that a high school version of our curriculum will be coming soon, so stay tuned for that announcement!

–Brittany Hargrove

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