What?
In the Classroom is a curriculum built to help students regulate emotions, connect to their resources, and improve feelings of belonging. Students enhance their well being, learning and creativity. In class modeling and lesson plans can be packaged with professional development workshops.
How?
Activities include mindfulness/stilling exercises, small group, and whole-class systemic exercises, art extensions, whole class tools and ideas for curriculum integration. Creative Briefs are included that can be adapted to many grade levels.
Why?
Integrating the In the Classroom curriculum into your broader school year plan will catalyze well being, dynamic learning and creativity in your classroom.
History of the Program
Conte West Hills School in New Haven, Connecticut participated in the TC program for three years. In the 2016-2017 school year, we launched a case study of the In the Classroom curriculum with the third-grade team. We worked directly with the teachers in their classrooms in addition to workshopping ideas in the TC on a weekly basis. The program was started after seeing how teachers were becoming very discouraged with the progress with children’s learning and growth. They were also affected by the secondary trauma of so many of the children who had difficult fates and circumstances. The activities and tools teachers created span all subject areas and were utilized in kindergarten through seventh grade.
ECL Curriculum Highlight
Curriculum development started with whole class activities which began with breathing and stilling exercises. After students moved into systemic activities in small groups. Finally, students could then move into individual work at their desks with an extended art activity. Activities ranged from one week to month long activations.
Towards the end of the school year, we focused the program on two long-term projects: student illustrated constellation stories and classroom quilts that focused on concepts of place and belonging.
Conte West Hills Schoolyard Habitat
One example of a project that teachers created was Schoolyard Habitat that was a creative extension of the constellation lens worked on in TC. The Schoolyard Habitat was an outdoor circle created with many plants and flowers in the Conte West Hills schoolyard. The Schoolyard Habitat utilized the natural environment as a space for small group work and whole class discussions. The space could also be used to share as a class or just take some time to de-stress and enjoy nature.
