Isolated training rarely is sufficient to lead schools to excellence. A shared vision and consensus among the staff on a multifaceted plan are necessary to achieve that vision. Origins offers four ways for schools to support implementation of the Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs approaches:
TRAINING
Educator training is the foundation of our work. Most, but not all, of the training occurs in weeklong workshops. Learn more
CONSULTING
Coaching with one of our expert consultants provides intensive, specific training for educators, and helps develop a staff’s peer-support structure. Learn more
SUSTAINABILITY
We help school staffs create support structures to sustain their reforms. Learn more
Teachers need opportunities to learn and to strengthen structures for effective teaching. Origins offers eight weeklong workshops and two introductory workshops:
Responsive Classroom 1, 2, and 3
Developmental Designs 1 and 2
Literacy in a Responsive Classroom
Building Academic Communities Through the Arts (BACTA)
Overview (90 minutes)
Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs Samplers, one-day overviews
Responding to Misbehavior Responsive Classroom one-day follow-up workshops
Responding to Rule Breaking, Developmental Designs one-day follow-up workshop
Importance of Voluntary Participation
We strongly recommend that subsequent professional-development work with Origins be voluntary for each participant. We are eager to work with educators who wish to try out Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs approaches and add them to their teaching repertoire. In our experience, successful development is built upon effective training combined with authentic teacher commitment to implement the practices presented.
Getting started
Host an Overview for a school’s entire staff
An Origins Consultant can provide a 90-minute informational session on the Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs approach to interested educators at your school site. The Overview is designed to introduce the basic philosophy of both approaches, not to teach implementation of the practices.
They can report back to the whole staff, begin practicing a few aspects of the approach, and share the results with others.
Host a one-day Sampler
A school may want a one-day Sampler on-site (on a release day, for example, or in two afterschool sessions spaced close together) so the participating staff can become familiar with the basic Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs philosophy and practices. The content is the same as in the Origins-hosted Sampler. Maximum participants per section: 30
Teachers may attend a weeklong workshop, either at an Origins-hosted Institute during the summer or at a contracted weeklong workshop at their school site, to continue their training. Sometimes, schools send a few teachers to a weeklong workshop and then have the one-day Sampler on-site for the other teachers. This way, all the teachers have some exposure to the approaches and a small group of teachers (usually 4 or 5) provide leadership and support for advancement of the work. Ideally, all teachers eventually receive the weeklong training, but the cost can be spread over years without halting the progress of the work.
On-site Weeklong Workshops in Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs
Schools may hold weeklong workshops on-site for staff. The content is the same as in the summer Institutes.
More information about the content of weeklong RC and DD workshops
Deciding whether to host a weeklong workshop or attend an Institute
There are advantages to each. An on-site advantage is that during the workshop you can discuss with many of your colleagues how the content applies to your school. It is convenient, and it might reduce travel costs when the consultant comes to you. An advantage of Institute training is that teachers have the opportunity to exchange ideas with educators from other schools at their own grade level.
Host or attend a Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs One-day Follow-up Workshop
Origins offers two workshops designed to reinforce and deepen Responsive Classroom 1 weeklong training:
Morning Meeting and Academics addresses how to use Morning Meeting as a strong foundation for learning throughout the day
Responding to Misbehavior enhances skills in managing common classroom discipline problems
Origins offers one workshop designed to reinforce and deepen Developmental Designs 1 weeklong training:
Responding to Rule Breaking clarifies your understanding and enhances your toolbox for dealing with misbehavior in the classroom
A school may want to host a follow-up workshop on-site (on a release day, for example) or send a group of educators to an Origins hosted workshop. Maximum participants per facilitator: 30
Prerequisite: Responsive Classroom 1 or Developmental Designs 1 weeklong workshop
On-site Consulting or Coaching to Support Implementation
Following a weeklong workshop, most teachers begin implementing the daily meeting format—Morning Meeting for RC and the Circle of Power and Respect meeting for DD—and classroom-management strategies they have not used before. At this point, what makes a great difference in results is to have at least a core of five or six teachers at different grade levels receive on-site support.
Schools may contract with Origins for several days of consulting during the school year. On these days, an Origins Consultant comes to the school to coach, mentor, advise, help plan, help solve problems, and demonstrate. Our consultants are masters of the philosophy and practices of RC and DD. It is difficult to receive training and then be left to implement it on one's own. Expert external support encourages, reinforces, and acknowledges what's working, while providing guidance to adjust what is not. The consultant also works with school leaders to plan change. Together, they:
design effective meetings and provide on-site ongoing professional development to licensed staff and paraprofessionals
help create school-wide discipline plans and before- and after-school programs
tackle problems in the arrival and dismissal process, recess, the lunchroom, and hallways
plan the consulting days together so they are designed to meet the needs of the school.
Every school has within it the most powerful resource of all to support comprehensive growth: the adults who work there. There are many structures within a school that can sustain and deepen the practices newly introduced in workshops. Whether initiated by an Origins Consultant or teachers, the key is that they are maintained long term by resources from within the school. They keep the school community growing all year long and sustain reforms so that they become a permanent part of the school culture. Without these internal structures and practices, school reforms tend to disappear within a few years after they are introduced. It is the structures that maintain the enthusiasm through the development of skills and efficacy. This is our school, and we know how to make and keep it strong!
There are many possible structures to support effective implementation of Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs approaches:
Learning Communities, groups of 15-20 educators, work independently or with an Origins Consultant on classroom social and academic issues of concern to them. Members set individual learning goals for themselves, work together during the sessions to develop those goals, and share their progress.
Monthly study groups to discuss books and articles relevant to Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs
Protocols for staff reviews of children's work, teacher practice, successful students, challenging students, and using Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs approaches
Case studies of individual students, looking for ways to encourage and empower them
Question-and-answer sessions around behavior issues suggested by teachers
Discussions of topics related to Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs practices, facilitated by staff members with experience in the area under discussion
A panel of teachers or experts in the integration of social and academic learning address a topic
Colleague observations of components—Academic Choice, Engaged Learning Strategies, Morning Meeting/Circle of Power and Respect, Guided Discovery, Problem-solving meetings, etc.
Peer coaching
Team meetings or cross-team meetings (Home Groups) or cross-school meetings on relevant topics
Buddy classrooms that focus together on lessons or service projects
Staff meetings that focus on all-school issues (ideally, one issue per meeting)
Invitations to administrators, specialists, parents, school board members, and others to join in Morning Meetings/Circle of Power and Respect
These are the sorts of structures that have been useful school communities across the country who sought and found success in professional development. This is our profession at its best—teachers working with teachers and administrators to identify, practice, and sustain what really works for student success.
To learn more about sustaining the Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs approach in your school, contact the Administrator for School Services.
School Development Assessment
Origins has developed a process for schools to identify patterns over time in school climate, school and student outcomes, and the proficiency of teachers’ implementation of Developmental Designs and Responsive Classroom structures, in order to create and sustain quality applied evaluation. Review the links below to learn more.
Importance of Voluntary Participation
On-site Consulting or Coaching to Support Implementation
Every school has within it the most powerful resource of all to support comprehensive growth: the adults who work there. There are many structures within a school that can sustain and deepen the practices newly introduced in workshops. Whether initiated by an Origins Consultant or teachers, the key is that they are maintained long term by resources from within the school. They keep the school community growing all year long and sustain reforms so that they become a permanent part of the school culture. Without these internal structures and practices, school reforms tend to disappear within a few years after they are introduced. It is the structures that maintain the enthusiasm through the development of skills and efficacy. This is our school, and we know how to make and keep it strong!
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