Affirm/Praise
[Annie Bauer - Professor of Early Childhood and Special Education]
She touches a great deal; she hugs when a kid needs to be hugged. She just stands quietly next to a child when they need to have someone quiet next to them. She has that sixth sense that teachers, excellent teachers, have. She's the kind of person when writing on the wall can remind somebody to get their book out because she has the sense that somebody isn't quite with her yet. So I think that that climate is just so key to the amount of learning that can go on in there.
When I saw their review, and she apologized to us for how briefly she reviewed the content from the previous day, I was overwhelmed at the amount of information that the students have retained from five days ago--that they could verbalize, that they had reflected, obviously reflected on and thought about and could bring up, and her interaction around that was so supportive. If they made a statement, she elaborated, she provided the appropriate word, every statement was accepted. If somebody was out of sequence, she accepted the comment and then would say let's back up. So just her total acceptance, the amount of respect and ownership in that classroom, I think, makes it a prime example of classroom climate.