Elementary

Welcome to the stage of Influence! “Influence” is the second stage of group development. We know we’re there when students’ sense of safety and trust in their peers allows them to contribute more and more to the group. This includes disagreeing with one another, which naturally leads to conflict. During this stage, our focus as teachers is on supporting students’ sense of worth and agency. We work on identifying triggers and guiding students to treat them as cues for curiosity rather than moments to react harshly. For example: “When something doesn’t feel right, before getting angry, check with your friend […]

Scarlet demonstrates what the CVC word “beg” means… What’s Around Me? This week, Alphas learned that one reason we have deserts across the globe has to do with mountains – like the ones in the Pacific Northwest! We call this phenomenon the shadow effect. Half the Alphas act out mountains and the other half use cottonballs-clouds to rain on the land… Most of the rain falls on this side of the mountains…the other side of the mountains doesn’t get much rain at all – which contributes to the desert region of the Southwest… A diagram of the “shadow effect…” We