The Circle of Power and Respect

The Circle of Power and Respect is our advisory program at M2M3.  It is grounded in the principles of the Responsive Classroom Approach, and it is consistent with our practice of the Paideia Principles.  Below are the beliefs that underpin our Advisory Program:

• The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum. 
• How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand. 
• The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction. 
• There is a specific set of social skills that children need to learn and practice in order to be successful academically and socially: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. 
• Knowing the children we teach—individually, culturally and developmentally—is as important as knowing the content we teach. 
• Knowing the families of the children we teach and encouraging them their participation is as important as knowing the children we teach. 
• How we, as adults at school, work together to accomplish our shared mission is as important as our individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community. 

We follow the format below in CPR:

7:45 – 8:25
Monday, Wednesday, Friday= Group Activities
Tuesday, Thursday= Literacy Focused Activities

Greeting: Sets the tone for feeling welcomed.  Each person in the circle is recognized.  Members of the group learn each other’s names and feel valued and begin to build community. 

Sharing: Provides the opportunity to practice and learn how to have interesting conversations.  Members actively listen to the speaker while thinking of questions to ask connected to the conversation. 

Group Activity: Builds team spirit.  Provides the opportunity for cooperation and fun.  Activities teach academic and social skills.  Students learn how to trust each other and teacher provides a safe environment for constructive risk taking, self-control and responsibility. 

News and Announcements: Provides a predictable visual information tool for all students that shares the news of the day and week.  Information includes schedule, important deadlines, current school events, projects, seminars, all surrounding the business of school. 

In CPR this year we have discussed: 
 

• Our differences and similarities
• The M2M3 behavior expectations matrix
• The museums approaches to learning
• The Paideia Principles
• Seminar skills
• Anti-Bullying strategies
• Interpreting achievement data
• Goal setting
• Student Government
• Voting and civic responsibility
• Disabled athletes and perseverance
• Respect and respectful behavior
• Sportsmanship

And the list of topics continues to grow...

“Adolescence is the time in which the developing person is beginning to focus on the issue of personal identity....At fourteen ‘who I am’ seems to be defined by ‘who we are.’”  Chip Wood author of Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom, Ages 4-14