Developmental Designs approach

Songs and Chants and Teaching Math

by Erin Klug

We’ve all had moments when we can’t get a tune or jingle out of our mind. I have young children, and this happens frequently with songs from their CDs. I may cringe when I find myself quietly singing the theme song from Arthur, but this phenomenon is good news for teachers.

Educators have long used songs and rhymes to help students learn and remember content. In my coaching experience, I’ve seen this teaching strategy used less with older students—but it’s too good to lose!

No Laps, No Lines, No Lectures

By Erin Klug

This summer I attended a soccer-coaching clinic and was inspired to see that the lessons educators have learned about social-emotional and brain-based learning can be applied to the field as well as the classroom. Our instructor’s theme was “no laps, lines, or lectures.” I was easily able to make direct connections between this motto and my own teaching experience.

Why Play?!

By Ann Larson Ericson

I was not one of those parents who let their kids win at games. Whether it was a game of chance when they were preschoolers or a game of strategy as they got older, we all played by the rules.There was no crying, no cheating, and no patronizing the youngest in the family. The kids learned from an early age that sometimes they won and sometimes they lost, and both needed to be done graciously.

We play games in advisory and in my physical science and chemistry classes.

What’s in a Game?

By Erin Klug

When I was a young adolescent, people said “It’s just a game” when I felt that I didn’t play well, or my team lost, or someone didn’t play by the rules. It was disheartening to hear that from a well-intentioned adult who was attempting to help me not take it so seriously. To me, it was not just a game—it was life.

Students Play by Their Own Rules

by Eric Charlesworth

My son Henry is in kindergarten at the school where I teach. When I picked him up on a recent Tuesday, I asked him what he did that was really fun that day.

“We played Silent Ball,” he answered.

Silent Ball! Wow!

The Power of Play Transforms Conflict into Connection

By Dr. Terrance Kwame-Ross

As a teacher and school principal, I took seriously the challenge of building a supportive school community. Sometimes conflicts from outside of school seeped into the classroom. The Developmental Designs practice Power of Play is an important tool for reconciling differences between individuals, and it helped me defuse a difficult situation in my sixth grade class.