Dear Morningside Center friends,

It’s already mid-August—which means some schools around the nation are back in session. In this issue we share a collection of activities to help you establish a caring and inclusive classroom community from the beginning.

Yet, warm weather will also continue for months around the United States, making gun violence as a public health crisis a continued priority as we work to make a better world for our children. Our 2-part lesson provides history, information, guidance—and hope.

If you're in an area where school is just starting up again, we hope your year is getting off to a good start! For those still on break—we wish you rest, joy and balanced preparation!

Activities to Start the Year

What we do in our classrooms during the first days and weeks of school can help us establish a caring and inclusive classroom community that will last the year. This kind of culture can sustain us and our students, even and especially in hard times.

This PDF is a collection of community building activities, SEL Tips, games, and lessons on self-care to get your year off to a good start. 

Starting Out with Restorative Discipline

The first few days of school are the perfect time to begin taking a restorative approach to discipline in your classroom.

Step 1: Be in community with your students.

Treating Gun Violence as a Public Health Crisis

This two-part lesson consists of two readings which review gun violence through the lens of a public health crisis, and what it means to approach gun violence as a public health issue.

Questions for discussion follow each reading, as well as an art-based activity to complete once finished reading both articles.

What We're Reading

Relational Support for New Teachers

"By nature, humans crave support through interaction, which leads to a sense of belonging in their community. For teachers, frequent interactions with students offer ample opportunities for connection, but they need that same relational support from colleagues." By Meghan Degler and Mackenzie Hampton on the ASCD Blog

Young Students Gravitate to Math. How Teachers Can Build on That Curiosity

"The goal is to shift his elementary students’ thinking from some numerical endgame toward the problem-solving process itself. In his more than two decades as a classroom teacher and math researcher, Champagne has found this strategy can be a balm for math anxiety, spur students’ creativity, and pique their curiosity about a subject many find boring and irrelevant" By Alyson Klein at Education Week

“You have to be interested in your students for your students to progress. That is very important to students.”

– Wihopa, Agnes Ross, lifetime Dakota educator, elder, Keeper of the Female Medicine Bundle