Included below are comments from students, parents, teachers, special educators, paraeducators and administrators taken from our end of the school year survey of Vermont classrooms testing the Supportive Classroom curriculum.

"These are all good teaching practices which benefit the entire classroom community! These practices are more than “going through the motions.” They are the heart and soul of community and prepare the students and teachers for positive learning experiences. They create more “safe environments” where we can ask questions, investigate and not be afraid to fail." Classroom Teacher.

"We have changed. Before we implemented the curriculum we had cliques; the popular, the not so popular. Now we are one class. Now people are actually accepting other people for what they are, not what they expect them to be." Middle School Student.

“Working with the instructional support team has been the “high point” of my days and weeks. I wish others could see the power of this process.” Elementary Special Educator.

“I fully believe students become better people as a result of this curriculum. Manners were impeccable for the most part throughout their school day. They became much more sensitive to everyone’s needs. Students that once were reserved became much more open, socially and academically. Students on several occasions pointed out that they or someone else used one of the skills to help them out.” Elementary Teacher.

“This curriculum allowed me to look more carefully at why I teach and ask what’s important. I always felt supported by my team to try new approaches to the collaborative skills, not to get discouraged and to ask more questions.” Elementary Teacher.

“The best thing about this curriculum was that it created a quality classroom environment where children grew emotionally, academically and physically in a supported atmosphere.” Elementary Teacher.

“It is easy to make assumptions about what kids know about trusting, sharing, belonging and respect. The biggest impact in my class from this program has been that discussing, directly teaching, and practicing and evaluating these skills transferred to the kids everyday behavior.
My assumptions were wrong - they needed to be taught these skills directly.” Middle School Teacher.

“As for myself, I have really enjoyed teaching each concept and seeing the students use the skills. It has helped me to reflect on my teaching as well as my personal life. The four core concepts are so important to remember in order to be a successful part of the classroom, community or family.” Special Educator.

“The core concepts are the thread that held us together as a community. While these concepts existed before, teaching about them led us to act on them. The special educator and I really worked at modeling and using concrete examples of the concepts for the children. Not only our class, but other adults and students were all using the concepts to guide their behavior by the end of the year.” Elementary Teacher.

“The teacher and instructional assistant internalized the curriculum core concepts and applied them generally towards the whole class as well as used knowledge of student’s strengths and interests when interacting and teaching students. The kids really bought into it!” Special Educator referring to a third grade classroom.

“The Success Plan was a very good tool for assisting families to define their goals at parent/teacher conference time. It was also a nice framework to use with instructional assistants to pinpoint individual children’s needs.” Special Educator.

“Entry routines have shown me that I can trust people and help people, care about people, and that a lot of things are fun - like helping people.” 5th Grade Student.

"The students were inspiring. They took the curriculum to heart. Their
vocabulary, time on task and manner changed as they worked to incorporate class norms throughout their day. They independently brought in children’s literature books to share with each other as a bridge to their norms." Middle School Teacher.