Teaching with Love and Logic and SEL: The strive towards equity and building strong relationships for a positive school culture

Jessica Saratovsky • Cahn Fellow 2022

Building positive relationships with students is a key factor in a positive classroom and school culture. However, as educators, we know that this is not always easy, especially when it comes to classroom management needs. Many educators implement systems that ground themselves on extrinsic motivation: earn a prize, checkmark/name on the board, move a name up and down a ladder of colors (the stoplight system). However, these management practices can lead to public shaming of students, negative self-esteem, creation of a power struggle, or the inability to follow through on stickers and prizes. 

At P.S. 770 we recognized that traditional behavior systems were not giving us the results that we desired. Students were being treated unfairly; different staff members used different language that created inconsistencies throughout the school.  Feedback was given that students were receiving unfair consequences, staff did not buy into extrinsic motivation and our school community ultimately believes that students and teachers who build positive relationships, while still maintaining high expectations, are what leads to a positive classroom culture with more positive results. 

At P.S. 770 we implement our core values, supported by Teaching with Love and Logic by Jim and Charles Fay, with a strong focus on social-emotional learning that leads to equity and strong, positive relationships, which are at the center of all that we do.