teaching approach known as Responsive Classroom.

Among its guiding principles is a belief that students who develop social skills like cooperation, assertiveness and empathy can achieve more academically. The idea is similar to the “character education” Paul Tough advocates in his new book “How Children Succeed.”I’d already watched colleagues attain enviable classroom management through this technique. Still, given my previous P.D. experience, I initially harbored skepticism. I imagined catching up on e-mail during the course’s slow moments. But, it turned out, I didn’t send e-mail all week. The program was a model of effective P.D. and what it can achieve.

I love the phrase "classroom management".