Chip Wood

For over thirty-five years, I've worked with and for children from pre-school through eighth grade as a classroom teacher, teaching principal, and teacher educator.

After receiving an MSW from Howard University, I studied at the Gesell Institute of Human Development. Early in my career, I made developmentally based teaching the center of my educational practice. My core belief: Knowing what children at each age are developmentally capable of doing physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively enables respectful, successful teaching of all children.

In 1981 I co-founded the Northeast Foundation for Children (NEFC). The foundation is the developer of the Responsive Classroom approach, a way of teaching elementary school children that emphasizes social, emotional, and academic growth in strong and safe school communities. Currently, I'm principal of Sheffield Elementary School in rural Turners Falls, Massachusetts. I am also a facilitator for the Center for Courage and Renewal Northeast that offers reflective retreat series and experiences for teachers and school leaders based on the work of Parker J. Palmer, especially his best selling book The Courage to Teach.

I've written several books and many articles on developmentally appropriate teaching. My two latest books are Time to Teach, Time to learn: Changing the Pace of School (NEFC 1999) and Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14, reissued by NEFC in August 2007 as an expanded and revised third edition.

Yardsticks has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. It has become a favorite guidebook for both teachers and parents who want to understand how best to help children learn and grow.