This book looks at how teachers and young children talk to each other in the classroom, describing how a good teacher will use these conversations to build an encouraging classroom--a community where mutual acceptance is the priority and where children can learn the skills they will need in larger communities in the future. The skills include acceptance and cooperation, creative and peaceful problem solving, and ways of expressing emotions that are acceptable to all. The book contains more than 160 stories from over 60 adults at Head Start centers, child care centers, family child care homes, and kindergarten classrooms. Each story includes an account of a teacher's conversation with children as well as reflections on how each conversation helped build the encouraging classroom. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter help foster further exploration of what students say to their teachers and what teachers say to them. The eight chapters include: (1) "Separation and Attachment"; (2) "Family and School"; (3) "Safety and Learning"; (4) "Guidance and Mistaken Behavior"; (5) "Conflict and Resolution"; (6) "Loss, Liberation, and Resiliency"; (7) "Wonder and Delight"; and (8) "The Encouraging Classroom." (SM)