1. When it comes to the concept of Do No Harm, I believe is essential to the success of a school culture. This value builds up children's moral compass and self-regulation. It teaches children how to behave through having them examine and understand how their actions influence those around them.
2. Future sphere of influence, as the school leader, how would my beliefs be reflected in discipline policies and practices?
My beliefs would be reflected in school discipline policies and practice by having students take ownership for the climate of their classrooms and school. Students need to take an active part in upholding a peaceful and safe space to learn and play. I believe staff has a duty to model desired behaviors, directly teach these behaviors and habits, support students as they learn these just as they would if the student were learning an academic area.
3. Future sphere of influence, as the school leader, how would my beliefs be reflected in program practices and initiatives?
4. Future sphere of influence, as the school leader, how would my beliefs be reflected in our professional development as a community of learners?
5. Is the concept of teaching students to “first do no harm” integrated into the culture of your school (or workplace)?
Last year we began to implement a Positive School Climate program. In the first weeks of school every teacher gives direct instruction on behavior expectations that included guided practice and reflections. When all staff did this with fidelity we saw great results as a campus. We also have just begun to break the ice on implementing restorative justice practices- with mixed results so far.
6. How does your answer to the previous prompt sit with you?
One of the issues we have had to deal with as we are trying to shift to a restorative discipline approach is the way students view the "consequences". A good example is of students who were assigned the duty of helping organize the book room under the supervision of the principal. The girls saw this a fun experience and the other students felt that these girls had done something wrong and were being rewarded by helping the principal. Another example is of students who caused a food fight. They were assigned clean-up duty. Again, the students loved helping pick up the food they had thrown around- they saw it as a privilege. These are extreme examples, but they brought to a light an issue. How do we help our students understand what "righting their wrong" looks like. Students seem to have that mob mentality. If someone does something wrong everyone should know what that person's consequence is and it should be awful and in turn, make the "wronged" feel better. How can we help shift this mentality? What are our actions saying to our students. I think we have a long ways to go in shifting this aspect of the culture of our school and community.
7. Current sphere of influence: Commit to 5 things you are willing to do this semester that will make your school a more positive restorative place:
2. Future sphere of influence, as the school leader, how would my beliefs be reflected in discipline policies and practices?
My beliefs would be reflected in school discipline policies and practice by having students take ownership for the climate of their classrooms and school. Students need to take an active part in upholding a peaceful and safe space to learn and play. I believe staff has a duty to model desired behaviors, directly teach these behaviors and habits, support students as they learn these just as they would if the student were learning an academic area.
3. Future sphere of influence, as the school leader, how would my beliefs be reflected in program practices and initiatives?
4. Future sphere of influence, as the school leader, how would my beliefs be reflected in our professional development as a community of learners?
5. Is the concept of teaching students to “first do no harm” integrated into the culture of your school (or workplace)?
Last year we began to implement a Positive School Climate program. In the first weeks of school every teacher gives direct instruction on behavior expectations that included guided practice and reflections. When all staff did this with fidelity we saw great results as a campus. We also have just begun to break the ice on implementing restorative justice practices- with mixed results so far.
6. How does your answer to the previous prompt sit with you?
One of the issues we have had to deal with as we are trying to shift to a restorative discipline approach is the way students view the "consequences". A good example is of students who were assigned the duty of helping organize the book room under the supervision of the principal. The girls saw this a fun experience and the other students felt that these girls had done something wrong and were being rewarded by helping the principal. Another example is of students who caused a food fight. They were assigned clean-up duty. Again, the students loved helping pick up the food they had thrown around- they saw it as a privilege. These are extreme examples, but they brought to a light an issue. How do we help our students understand what "righting their wrong" looks like. Students seem to have that mob mentality. If someone does something wrong everyone should know what that person's consequence is and it should be awful and in turn, make the "wronged" feel better. How can we help shift this mentality? What are our actions saying to our students. I think we have a long ways to go in shifting this aspect of the culture of our school and community.
7. Current sphere of influence: Commit to 5 things you are willing to do this semester that will make your school a more positive restorative place:
- Positively teach students about good table manners in a fun way. The goal of this is that it will transfer out to the lunch tables and help improve lunchtime behavior.
- Revisit the unit on empathy that we covered at the beginning of the year. Have students reflect on how they have been doing at showing empathy to others and modeling this behavior to their peers.
- Have conversations with my principal about strategies she is hoping to implement to help build a more restorative behavior plan.
- Discuss training opportunities with my principal.
- Work with my class on understanding the concept of "Do No Harm" and develop a classroom plan of action that they can manage themselves with me over seeing it effectiveness.