Creating restorative schools
None of us want our schools or classrooms to feel like places where young people are getting punished. What we want is to create classrooms and schools where all children can learn from their mistakes and strengthen their relationships. And we know that harsh consequences can cause harm, can make students feel disconnected from school, and can contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. But we also have seen schools that try to shift to restorative practices by not punishing students but they fail to hold them responsible for harm they cause and support them in making things better. In this course, we guide you step-by-step through this transformation by demystifying how to shift your own and your whole school's practices to become restorative.
Examples from school staff
The course will feature differentiated examples of restorative practices created by teachers of early childhood, elementary, and secondary. The course will also include modules for how student support team members, instructional coaches, school leaders, and families can engage in restorative work.
Workbook + Team Activities
-Includes a printable workbook, which will include space to reflect and plan as you progress through each module, thus supporting their growth in becoming adaptive experts
-Includes optional team activities for each module, which could be very useful for school-based teams to use with one another
Access to ongoing support
Everyone who enrolls in the course will get access to our private "Becoming Restorative Facebook Community." You will also get access to 2 monthly Zoom sessions - one monthly Q & A with experienced restorative practitioners who will answer your questions and share new learning (Zoom recordings available) and one monthly opportunity to participate in a circle.
Course Curriculum
12 modules (click carrot below to see the entire curriculum)
- 1.1 Are you ready?
- 1.2 Self work - antiracism, beliefs, habits, language
- 1.3 How to begin restorative practices at your school and how to deepen and grow them
- 1.4 Ways of navigating the course - independently or with colleagues
- 1.5 How to earn a certificate of "Becoming Restorative"
- 1.6 How to join the private "Becoming Restorative" Circle Community
- 1.7 Dates and how to access monthly circle and monthly Q & A Event with Course Facilitators
- 9.1 Common student behaviors and restorative responses
- 9.2 Trauma-sensitive approaches and restorative approaches
- 9.3 The power of our language and how to choose words that work for us
- 9.4 How to navigate the balance between empathy and accountability
- 9.5 Guided exercise to support you after you handle a difficult conflict
- 9.6 Restorative practices for related service providers
- 10.1 How to create a 3-year plan for shifting to restorative practices
- 10.2 The Seven Core Assumptions among adults
- 10.3 Restorative approaches to conflict among adults
- 10.4 A year of staff circles: 10 circle plans you can use
- 10.5 Restorative approaches to coaching and evaluation
- 10.6 How to coach teachers to make a shift to being more restorative
Read what people say about the Becoming Restorative Course
-Before taking this course, I used to think that RJ had to be instituted from the top down as policy, but now, I see that is not the case. Instead, it will be built from the ground up by people like us working directly with students in schools.
-This course can help you become not only a better educator but a better person.
-RJ can help so many students, teachers, classrooms, schools, and also help individuals personally - not to just be used in school but in our personal lives. This course has been amazing.
-This was the best PD I have ever done and you learn so much not just about helping our students but helping yourself as an educator as well.
-RJ practices are a way of life. It is encompasses all that humanity is and should be.
