Mission Possible News!
August 26-30, 2019
We survived the first FULL week back with students!
The last week and a half has gone SO well with our students, and was an excellent start to the 19-20 school year. We are looking forward to an AMAZING year with all of our young future Gator leaders and the fantastic staff that will help them get there! Now a little Eddie B. to get us started for the week:
Shout-Outs!!!
- Content did an amazing job at PLC this week breaking down TEKS, going over collaborative lesson planning, and delving into math. Great job Content!
- Car Rider dismissal got done at 3:37 yesterday!!!!! That is amazing for only about a week and a day. A big thanks to everyone helping students stay at a level 0 in the hallway, because that has helped the most to get students to hear their names being called.
- Our In-Class-Support team has been going above and beyond in getting routines in place, developing strategies to support, and working with some of our new SE students; along with getting blue folders ready for what feels like half of the school! You are rocking it ICS!
Anyone, or any team, you want to give a shout-out to, let me know!!
New Teachers (officially) on Staff!!
Gators of the Week!
Our Teacher Gator of the Week
Community Building Circles
This time of year is when we slow down to speed up, teaching our expectations and building relationships. Restorative practices center on being proactive and developing strong relationships and classroom communities with students. The first step is for students to get to know each other, and the classroom leader to set norms for interaction. I have seen several classrooms utilize the first day staff circles, sharing our values, and students have come up with some powerful responses! They know what is important. :)
Continue to have community-building circles (also called friendship circles) on a weekly basis. Recommendations are to develop relationships through questions that allow students to share about themselves in a meaningful way. This will vary on age-group: kindergarten students might share their favorite animals, favorite toys, funniest thing that has every happened, etc., while a 5th grade group might share proudest moments, a time they were brave, scariest memory. Tailor to your group- the idea is to help students make connections with each other in a safe place.
Circle Guidelines to Teach Students
As you practice using circles in your classroom, there are some guidelines created by restorative practice gurus to help the circle be a safe place that runs smoothly. The first is to incorporate a "talking piece." Using an object meaningful to you, explain only the person holding the talking piece can talk, and it will be passed around the circle (to the left or right, started by the circle leader). This reduces interruptions. :)
Guidelines to practice that have been created for restorative circles:
Circle Guidelines:
- Respect the Talking Piece
- Speak from the Heart
- Listen from the Heart
- What you say in the circle stays in the circle
- Trust you will know what to say
- Say just enough :)
These are pretty self-explanatory, but they are guidelines you can introduce, add to chart paper, and have students reference when starting a circle. Circles are about growing relationships, but structure is important to make it flow efficiently! :)
Below is a short video on circles in an elementary school:
Respect Agreements
The next step in restorative practices is to begin setting norms. You have been doing this since the first day, but what are your norms for communication and interaction? This is the area to develop in order to have strong circles! How do you do it? Respect Agreements. There are four parts to respect agreements:
- Students respecting Students
- Students respecting Teacher
- Teacher respecting Students
- Everyone respecting Equipment and Facilities
Have students work individually, in pairs, or small groups to flesh our what these four things mean. What does it look like? Sound like? Feel like? What are the norms for each type of respect? Students should have an opportunity to voice their expectations in each category, and the teacher may help along as needed (with younger students, teacher may be doing all the writing with students in a whole group).
This can be done in a variety of ways. The goal should be to have NO MORE than 4 or 5 norms (or less) under each category of respect.
The teacher can then make a clean and beautiful copy to hang up, and have all the students and the teacher sign as an agreement to respect each other and the classroom.