Woke Up With Restorative Justice On My Mind — Not Quite

smorrison

The night before our Back To School Armbrae Academy PD I was up at 4 am dealing with a small crisis in our family small business. On route, I guzzled back my third coffee, I didn’t know if I would be in the mood for Professional Development on Restorative Justice.

I arrived a little late and tried to inconspicuously arrive. Not happening. Everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed, mind you a little cold in the gym.

Moderator Emilie Tsirigotis utilized circle practice throughout the morning. The purpose of the PD was to develop a solid framework for building school community and responding to challenging behavior.

Restorative justice is a shift in thinking from our traditional practice of punishment for our actions to a practice which is collaborative and based on trust and communication. The circle practice provides those involved in the process with a voice and a strong sense of community decision making.

Throughout the session, we spent time simulating conflict scenarios that may come up in the classroom and outside the classroom and using the circle practice to resolve these small and large conflicts.

The moderator was amazing . Staff felt we had many of the restorative justice principles in place but they were many takeaways that we felt would make resolution easier and time effective, so we can reduce conflict and spend more time educating.

My takeaway was how easily these principles can be applied to our home, work, and play. Yes, I was tired from my early morning, but this was a well organized, stimulating and interactive session.