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Personal Motivation and Commitment and Purpose of this Toolkit

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 Personal Motivation and Commitment and Purpose of this Toolkit

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 Personal Motivation and Commitment and Purpose of this Toolkit

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" In my years of teaching, I've seen the profound impact trauma can have on students' ability to learn and grow. Every student deserves a classroom where they feel safe, happy and valued. My approach is built on commitment and care, fostering a positive, nurturing environment where every child feels a sense of belonging and is inspired to learn and thrive."

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"My approach to trauma-informed education is by using compassion, emphathy, sympathy and resilience. By understanding the nature of trauma and its impact on learning I will be able to create a classroom environment that is both effective, safe, and welcoming for all students."

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https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSjAguFPY/

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Where does mental illness begin? #belalassad #islamicreminder #islamic_video #mentalillness #mentalhealth #childhood #childhoodmemories #brain #changeyourbrain 

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@listen_2it
Where does mental illness begin? #belalassad #islamicreminder #islamic_video #mentalillness #mentalhealth #childhood #childhoodmemories #brain #changeyourbrain
♬ original sound - NoCopyrightNasheeds - NoCopyrightNasheeds

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5 Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Exercises to Try With Your Students

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Almost 40% of all K-12 students will go through at least one traumatic event before they turn 16. Try these trauma-informed mindfulness exercises with your students.

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By combining all the resources collected and provided, my goal is to use this toolkit as a primary source of trauma-informed teaching aids. This toolkit will be updated as I find new teaching techniques and resources. My goal is for my toolkit to be beneficial for myself and others in order to benefit our students' needs.

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16.1K likes, 113 comments. “Navigating mental health.”

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Stress and Learning in Pupils: Neuroscience Evidence and its Relevance for Teachers

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Our understanding of how stress affects primary school children’s attention and learning has developed rapidly. We know that children experience differing levels of stressors (factors that cause stress) in their environments, and that this can…

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The 4 R's of Trauma Informed Care

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The 4 R’s and 5 Principles of Trauma Informed Care guide Neurotoned’s programs and content. We aim to empower and validate the traumatized person without retraumatizing them.

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Self compassion Exercises| self help| motivation| life [Video] in 2024 | Self compassion, Mindful self compassion, Self love affirmations

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Oct 22, 2024 - “Elevate your self-care routine with these empowering self-compassion exercises. Dive into mindful practices designed to cultivate kindness, acceptance, and understanding toward yourself. Join us on a journey of self-discovery and embrace the transformative power of self-compassion. #SelfCompassion #SelfCare #Mindfulness #SelfLove #Personal

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Guide to Self Compassion, Self compassion Quotes en 2024

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07-jul-2024 - Do you want to learn how to be compassionate towards yourself? Learn from this guide how to treat yourself with compassion, and what Self compassion activities and self compassion exercises you can do to develop compassion. On the journey of self love and personal growth, developing compassion is a must. It will improve your life in so many ways! Self compassion worksheets. Self compassion journal prompts. Self compassion affirmations.

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Daily Affirmations for Students Positive Self-Talk en 2024

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01-oct-2024 - Boost student confidence and foster a positive mindset with Daily Affirmations for Students. Perfect for classrooms and SEL activities.

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Transform Your Life with Self-Acceptance 🌟💖 in 2024 | Writing therapy, Mindfulness journal prompts, Journal writing prompts

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Jul 7, 2024 - Self-acceptance is crucial for a joyful and balanced life. 🌟🌸 These shadow questions will help you explore and accept the deeper aspects of yourself. 🌿 By engaging in shadow work, you can uncover hidden fears and insecurities, transforming them into sources of strength and self-love. 🌼 Embrace the journey of understanding your shadows, and let these questions guide you towards greater self-awareness and acceptance. 💖✨ As you integrate these parts of yourself, you’ll find more peace and authenticity in your daily life. 🌟💫

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True acceptance - Unconditional Positive Regard of others at its best -Carl Rogers | Psychology quotes, Positivity, New quotes

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True acceptance - Unconditional Positive Regard of others at its best -Carl Rogers

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"S'aimer ..."  film de Luc Besson avec Jamel Debbouze- Angel A. Je t'aime. i love you. flv

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Unconditional Positive Regard (Explained in 3 Minutes)

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Self-Care for Teachers and Educators: How to Balance Passion and Wellness

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Self-Care for Teachers and Educators: How to Balance Passion and Wellness

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Self-Care for Teachers and Educators: How to Balance Passion and Wellness

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In the world of K-12 education, where educators play a crucial role in shaping young minds, maintaining one’s wellness is often overshadowed by passion and dedication to the job. While the commitment to students and the joy of teaching are undeniable, it’s equally essential for teachers and educators to prioritize their own well-being.

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Water Bottle Analogy for Stress, Compassion Fatigue and Resilience

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Water Bottle Analogy for Stress, Compassion Fatigue and Resilience

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Water Bottle Analogy for Stress, Compassion Fatigue and Resilience I Arizona Trauma Institute

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SEL for Teachers: The Role of Mindfulness

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SEL for Teachers: The Role of Mindfulness

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SEL for Teachers: The Role of Mindfulness

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SEL for Teachers: Understanding Stress and Burnout

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SEL for Teachers: Understanding Stress and Burnout

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SEL for Teachers: Understanding Stress and Burnout

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When practicing medicine feels more like labor than a labor of love, take steps to heal the healer.

Fam Pract Manag. 2000;7(4):39-44

Article Sections

Andy had always been an energetic and dedicated family physician. Now, at 38, he's tired, cynical and lonely. He's angry at the health care system for forcing him to see more patients in less time and annoyed with his patients for what he perceives to be their increasingly demanding natures. Although his relationships with his patients once thrived, they no longer seem to give him the same satisfaction. Even talking to his wife, who's always been a supportive partner, has not relieved his feelings of intense isolation.

Andy has a form of burnout called compassion fatigue, a deep physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion accompanied by acute emotional pain. Whereas physicians with burnout adapt to their exhaustion by becoming less empathetic and more withdrawn, compassion-fatigued physicians continue to give themselves fully to their patients, finding it difficult to maintain a healthy balance of empathy and objectivity.

Those who have experienced compassion fatigue describe it as being sucked into a vortex that pulls them slowly downward. They have no idea how to stop the downward spiral, so they do what they've done since medical school: They work harder and continue to give to others until they're completely tapped out.

Compassion fatigue is flourishing today, due in part to the demands of managed care. Physicians see more patients, do more paperwork, negotiate more contracts and have less autonomy than ever before. Add to that self-imposed pressure to live up to their own high standards, and it's no wonder many physicians feel like they're going up in flames.

The medical profession, with its tremendous physical and emotional demands, naturally predisposes physicians to compassion fatigue. (To assess your state of mind, take the " Self-assessment for compassion fatigue" and see " Warning signs of compassion fatigue.") In the past, the connection that many family physicians shared with their patients gave them the replenishment they needed to cope with the stressors of practicing medicine. But today, increasing demands have caused some physicians to stop taking the time to appreciate the love, respect and appreciation that their patients want to share with them.

To those who are in the throes of compassion fatigue, time, or more precisely the lack of it, is the enemy. To compensate, many physicians try to do several things at once (e.g., eat lunch while dictating chart notes and returning telephone calls). And to make more time, they tend to eliminate the very things that would help revitalize them: regular exercise, interests outside of medicine, relaxed meals, time with family and friends, prayer and meditation. At this point, they find it easiest to blame others. "If only," they lament. If only the staff, system, insurance carriers, administration or their colleagues did things differently, they'd have more time. And, no matter how much or how well they sleep, they still awaken exhausted.

Hard data on compassion fatigue is admittedly difficult to come by; however, one survey found that 54 percent of office-based physicians had experienced a time when they felt they no longer had any compassion left to give, even after a restful weekend.1 Compassion fatigue takes a toll, not only on the physician, but also on the workplace, causing decreased productivity, more sick days and higher turnover.

If you see shades of yourself in Andy, don't worry. Relief is actually nearby. To recharge your batteries you must first learn to recognize when you're wearing down and then get into the habit of doing something every day that will replenish you. That's not as easy as it sounds. Old habits are oddly comfortable even when they're bad for us, and real lifestyle changes take time (some experts say six months), energy and desire.

We guided Andy through recovery at the Center for Professional Well-Being. His first step toward overcoming compassion fatigue was to learn how to care for himself. Because physicians with severe compassion fatigue have to learn or re-establish lifestyle habits that increase their emotional resilience, we encouraged Andy to take time off from work. He took a month off and then worked part time for two more months before he began practicing again full time.

During that time, Andy started exercising again and began eliminating the junk food that he often ate while working. He spent time with friends and family he hadn't seen in recent months and took long morning walks with his wife to reconnect to the world. He even made a leisurely visit to his aging parents - a luxury he hadn't allowed himself since he was an undergraduate - and started some projects that he'd fantasized about doing "when I have time." Never a religious person, Andy took a mindfulness meditation class that taught him how to still his mind and be present in the moment. Through it, he came to feel the presence of a higher being, something bigger than himself that he found reassuring.

Overcoming compassion fatigue means coming to terms with the anger, fear and self-doubt that some physicians have suppressed since medical school. This requires honest self-reflection, a process that some physicians find quite painful. Yet, if you're compassion fatigued, getting back in touch with yourself is perhaps the most important step in the recovery process. Without it, the lifestyle changes you're trying to make may not be enough to sustain you.

It helps to have someone to talk to who is a good listener, understands compassion fatigue, and with whom you feel a connection. This person is usually a professional counselor, but a colleague with firsthand knowledge of compassion fatigue, a pastor, or a spouse or friend who can listen without judging or offering solutions to your problems are other alternatives. A well-facilitated physician support group, although sometimes difficult to find, is also an immensely safe place. Colleagues who have learned to listen deeply can offer you caring and innovative options based on their own experiences. (For more information, see "Physician Support Groups: A Place to Turn," October 1995, FPM, page 26.)

If you're like most physicians, your personal identity is closely tied to your professional role. Try not to attribute compassion fatigue to a character flaw. Negative self-talk about "not having what it takes" serves no one - not you, not your family, not colleagues or patients, and most certainly not your staff members, who have probably already received a fair share of your irritability. Finally, understand that the pain of compassion fatigue is uncomfortable but normal, and that it will dissipate once you start caring for your physical and emotional needs.

The lifestyle changes you choose to make will depend on your unique circumstances, but three things can speed your recovery.

1. Spend plenty of quiet time alone. Learning mindfulness meditation is an excellent way to ground yourself in the moment and keep your thoughts from pulling you in different directions. The ability to reconnect with a spiritual source will also help you achieve inner balance and can produce an almost miraculous turnaround, even when your world seems its blackest.

2. Recharge your batteries daily. Something as simple as committing to eat better and stopping all other activities while eating can have an exponential benefit on both your psyche and your physical body. A regular exercise regimen can reduce stress, help you achieve outer balance and re-energize you for time with family and friends.

3. Hold one focused, connected and meaningful conversation each day. This will jump start even the most depleted batteries. Time with family and close friends feeds the soul like nothing else and sadly seems to be the first thing to go when time is scarce.

Compassion fatigue can impair your functioning in ways that you need to keep in mind, so it comes with its own list of "don'ts":

Don't make big decisions. We advise our compassion-fatigued clients not to make any major life decisions until they've recovered physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is perhaps the most important advice we can give. Don't quit your job, get a divorce, have an affair or spend your money on a lavish trip or a new sports car. It may feel great at the time, but a few days or weeks later you'll find yourself waking up to the same set of problems.

Don't blame others. Similarly, blaming administration, staff, colleagues or the "system" will do you no good. We've worked with several physicians who had hired attorneys and wanted to initiate legal action against their workplace. This is not the right time nor the right answer for compassion fatigue. Being adversarial will only exhaust you further and prevent the deeper healing that needs to take place. If, in the clarity of rejuvenation, you still believe legal action is appropriate, you'll be in a much better place to work with an attorney. For now, hold off. The same goes for looking for another job. Wait until you can see things more clearly and have gotten the stress in your life under control.

Don't spend your energy complaining. We also advise that you avoid commiserating with discontented colleagues. You've heard the old saying "misery loves company." It's easy to fall into the habit of complaining when you're consumed by compassion fatigue, but it will only make you feel worse. There are other, more constructive environments to share your feelings.

Don't try a quick fix. Compassion fatigue can make you vulnerable to addictive behaviors and substance abuse. We've seen many clients try to deal with compassion fatigue by working longer and harder. Others self-medicate with alcohol and prescription drugs. There are a whole host of other addictive behaviors, including sex, that are used to relieve personal pain. Don't let yourself abuse work, alcohol or drugs and don't fall prey to a quick fix. Just as drugs can be addictive and eventually cause a whole different set of problems, the quick fix almost always ends up complicating an already overburdened life, escalating the downward spiral.

Clients often say to us, "It's pretty easy to take care of myself without the daily stress of work, but what happens when I get back in that pressure cooker?" The single most important thing you can do to sustain yourself once you're back at work is to develop your own "principles of practice," a type of personal mission statement that articulates your values and identifies the parameters within which you're comfortable practicing medicine.

To create your principles of practice, ask yourself, "What gives my life joy and meaning?" This will help you identify your values and define your priorities. For example, if one of your priorities is to take better care of yourself, one of your principles may be, "I will affiliate with a group of family physicians that have clear guidelines enabling each member to take time off." Another may be, "I will work for an organization interested in promoting professional health and satisfaction." (For more information on identifying your personal and professional values, see " Putting 'Life' Back Into Your Professional Life," June 1999, FPM.)

Commit to live and work within these principles and use them to guide your decision making. Before making decisions, pause and ask yourself, "How well will this align with my values and priorities?" You can also think of your "principles of practice" as a compass that can help you get back on track if you find that everyday stressors are steering you off course.

Andy's principles of practice described what integrity looked like in his life. Before he went back to work, he shared these principles with his partners in hopes that they would understand and support him. They had rarely talked about anything more than the day-today activities of the practice, but Andy's principles of practice gave them all something to aim toward and clarified thoughts they'd never taken the time to articulate.

Having a clear vision is essential to the next step in caring for yourself - learning to say "no." Andy's principles of practice identified definite parameters that he knew he needed to stay within to remain healthy. These parameters freed him to start saying no without guilt to requests that didn't align with his vision. (For more information about saying "no," see " Five Ways to Say 'No' Effectively," July/August 1998, FPM.)

Andy has returned to work and continues to do what he needs to do to keep himself emotionally and physically healthy. Making appointments with himself for exercise, meditation and time with his family keeps him committed to his personal program. He treats these appointments as seriously as he does those with his patients, knowing how much his life and profession will benefit.

Andy's story is the tip of an iceberg that's grown rapidly in the last few years. Ten or 20 years ago, physicians who were tired of medicine and trying to transition out were 45 to 55 years old. Now, we have many 35- to 45-year-olds asking us, "Am I going to have to quit medicine to have a life outside of work?" Our answer is "no." You can be a family physician without having to compromise your well-being. But living a balanced life does require that you take the time for self-reflection, identify what's most important to you and adopt a healthier lifestyle. This isn't something that's been taught in most medical schools, and it's not something that can wait until changes occur in the health care system.

Whether you want to prevent compassion fatigue or find your way back from it, begin to identify what's important to you. It can help you feel better about your life and your life's work.

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When practicing medicine feels more like labor than a labor of love, take steps to heal the healer.

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Being a teacher is fulfilling. It's an ever-changing career that inspires. But it's also exhausting, mentally and physically.

Often those outside of the profession see only 13 weeks of holiday, a 9am - 3:30pm day plus a few INSET days thrown into the mix, leaving some to ponder why we struggle at times.

Many do not see the burdens placed on schools, senior leaders and teachers. Not only do we seem to be trying to teach the next generations the knowledge and skills needed for a successful life, we're also being asked to play a huge societal role without adequate funding.

It's not a surprise therefore, that many leaders and classroom teachers, both new and experienced face burnout at some point in their career.

But what is burnout and how can it be avoided?

What is occupational burnout?

Most of us get stressed at work at some point. Burnout occurs as a result of sustained stress that never subsides. This is due to prolonged periods of intensity and excessive demands on energy, strength and resources.

Herbert Freudenberger coined the term in the 1970's. He recognised that professions which involve a strong sense of morality or purpose, and commitment from workers who sacrifice themselves for the good of others, were most at risk.

It's no wonder that teachers and everyone working education are at risk of burnout. Accountability pressures, workload and hours can increase stress and pay remains low in comparison to other graduate roles. On top of this, teachers and others in education have taken on a raft of social responsibilities during the pandemic.

With such statistics it's no surprise that so many teachers are leaving the profession.

84%

of teachers described themselves as stressed in the 2020 Teacher Wellbeing Index

51%

have considered leaving teaching over the past two years

68%

said workload was their main reason for considering leaving

How can burnout be avoided?

Sadly, there is no definitive answer to this. As individuals, our stress tolerances vary. What we do need is an understanding of the signs of burnout and the proactive measures that can be put in place to avoid it. We need to look after ourselves and those we work with, if we are to keep great teachers teaching.

Recognising the signs

Burnout is considered to have a wide range of symptoms however, three main signs of the condition are:

Exhaustion

For teachers this may include both emotional and physical exhaustion. Evidence of this may be frustration and irritability, mood swings, impaired concentration, chronic fatigue and insomnia as well as physical symptoms such as increased illness, palpitations, gastrointestinal pain, headaches and dizziness.

Detachment from the job

For teachers this may develop through cynicism and pessimism towards teaching, students, colleagues or the school itself. The person with burnout may prefer to avoid contact and involvement with others, and experience a loss of enjoyment from the things that once brought pleasure.

Reduced performance

For teachers this may develop through negative feelings, lack of productivity and poor performance. Evidence of this may be feelings of hopelessness and apathy, low self-confidence, increased irritability with one's self and others, increased time spent completing tasks and apathy to want to do so.

"We need to look after ourselves and those we work with if we are to keep great teachers teaching."

Whilst it may not be possible to eliminate burnout within the profession, there are ways we can take action to avoid it in ourselves.

Tips for avoiding burnout

If you feel like you might be reaching a point of burnout, perhaps you're exhausted, emotional and easily agitated, take a day or two to recoup. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Whether it's a school day that you take off sick, a weekend or school holiday; take the time to relax and recover when you need to.

It can be tempting to pack weekends with activities to keep yourself entertained so you don't just work through them. It can be tempting to go to work even when you haven't slept well and you can feel your eyes closing. It can be tempting to want to spend time entertaining family or friends but sometimes you need to take that break. You need to stop rest and relax. Make sure you do.

Please make use of the support available to you. Sometimes it's hard to speak to people you are close to and even harder to speak to a stranger. They listen, support and can coach and guide to help you discover solutions that are best for you. So remember the free and confidential helpline is here 24/7 throughout the UK on 08000 562561 for all education staff. Download this poster for your staffroom now!

"The qualified counsellors on the Education Support helpline are fantastic and helped me stay in teaching!"

And after burnout?
Reaching burnout doesn't need to be the end of your career in teaching. It just means you stepping back for a little while. Whether that means taking time off, relinquishing a responsibility or changing schools, it is possible to continue a successful teaching career after experiencing burnout.

After my experience of burnout, I was torn between moving out of teaching or trying another school. During my time off, I was encouraged to apply to one more school. I panicked it would be more of the same; relentless workload, high expectations and limited support so at the interview I asked how they support staff wellbeing and was pleased with the response.

If you're applying elsewhere after a period of burnout, don't worry. If a school is worth working in, they will understand your experiences and will not hold it against you. Be honest, as it's the only way to reduce the stigma surrounding it.

To read more on Victoria's experiences and advice on tackling workload visit her blog, MrsHumanities.com, follow her on twitter (@MrsHumanities) and check out her book 'Making it as Teacher.'
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Teacher, Victoria Hewett, talks about her experiences of burnout and how to avoid it

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Learning and memory under stress: implications for the classroom - npj Science of Learning

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npj Science of Learning - Learning and memory under stress: implications for the classroom

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NARM Basics Training: The 4 Rs of Trauma-Informed Care

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Ethics of care: 6 principles of trauma-informed pedagogy for your classroom 

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Ethics of care: 6 principles of trauma-informed pedagogy for your classroom 

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How can we support all our students to flourish in our classrooms, no matter what current or past challenges they bring with them? In our first blog Ethics of care: understanding trauma-informed pedagogy, we explored the meaning of 'trauma-informed' higher education, traced its historical development, and underscored its crucial role and transformative potential in today's ' Age of Trauma '.

Adult learners with lived experience of trauma may see academic activities such as assessment deadlines, exams, class participation, or peer interaction as threatening. In this second post in the Ethics of Care: Supporting Students through Trauma-Informed Pedagogy series, we look at how trauma-informed pedagogy can help to mitigate these perceived threats, using strategies based on six core principles.

6 pillars of trauma-informed pedagogy

A trauma-informed approach to pedagogy is built on six core principles from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) concept of a trauma-informed approach. The goal of these six principles is to foster an educational atmosphere that is attuned to the needs of students who have undergone trauma, thereby promoting the flourishing of all students.

The principles encompass safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment, voice and choice, and cultural, historical and gender issues. Read on to understand what these mean in practice and explore examples of strategies for each one.

1. Safety - creating a safe environment

Safety in the classroom is fundamental to creating an environment conducive to learning and growth for all students, including those who have experienced trauma. When students feel safe and supported, they are more likely to engage in learning. In higher education institutions, the learning environment extends beyond the classroom or online classes. It encompasses email communications and the physical campus itself. In addition, subject content can potentially traumatise or re-traumatise students. Given this, it is crucial for educators to design curricula and monitor student reactions thoughtfully.

Strategies for building a physical, virtual, and emotionally safe space include:

Foster a welcoming and inclusive environment using respectful language and offer content warning for sensitive topics, reserving trigger warnings specifically for content that evokes a traumatic response.

Set clear rules for attendance, behaviour and participation to minimise uncertainty.

Share resources to support services like UTS Counselling, UTS Accessibility, special consideration and HELPS.

2. Establishing trustworthiness and transparency

Trust and transparency are especially important in classrooms for students with lived experience of trauma. These students may find forming relationships challenging, impacting their sense of safety, support, and engagement with learning. When students trust their educators and feel treated fairly and respectfully, they are more likely to engage in learning. When educators are transparent, students understand what is expected of them and how they will be evaluated, which can reduce anxiety and promotes a sense of fairness. By creating a safe and transparent learning environment, teachers can help students feel more comfortable and secure, which improves their ability to learn and succeed.

Strategies for applying trust and transparency in the classroom include:

Maintain consistency in interactions and response time to build trust.

Clearly explain subject expectations, grading criteria and material relevance.

Acknowledge your own limitations and mistakes openly.

3. Fostering Peer Support

Peer support, a key principle in fostering safety, trust, and collaboration, is a flexible, relationship-based strategy that enhances community and belonging among students, improving their academic and personal outcomes. It's particularly vital for students with trauma histories who may struggle with trust and relationship-building. Educators can enhance student comfort, security, and learning success by fostering empathetic and compassionate relationships.

Strategies that reinforce peer support in the classroom include:

Promote group work and projects to build peer relationships.

Facilitate sharing of student experiences and perspectives.

Practice active listening and solicit student feedback on how to support them best.

4. Collaboration and mutuality

Student engagement, fostered by collaboration and mutuality, directly influences learning, satisfaction, and overall success. By promoting partnership and shared responsibility, educators create an inclusive environment that enhances student success. Incorporating collaborative structures for content discussion not only improves comprehension and retention but also fosters positive interactions. The 'students as partners' approach balances power dynamics, transforming students into co-teachers, co-inquirers, co-creators, and co-learners, leading to numerous positive outcomes.

Strategies that reinforce collaboration and mutuality in the classroom include:

Involve student decision-making, like setting guidelines or choosing discussion topics.

Promote mutual learning between teachers and students.

Facilitate, rather than avoid, challenging conversations.

5. Fostering Empowerment, Voice, and Choice

Empowerment, voice, and choice are vital for autonomy, agency and nurturing student strengths. For students who have experienced trauma, restoring control and agency is key. Educators can create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment that promotes student success by creating learning environments that encourage students to make choices, speak up, and develop confidence and competence in their knowledge and skills.

Strategies for fostering empowerment, voice and choice in the classroom include:

Offer assessment choices to cater to students' strengths.

Facilitate student-led discussions to boost participation.

Acknowledge and validate students' experiences and knowledge.

6. Cultural, Historical and Gender Issues

Acknowledging cultural, historical, and gender issues in the classroom is pivotal for fostering equity, inclusion, and social justice while enhancing students' critical thinking and social awareness. By appreciating students' diverse identities and experiences, educators can create an inclusive, supportive environment that promotes success and a sense of safety and belonging. These considerations are vital as creating a culturally responsive environment builds trust with students, particularly those who have experienced trauma.

Strategies for acknowledging cultural, historical and gender issues in the classroom include:

Include diverse identities and perspectives in subject content.

Be aware of and sensitive to students' cultural, historical, and gender backgrounds.

Counter stereotypes and biases in the learning environment with inclusive language and examples.

Trauma-informed pedagogy benefits not only those affected by trauma but also enriches the learning experience for every student. This approach emphasises safety, trust, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and recognition of cultural, historical, and gender nuances. By embracing these principles, educators can cultivate a nurturing, inclusive learning space that fosters student achievement.

Keep an eye out for our final blog post, where we'll share resources to help you integrate these strategies into your classroom. Stay tuned!

Thompson, P., & Marsh, H. (2022). Centering Equity: Trauma-Informed Principles and Feminist Practice. In: Thompson, P., Carello, J. (eds) Trauma-Informed Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92705-9_2

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Ethics of care: 6 principles of trauma-informed pedagogy for your classroom - LX at UTS

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Blog 2 in our 'Ethics of Care' series introduces 6 pillars of trauma-informed pedagogy, and strategies for your classrooms.

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Cultural Sensitivity | Definition, Importance & Examples

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Cultural Sensitivity | Definition, Importance & Examples

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Janelle Barowski, Yolanda Williams, Jennifer Levitas

Author Janelle Barowski
Janelle is a tutor for Nursing and Health Administration. She has an Associate's degree in Nursing from Middlesex College. She also has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Nursing Administration and Leadership from Western Governors University. She currently is a practicing pediatric and geriatric nurse.

Instructor Yolanda Williams
Yolanda has taught college Psychology and Ethics, and has a doctorate of philosophy in counselor education and supervision.

Expert Contributor Jennifer Levitas
Jennifer has a Ph.D. in Psychology. She has taught many college- and graduate-level psychology courses and been published in academic journals.

Cultural Sensitivity

Activity 1:

Imagine that you are planning a trip to a country that has a very different culture from the one in which you were raised. Choose the country that you are going to visit, and do a little research on the cultural differences between that culture and yours. What do you need to be aware of when you visit that culture? Is eye contact considered respectful or rude? Is the personal space bigger or smaller than the one in your culture? Is the firmness of the handshake different, or is a handshake even offered? Write two to three paragraphs about this other culture, give examples of the cultural differences, and discuss how you would adapt your behavior to that culture.

Activity 2:

Can you think of a time when you have not displayed cultural sensitivity, or when you have witnessed a lack of cultural sensitivity? Write a journal entry about what you experienced or witnessed, what could have been modified so that it was not a negative experience, and whether you think the insensitivity was intentional or not.

Activity 3:

You are asked to develop an in-service for hospital nurses at a public hospital. They see many different cultures at this hospital, and it is important that the nurses display both cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity. Design a program for them to heighten their awareness of this issue so that they do not inadvertently offend a person from another culture.

What is cultural sensitivity and why is it important?

The definition of cultural sensitivity is having an understanding of another person's set of beliefs or values that is attributed to the person's ethnic or racial background. In addition, an individual must be agreeable to modify their behavior to accommodate the other person's cultural beliefs. It's important because it improves the health and wellness of minorities.

What are some examples of cultural sensitivity?

Cultural sensitivity is important in fostering a cohesive, peaceful society. Examples of cultural sensitivity include asking a person how they would like to be addressed, respecting cultural health practices, and promoting multi-lingual signage.

What is cultural sensitivity? The definition of cultural sensitivity is having an understanding of another person's set of beliefs or values that is attributed to the person's ethnic or racial background. In addition, an individual must be agreeable to modify their behavior to accommodate the other person's cultural beliefs.

Individuals must first recognize and appreciate that there are other cultures besides their own. Then, they need to be willing to respect the beliefs and traditions that people display as a result of their culture.

A person's culture defines the food a person eats, their beliefs regarding healthcare, and how the person interacts with the world around them. The meaning of cultural sensitivity is to understand that one culture or way of living is not superior to another. All cultural beliefs are valid and in need of respect. Culturally sensitive individuals must accept and adapt to reflect the multicultural countries that exist in modern societies.

In modern societies, cultures are blending like never before with the increase in immigration and the interconnectedness that the internet provides. Multicultural sensitivity is particularly important because it promotes a more cohesive society while honoring the unique identity that a multicultural society provides.

A culturally sensitive society promotes empathetic connectivity through the appreciation and understanding of another person's background and way of life. By valuing diversity, people will be able to play to their strengths within a society.

Culturally Appropriate Meaning

The meaning of being culturally appropriate is to be personally aware of an individual's own beliefs so they can focus on being empathetic towards the cultural beliefs of others. To accept the culture of another, a person needs to be cognizant of their own biases.

If a person believes that their own culture is superior to all others, they will not be able to behave in a empathetic, culturally aware manner.

Culturally appropriate societies will:

What is cultural sensitivity? The definition of cultural sensitivity is having an understanding of another person's set of beliefs or values that is attributed to the person's ethnic or racial background. In addition, an individual must be agreeable to modify their behavior to accommodate the other person's cultural beliefs.

Individuals must first recognize and appreciate that there are other cultures besides their own. Then, they need to be willing to respect the beliefs and traditions that people display as a result of their culture.

A person's culture defines the food a person eats, their beliefs regarding healthcare, and how the person interacts with the world around them. The meaning of cultural sensitivity is to understand that one culture or way of living is not superior to another. All cultural beliefs are valid and in need of respect. Culturally sensitive individuals must accept and adapt to reflect the multicultural countries that exist in modern societies.

In modern societies, cultures are blending like never before with the increase in immigration and the interconnectedness that the internet provides. Multicultural sensitivity is particularly important because it promotes a more cohesive society while honoring the unique identity that a multicultural society provides.

A culturally sensitive society promotes empathetic connectivity through the appreciation and understanding of another person's background and way of life. By valuing diversity, people will be able to play to their strengths within a society.

Culturally Appropriate Meaning

The meaning of being culturally appropriate is to be personally aware of an individual's own beliefs so they can focus on being empathetic towards the cultural beliefs of others. To accept the culture of another, a person needs to be cognizant of their own biases.

If a person believes that their own culture is superior to all others, they will not be able to behave in a empathetic, culturally aware manner.

Culturally appropriate societies will:

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Cultural sensitivity is a concept that is utilized around the world to integrate minorities into various societies. The following are examples of cultural sensitivity moments throughout the world:

In Canada, a healthcare professional receives a woman who is unable to speak the native language of the country. The doctor is required by law to provide an interpreter free of charge to explain the care being provided to the woman. In addition, all healthcare documents need to be translated into the native language of the woman.

In the United States, a child presents to their school nurse with circular bruising all over their body. The patient is of Asian descent. In the United States, nurses are mandatory reporters and are legally obligated to report any signs of suspected child abuse. The culturally aware nurse understands that the ancient art of cupping is a common practice in Asian cultures. This practice uses suctioning in different parts of the body and will leave circular bruises. Instead of calling protective services, the nurse discusses the procedure with the child to learn more about it.

Cultural sensitivity is a concept that is utilized around the world to integrate minorities into various societies. The following are examples of cultural sensitivity moments throughout the world:

In Canada, a healthcare professional receives a woman who is unable to speak the native language of the country. The doctor is required by law to provide an interpreter free of charge to explain the care being provided to the woman. In addition, all healthcare documents need to be translated into the native language of the woman.

In the United States, a child presents to their school nurse with circular bruising all over their body. The patient is of Asian descent. In the United States, nurses are mandatory reporters and are legally obligated to report any signs of suspected child abuse. The culturally aware nurse understands that the ancient art of cupping is a common practice in Asian cultures. This practice uses suctioning in different parts of the body and will leave circular bruises. Instead of calling protective services, the nurse discusses the procedure with the child to learn more about it.

Cultural sensitivity is a set of skills that allows one to understand and learn about people whose cultural background differs from their own. Culturally sensitive people can effectively manage in other cultures. Cultural sensitivity allows people to respond respectfully to different types of people in a way that recognizes and affirms their worth, regardless of their cultural background. Culture influences multiple aspects of a person's life.

By addressing cultural barriers, healthcare professionals can reduce race-based healthcare disparities. Asking how someone would like to be addressed is an example of being culturally sensitive.

What Is Cultural Sensitivity?

Cultural sensitivity refers to a set of skills that allows you to understand and learn about people whose cultural background is not the same as yours. But, what does that really mean? Let's take a look at some examples.

Examples

Example 1

Akari Tanaka, a 55-year-old woman, has not been feeling well. Akari recently moved to America from Japan and has not yet had a chance to establish care with a physician. She decides to go to Dr. James Morrison at her friend's recommendation. Upon their first meeting, the 32-year-old Dr. Morrison introduces himself as 'Dr. Morrison' and calls her 'Akari.' As he asks her about her symptoms, he keeps constant eye contact and has his arms crossed. He wants to convey to her that she has his absolute attention, but unintentionally, he has offended her enough that she leaves his practice upset and decides to find a different doctor. Dr. Morrison is confused about her response. So, what did he do wrong?

In this example, Dr. Morrison was not being culturally sensitive. In many cultures, it is customary to call people by their last names, and in Japanese culture, given names are only used in informal scenarios. Instead, he should have used her last name with the title 'san' added. Dr. Morrison addressing her as Akari instead of Tanakasan made her feel disrespected. To make matters worse, Dr. Morrison wanted to focus on her rather than writing or typing in a file, but crossing his arms conveyed an act of hostility per the Japanese culture.

So, what would the culturally sensitive approach look like? Instead of calling her Akari,' Dr. Morrison should have asked her how she would like to be addressed. He could then make a note in her chart so that all of the staff know how to address her. As a doctor in a multicultural community, it is important to be aware of gestures and nonverbal actions that can make a patient uncomfortable.

Let's look at another example.

Example 2

Jane is an international business woman whose company has decided to open an office in Japan. Jane is preparing for her first meeting in the new office. Jane has several Japanese assistants working with her to help her get ready. Jane tries to beckon one of the assistants to come into her office. Instead of pointing her index finger at the assistant, Jane walks over to her assistant and politely asks her to join her in the office.

How is Jane being culturally sensitive? While it is okay to beckon someone in the United States by curling or pointing your index finger at them, in Japan this behavior is seen as offensive.

It is obvious that Jane has taken the time to educate herself about Japanese culture and adjust her behavior to the culture. Jane is not placing value on these cultural differences, i.e., Jane is not saying that her culture is better than the Japanese culture. Rather, she is being respectful of her assistants' culture, keeping an open mind, and educating herself about the culture so that she can run a better business.

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Cultural sensitivity is a set of skills that allows one to understand and learn about people whose cultural background differs from their own. Culturally sensitive people can effectively manage in other cultures. Cultural sensitivity allows people to respond respectfully to different types of people in a way that recognizes and affirms their worth, regardless of their cultural background. Culture influences multiple aspects of a person's life.

By addressing cultural barriers, healthcare professionals can reduce race-based healthcare disparities. Asking how someone would like to be addressed is an example of being culturally sensitive.

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Cultural Sensitivity | Definition, Importance & Examples - Lesson | Study.com

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Unlike small children, who must learn to regulate their emotions, we adults are expected to manage ours, especially our negative emotions like anxiety, anger, and frustration, and to prevent negative thoughts and feelings from driving our behavior. Still, all of us experience times when we feel emotionally overwhelmed and allow our feelings to control our actions. When this happens, we often regret the things we say or do and wish we had been able to keep those emotions in check. In addition to, or as part of, emotion regulation therapy and self-regulation therapy, there are techniques, such as meditation, mindfulness, and stress management, that can help us take charge of our negative emotions and ameliorate our response to emotional situations. These techniques can also provide other benefits, like improved mood, increased feelings of self-worth, and increased empathy.

Controlling Emotional Reactions

While there are many ways to influence one's emotional state for the better, emotion regulation often involves what experts call "down-regulation," or willfully reducing the intensity of emotions. A grieving person might down-regulate his sadness by purposefully recalling something amusing about the person he misses, for example. An anxious person may cope by distracting herself from the thought or situation that is causing her anxiety. The flip side of this practice is "up-regulation," or amping up one's emotions, which can be useful when an imminent danger or upcoming challenge calls for a healthy dose of anxiety or excitement.

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5 Ways to Help Create a Culturally Sensitive Classroom

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Over my many years in the classroom, I have taught in a wide range of different schools. Some have been homogeneous in culture, and others very diverse. I have learned that a diverse school is a wonderful place for students to learn and grow.

Diverse student populations infuse schools with a wonderful range of life experiences. Cultural variety provides all students with the opportunity to learn about ways of life that differ from their own. In a multicultural environment, students learn to be more culturally aware. This is a skill that is important in our increasingly global world.

With the obvious benefits of a diverse school come some challenges as well. Teachers sometimes struggle to create a classroom that is culturally sensitive and responsive to the needs of their students.

Here are 5 ways you can create a culturally sensitive classroom for your students.

1. Get to know all your students as individuals.

I know that as good teachers, we all invest the time and effort to get to know our students. Relationships are the bedrock of good teaching in any classroom. This becomes even more important when teaching in a culturally diverse school.

Students have unique skills and experiences that can enrich your classroom culture. Take the time to understand what students value as well as their strengths and needs. Engage in conversations, give student surveys or ask questions on exit slips. Learn about hobbies and interests you can tap into when planning your lessons. It is important to make a strong effort to understand each student as a unique and complex individual, beyond his or her cultural identity. This will help you to create engaging lessons that can bridge cultural barriers.

2. Make sure your curriculum is culturally varied and relevant.

It is so common for art teachers to fall into the habit of focusing exclusively on western artists. Although Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Rembrandt are wonderful artists, they are not the only group of artists students should be exposed to in art class.

After you have taken the time to get to know your students, it will be much easier to craft projects that connect to their identities and unique personal interests. With deep knowledge about your students, you will be able to present them with culturally relevant, engaging lessons.

For example, I had a student many years ago who's family had emigrated from Afghanistan. When I taught my lesson about Mehndi designs that year, she was excited to see something from her home culture represented in my class. I will never forget her smile when she came to me after class to share her enthusiasm for the lesson. She felt so much more connected to the rest of the students after that experience. The rest of the class was able to understand her culture better as well.

In addition to providing your students with a range of experiences, make sure you do not pigeonhole the study of African American art to February, or Hispanic art to September. If you are committed to diversity and relevance, these lessons will naturally be spread to other times of the year when they are most meaningful.

3. Be aware of your own cultural biases.

As teachers, we set the tone for our classroom. We are responsible for defining what is embraced and encouraged. This is a big job and one that requires we be aware of any biases we may carry into our art rooms.

Ask yourself where you feel you need to grow in terms of your cultural sensitivity. Although this type of reflection is often uncomfortable, it is so important. Just as we expect our students to be open to discomfort as they learn, we as teachers need to do the same. Reflect openly and honestly, and make efforts to correct any cultural biases you find.

4. Seek input and support from community members.

Look around your school and community. Are there teachers or parents/guardians who would make great collaborators? Tap into the expertise of other members of your learning community to help you meet the needs of your diverse student population.

For example, is there a parent who would make a great guest speaker? Do you know a teacher who has lived in another country or has a deep understanding of a culture your class is studying? Ask them to share what they know with your students. These experiences will provide your students with deeper and more authentic learning than you may be able to provide yourself.

5. Make sure students have choice to create authentic work.

When students have choice, they feel validated and empowered to create. Allow students to use their own stories and experiences to make work that expresses their uniqueness. This will create the opportunity for your lessons to transcend cultural barriers.

As art teachers, we can play a key role in teaching our students cultural tolerance and understanding. When students are given the freedom to share their own perspectives, cultural barriers are broken and lines of communication are opened. Students have a lot to share and will be willing to if they are given a voice. Make sure your lessons allow space for students to be different from one another, and you will be amazed what will come out in their work.

Through art, people express their values, hopes, and aspirations. Art also highlights our shared humanity, which is more important for students to learn now than ever before. Our world is getting smaller every day, and our students will need to navigate through a more diverse cultural climate than previous generations.

Although it can be challenging to meet the needs of a culturally diverse population, there are many benefits. We art teachers have a unique opportunity to bring students together. These tips can help you create a classroom environment sensitive to students' cultural identities.
Do you teach in a diverse school? What tips do you have for teachers seeking to create a culturally sensitive classroom?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

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We define social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

New to Social and Emotional Learning? Start here (2 min. read).

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Hear why students, parents, and educators want SEL in schools. Here are 3 things to know about social and emotional learning:

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SEL can help all young people and adults thrive personally and academically, develop and maintain positive relationships, become lifelong learners, and contribute to a more caring, just world.

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Emotional regulation: Skills, exercises, and strategies

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Emotional regulation: Skills, exercises, and strategies

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Emotions are a normal part of everyday life. We feel frustrated when we're stuck in traffic. We feel sad when we miss our loved ones. We can get angry when someone lets us down or does something to hurt us.

While we expect to feel these emotions regularly, some people start to experience emotions that are more volatile. They feel higher highs and lower lows, and these peaks and valleys begin to impact their lives. Individuals who experience intense emotions may find themselves calm one moment and then sad or angry the next.

While any of us can have times when our emotions spin out of control, for some people it happens regularly. Their rapidly changing emotions can cause them to do and say things they later regret. They may damage relationships or hurt their credibility with others.

There can be a number of reasons that someone loses control of their emotions. They may be genetically predisposed to these rapid changes. They may never have seen good emotional regulation modeled or learned the skills. They may lose control when they experience triggers for negative situations that happened in the past. There can also be physical changes that cause a person to lose control of their emotions, such as exhaustion or a drop in blood sugar.

No matter the reason for the emotional volatility, the good news is that we can learn better self-regulation. We can all benefit from learning strategies to control our emotions. Emotional regulation is the ability to better control our emotional state.

What are emotional control and regulation?

Emotional control and regulation is taking any action that alters the intensity of an emotional experience. It doesn't mean suppressing or avoiding emotions. With emotional regulation skills, you can influence which emotions you have as well as how you express them.

Ultimately, it refers to the ability to effectively exert control over our emotions through a wide range of approaches.

Some people are better at regulating their emotions than others. They are high in emotional intelligence and are aware of both their internal experiences and the feelings of others. While it may seem like they're just "naturally calm," these people experience negative feelings too. They've just developed coping strategies that allow them to self-regulate difficult emotions.

The good news is that emotional self-regulation isn't a static trait. Emotion regulation skills can be learned and improved over time. Learning how to manage negative experiences can benefit your mental and physical health.

Why is emotional regulation important?

As adults, we are expected to manage our emotions in ways that are socially acceptable and help us navigate our lives. When our emotions get the better of us, they can cause problems.

Many factors can impede emotional regulation. These include our beliefs about negative emotions or a lack of emotional regulation skills. Sometimes, stressful situations can evoke especially powerful emotions.

One of the ways that emotional volatility can hurt us includes the impact it can have on our relationships with others. For example, when we cannot properly moderate our anger, we are likely to say things that hurt those around us and cause them to pull away. We may regret the things we've said or have to spend time repairing relationships.

In addition to having a negative impact on our relationships, an inability to control our emotions can also hurt ourselves. Feeling overwhelming sadness can lower well-being and cause unnecessary suffering. Living with unmitigated fear can get in the way of our ability to take risks and have new life experiences.

5 emotion regulation skills you should master

There are a number of skills that can help us self-regulate our emotions.
1. Create space
Emotions happen fast. We don't think "now I will be angry" - we are just suddenly clench-jawed and furious. So the number one skill in regulating difficult emotions, the gift we can give ourselves, is to pause. Take a breath. Slow down the moment between trigger and response.
2. Noticing what you feel
An equally important skill involves the ability to become aware of what you're feeling. Dr. Judson Brewer, MD Ph.D. recommends practices for becoming more curious about your own physical reactions. Tune in to yourself and consider: in what parts of your body are you noticing sensations? Is your stomach upset? Is your heart racing? Do you feel tension in your neck or head?

Your physical symptoms can be clues to what you are experiencing emotionally. Inquiring into what is happening to you physically can also distract your focus and allow some of the intensity of the emotion to go away.
3. Naming what you feel
After noticing what you feel, the ability to name it can help you get control of what is happening. Ask yourself: what would you call the emotions you're feeling? Is it anger, sadness, disappointment, or resentment? What else is it? One strong emotion that often hides beneath others is fear.

Many of us feel more than one emotion at a time, so don't hesitate to identify multiple emotions you might be feeling. Then dig a little deeper. If you feel fear, what are you afraid of? If you feel anger, what are you angry about or toward? Being able to name your emotions will help you get one step closer to sharing your emotions with others.
4. Accepting the emotion
Emotions are a normal and natural part of how we respond to situations. Rather than beating yourself up for feeling angry or scared, recognize that your emotional reactions are valid. Try to practice self-compassion and give yourself grace. Recognize that experiencing emotions is a normal human reaction.
5. Practicing mindfulness
Mindfulness helps us "live in the moment" by paying attention to what is inside us. Use your senses to notice what is happening around you in nonjudgmental ways. These skills can help you stay calm and avoid engaging in negative thought patterns when you are in the midst of emotional pain.

7 strategies that can help you regulate your emotions

There are a number of emotion regulation strategies that people can master to build their coping skills. It is important to consider which strategies are most useful and which ones to avoid.

There are two broad categories of emotional regulation. The first is reappraisal: changing how we think about something in order to change our response. The second is suppression, which is linked to more negative outcomes. Research indicates that ignoring our emotions is associated with dissatisfaction and poor well-being.

Let's look at 7 strategies that can help to manage emotions in a healthy and helpful way.

1. Identify and reduce triggers

You shouldn't try to avoid negative emotions - or be afraid of them. But you also don't have to keep putting yourself in a situation that brings on unpleasant emotions. Start to look for patterns or factors that are present when you start to feel strong emotions. This requires some curiosity and honesty. Did something make you feel small? Strong emotions often spring up out of our deep-seated insecurities, especially the ones we hide. What is happening around you and what past experiences does it bring up for you?

When you identify these triggers, you can start to explore why they carry so much weight and whether you can reduce their importance. For example, a CEO might be embarrassed to admit that he gets angry when discussing numbers because he struggled in math class. Understanding this trigger might be enough. Or, the CEO might choose to preview the monthly charts in private to avoid the trigger of feeling like everyone else is waiting for him.

2. Tune into physical symptoms

Pay attention to how you are feeling, including whether you are feeling hungry or tired. These factors can exacerbate your emotions and cause you to interpret your emotions more strongly. If you can address the underlying issue (e.g. hunger, exhaustion), you can change your emotional response.

3. Consider the story you are telling yourself

In the absence of information, we fill in the blanks with details of our own. Perhaps you are feeling rejected after you haven't heard from a family member; you believe it is because they no longer care about you.

Before you make these attributions, ask yourself: what other explanations might be possible? In the example of the family member, what else could be going on with them that would stop them from reaching out to you? Could they be busy or sick? Are they a well-intentioned person who often forgets to follow through on commitments?

BetterUp's Shonna Waters recommends the " just like me" technique. Whatever motive or action you are assigning to the other person (there's almost always another person involved), add "just like me" to the end. It is a way of reminding yourself that they are also an imperfect human being.
4. Engage in positive self-talk
When our emotions feel overwhelming, our self-talk can become negative: "I messed up again" or "everyone else is so awful." If you treat yourself with empathy, you can replace some of this negative talk with positive comments. Try encouraging yourself by saying "I always try so hard" or "People are doing the best they can." This shift can help mitigate the emotions we're feeling. You can still be frustrated with a situation that isn't working but no longer have to assign blame or generalize it beyond the situation.
5. Make a choice about how to respond
In most situations, we have a choice about how to respond. If you tend to respond to feelings of anger by lashing out at people, you likely notice the negative impact it is having on your relationships. You might also notice that it doesn't feel good. Or, it feels good at the moment, but the consequences are painful.

Next time you feel anger or fear, recognize that you get to choose how you want to respond. That recognition is powerful. Rather than lashing out, can you try a different response? Is it possible for you to tell someone that you're feeling angry rather than speaking harshly to them? Get curious about what will happen if you switch up your responses. How did you feel? How did the other person respond?
6. Look for positive emotions
Human beings naturally attribute more weight to negative emotions than positive ones. This is known as negativity bias. Negative emotions, like disgust, anger, and sadness tend to carry a lot of weight. Positive feelings, like contentment, interest, and gratitude are quieter. Making a habit of noticing these positive experiences can boost resilience and well-being.
7. Seek out a therapist
Managing our own emotions can be difficult. It requires a high degree of self-awareness. When we're having a hard time, our emotional self-regulation begins to suffer. Sometimes we need a partner like a therapist who can help us learn better self-regulation skills. Fortunately, there are a number of therapeutic solutions that can help us learn to better regulate our emotions.

What is emotional regulation disorder?

Emotional regulation disorder is a condition where someone has difficulty managing their feelings. This inability to adequately regulate emotions is referred to as dysregulation. Dysregulation is a poor ability to manage emotional responses or keep reactions within an acceptable range.

A person with emotional regulation disorder is more likely to experience dramatic changes in mood. These fluctuations in turn negatively impact the person's actions.

Emotional regulation disorder can result in some of the following:

Difficulty building and maintaining healthy relationships

Self-destructive behavior

Hypersensitivity

Frequent meltdowns or temper tantrums

Outbursts of emotions that are displaced onto someone who did not cause the harm

Emotional regulation disorder can also accompany other mental health issues. Disorders such as depression, stress, or borderline personality disorder often complicate emotional regulation.

What is DBT?

There are many therapeutic approaches that can help with emotional regulation disorder. These interventions tend to be practical in nature and can be quite successful.

One approach that can help with emotional dysregulation is dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). DBT is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that seeks to identify negative thinking patterns. Individuals work with a therapist to replace these patterns with positive behavioral changes.

DBT is a cognitive reappraisal technique. It includes practices such as thought replacement or situational role reversals. In situational role reversals, the person imagines a situation from a different perspective. This exercise can help them develop empathy and cognitive flexibility.

One of the long-term goals of dialectical behavior therapy is to improve distress tolerance. Distress tolerance is the ability to sit with uncomfortable emotions, sensations, and experiences. Emotional dysregulation often comes from a desire to "override" the undesirable feeling. Without awareness, people tend to resort to self-harm, substance abuse, and other behaviors to escape the feeling. Building distress tolerance provides a self-help toolkit. This usually includes self-soothing, distraction, and radical acceptance techniques. With practice, you can learn how to calm yourself down.

Negative emotions are part of our daily lives, and pretending that they don't exist won't make them go away. Rather than trying to avoid them, we should try to develop emotional intelligence and regulation skills. Building the ability to self-regulate is crucial to leadership, communication, and relationships.

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Emotional Regulation: Skills, Exercises, & Strategies to Regulate

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Negative emotions are part of life - ignoring them won't make them go away. Here's how to build emotional regulation skills.

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Encouraging cultural sensitivity in the classroom

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Encouraging cultural sensitivity in the classroom

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Cultural sensitivty in language teaching

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Valuing diverse cultures in classrooms builds inclusivity. Learn why cultural sensitivity matters and practical ways to foster a culturally aware learning environment.

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Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers

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Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers

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Communication is key in the classroom: successful teaching is generally considered to require only 50% knowledge to 50% communication skills. As a result, a teacher should be proficient in all four modes of communication - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and should know how to utilise this proficiency effectively in a school environment. Being able to do this has been proven to impact the success students achieve in their academic lives, as well as the teacher's own career success.

In this article, we will outline the reasons why classroom communication has such importance. You will also learn some of the strategies you can use to help you and your students attain your best outcomes.

Why is it Important for Teachers to Have Effective Communication Skills?

Teachers benefit from good communication skills in three different areas: when communicating with students, with parents, and with colleagues.

Communicating with Students

Communication skills are most vital for interactions with students, because the act of teaching itself requires them. In your role, you are responsible for comprehending and breaking down complex information, conveying this information clearly to your students (both verbally and in written resources), presenting in a manner that sustains their attention, and listening to and resolving their questions or problems.

You are also required to adapt content for different learning styles, motivate students to learn, build supportive relationships using encouragement and empathy, manage the classroom, and give feedback - making your classroom a safe and supportive learning environment. All of these things require good communication skills.

The better your communication skills, the more effectively you can perform these tasks. In turn, your students will make more academic progress. Studies have found that the success of students is directly related to interactive, engaging teaching environments formed by able teachers (see Mashburn et al., 2008). Additionally, the way that you communicate with your students can positively affect their perceptions of school, their role in the classroom, themselves and their abilities, and their motivation to succeed (see Dobbs & Arnold, 2009).

However, this works both ways: poor communication skills - and thus poor methods of teaching - causes students' comprehension levels to drop, and may affect their academic progress negatively. It could also lead to students lacking motivation, disliking school, and believing themselves to be unable to achieve. This could have consequences for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, effective communication between teachers and students is extremely important. It allows you to perform your job well, with positive results for your pupils. An added benefit is that your class can use you as a model for improving their own communication skills, which are critical for their development and future learning.

Effective coaching and mentoring can help boost your communication with students as you focus on three key areas: foundations, principles and practice.

Explore how to coach with consistency and plan for an effective mentoring session with our Coaching and Mentoring course which has been designed to give you the practical skills needed to get started with your successful teaching career.

Communicating with Parents

As a teacher, you will also need to communicate effectively with parents. This could take place through a variety of mediums, including phone calls, emails, and in-person meetings, so you must be skilled with both verbal and written language.

This is particularly important because you will often have to discuss sensitive subjects - such as behaviour issues, learning problems, and the student's strengths and weaknesses - without making the parent feel confused or defensive. It is vital that you are clear, but tactful, at all times. Failing to communicate well with parents could lead to doubts on their part about your ability to teach, and possible complaints, as well as a lack of understanding of their child's performance and educational needs.

Communicating with Colleagues

Teaching does not always involve independent work - it also requires collaboration. Whether you are planning lessons together, updating your colleagues on certain students' progress, or sharing tips about how to handle issues in the classroom, good communication skills will be of use to you.

You might also utilise these skills in staff meetings and training sessions - being able to lead meetings, present in front of varied audiences, and give feedback to other staff could illustrate to your colleagues and superiors that you are a good candidate for promotion.

As we have demonstrated, there are many reasons why effective communication skills are imperative in a teaching career. In the next section, we will give you some strategies to improve your communication in the classroom.

Strategies for Effective Communication in the Classroom

What we classify as 'good' or 'effective' communication depends on the context. When you are presenting in front of the class, you will use different strategies than when you are facilitating a group discussion, or speaking to a student one-to-one.

Here, we will suggest eight strategies that are applicable to each of the contexts that you may encounter.

1. Create a safe learning environment with supportive relationships

It has been proven that supportive relationships between students and teachers have a positive impact on class engagement, participation, and the students' achievements. It has even been suggested that these supportive relationships may negate the tendency for low-income students to have poorer school outcomes (see O'Connor & McCartney, 2007).

This is because, when students feel supported, they are more comfortable expressing their own thoughts and ideas in class discussions, attempting challenges, and asking when they need help. Higher levels of engagement and participation then lead to better developed knowledge and greater achievement.

A supportive learning environment is built using communication: you should get to know your students well, and show them that they are safe from judgement or humiliation in your classroom. It is a good idea to learn students' names early in the year, and use them often. Have an open-door policy for students to come and talk to you about any issues, and be empathic and caring when you interact with them at all times: don't tell them off for not understanding and don't ridicule their thoughts and ideas.

Additionally, you should recognise that some students don't feel comfortable talking in front of the class. If you do ask them to participate, you could use scaffolding (such as sentence starters) to make them feel safer doing so. However, forced participation is usually unnecessary: it is likely that quieter students have excellent listening skills, and are learning just as much, despite not sharing their own thoughts.

2. More teamwork

Teamwork and group discussions contribute to making the classroom a more comfortable environment. By working in small groups, students are able to share their ideas more easily, and improve their own communication skills. These activities also give them a good opportunity to ask you questions and get feedback on their work, leading to effective communication between you, better understanding of the lesson, and academic benefits.

You could also try to improve your communication skills through teamwork with your colleagues. Planning more lessons together, sharing ideas, and problem-solving together will develop the way that you interact.

3. Body language

Communication is not only verbal, but also non-verbal: you should ensure that the signals you are giving out through your body language are positive, confident, and engaging.

For example, making eye contact with students when you are talking to them shows that you are being supportive and attentive. Making eye contact is also important when you are presenting to the whole class - it motivates everyone to pay attention, which helps them to learn, as well as making them feel involved. In order to make more eye contact, you may have to learn your lesson content more thoroughly in advance, so that you don't have to look away to read your notes.

As you teach, you should use gestures to emphasise your words. This increases the interactivity of the lesson, making it more visually interesting and hence, more memorable. Keep your arms open - do not fold them - and use smiles, nods, and thumbs up to encourage students when they participate. Moving around the classroom while you teach can help to remove the barrier between you and your students, and gives them less opportunity to zone out or get distracted.

Body language is also important when dealing with negative behaviour. To avoid being confrontational, ensure that you don't stand directly above or in front of a student, point, or invade their personal space. It may be effective to get down to their level and talk quietly about their behaviour, or speak to them outside the classroom, to avoid drawing too much attention. Remember that students' behaviour is also a form of communication, and think about what it is telling you.

You can find out more about dealing with challenging behaviour from our dedicated article: ' How to Deal with Challenging Behaviour in the Classroom '.

4. Active listening

The 'listening' component of communication should not be overlooked - over 60% of all misunderstandings result from poor listening (Caruso, Colombi, & Tebbit, 2017).

Practising good listening in the classroom can benefit you in two ways. Firstly, you will be a model for your students, who will improve their own listening skills, and thus retain lessons better. Secondly, by using active listening, you can correct misunderstandings and extend learning, resulting in a better education for your students.

Active listening involves listening carefully to what your students say, checking that you have understood them correctly (for example, repeating back to them what you think they have said), building on their ideas, and challenging or questioning them. It is the best approach to use to foster understanding in the classroom, and is an excellent example of effective communication.

5. Feedback

Feedback is also an important component of communication in the classroom. There have been many studies focusing on feedback in recent years. It has been shown that positive feedback (i.e. praise) builds students' confidence - making them more likely to believe that they can succeed - and helps to create a supportive environment and increase academic success.

You can also use positive feedback to modify students' behaviour: for example, praising a student for having their hand up is likely to cause the students around them to stop 'shouting out' and copy this behaviour, in order to be praised themselves (Howell, Caldarella, Korth, & Young, 2014).

However, positive feedback can be detrimental to learning if it is used without being deserved, or too frequently (Cannella, 1986). Phrases such as 'good job' or 'beautiful' may not motivate students, because they do not understand what they are specifically being praised for, while over-praising can cause children to lack interest in situations where they are not being praised (e.g. Howell et al., 2014). As a result, you should give specific, deserved positive feedback - use the student's name, explicitly state what they are doing right, and thank them enthusiastically.

Negative feedback is used more often in the classroom than positive feedback, and many researchers have argued that this should not be the case. While negative feedback can help students to improve - for example, by changing their behaviour, or trying harder at a task (Conroy et al., 2014) - it does also contribute to conflictual relationships with students (e.g. Allen et al., 2013). It has also been suggested that it can cause lower levels of academic success (e.g. Wu et al., 2010).

These disadvantages are compounded by the fact that the negative feedback is not always successful - students tend to continue the behaviour despite negative feedback around 20% of the time - and it tends to decrease students' motivation and interest in a task (e.g. Spilt et al., 2016). Other consequences include decreased self-worth, which impacts children's academic success (e.g. Harter, 2012).

As such, you should ensure that you use negative feedback only sparingly; for general classroom management, using positive feedback to illustrate the behaviour that you want to see is much more effective. In situations where you do have to use negative feedback, you should explicitly address the behaviour you want to stop, give an explanation why (e.g. 'don't do that. I don't think it is safe'), allow the student to think about morality (e.g. 'are you doing the right thing?'), or use a simple form of 'no' (e.g. 'no', 'mm mm'). These techniques increase the effectiveness of negative feedback, and decrease any detrimental impact that it might have.

Finally, you should give students the opportunity to give you feedback on your lessons or teaching styles. This shows that you value their opinion, increases communication between you, and helps you to improve your teaching and their learning.

6. Sense of humour

The use of humour in the classroom has been found to increase learning, self-motivation, and positive relationships between students and teachers (see Segrist & Hupp, 2015). It allows you to establish a rapport with your class, and keep them interested in the lesson.

For example, you might tell jokes or funny anecdotes, give light-hearted personal examples, or laugh at students' own jokes. However, you should ensure that you don't use negative humour - where you demean or embarrass students - or humour that is either irrelevant to the lesson, disturbing, violent, sexual, or forced. Only continue to use humour that has received a positive response from the class (such as laughing).

7. Technical skills

Using up-to-date teaching aids such as computers, videos, and online resources is another way to keep students engaged and reinforce their understanding. It can also increase the effectiveness of your communication with students with different learning styles, who may benefit more from online resources than more old-fashioned ones. Try to work some of these aids into your lessons on a regular basis.

8. Be clear

Good communication - and good teaching - is about understanding and being understood. For this reason, you should always be clear and unambiguous, and adapt your words to your audience. Think about this while writing lesson plans (ensure that you break complex ideas down into simple, logical parts for your audience to understand), but also while you interact with the children after presenting the lesson. For example, you may wish to check that your teaching was clear by asking your students questions, or requesting summaries of the lesson in their own words.

When you ask your students questions, use appropriate scaffolding to ensure that they understand exactly what you are asking. If you teach in a primary school, your students' language abilities won't yet be fully developed. Closed questions (eliciting yes/no responses), forced alternatives (such as 'is he angry or happy?'), and sentence starters (e.g. 'a noun is...') are most effective for communicating with younger children. For older children, open-ended questions (such as 'how do you think...' or 'tell me about...') allow them to extend their thinking and develop their problem-solving skills.
The importance of effective communication in the classroom should not be underestimated - it can have an impact on your students' academic progress, feelings of self-worth, perceptions of school, and your own career. Using communication strategies like the ones we have detailed above could allow you to become a more successful teacher who better meets your students' needs.
Further Resources:

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Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers

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Communication is key in the classroom: successful teaching is generally considered to require only 50% knowledge to 50% communication skills. As a result, a teacher should be proficient in all four modes of communication - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and should know how to utilise this proficiency effectively in a school environment.

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7 Strategies for Effective Communication in the Classroom

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7 Strategies for Effective Communication in the Classroom

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7 Strategies for Effective Communication in the Classroom

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Effective communication in your classroom is essential to get children learning. It helps build relationships, save time and improve outcomes for your pupils. Read our guide to learn seven easy strategies to improve communication with your class.

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The Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning (EASEL) Laboratory

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The Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning (EASEL) Laboratory

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Welcome to Greater Good in Education! Explore our growing collection of 350+ practices related to social-emotional learning, character education, and mindfulness, drawn from the latest research.

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Find activities, practices, and tools to help you create happier, kinder, more equitable learning communities, drawn from research.

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The Girl in the Velcro Dress: An allegory for those who carry too much - Heather Plett

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Listen to me read the post: Once there was a girl who wore a velcro dress. At an early age, before any other options became apparent to her, she’d stitched that dress together out of all of the bits that had been passed down to her by her mother and grandmothers before her. Into […]

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The Girl in the Painted Dress: An allegory for those who want to be free

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The Girl in the Painted Dress: An allegory for those who want to be free

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The Girl in the Painted Dress: An allegory for those who want to be free - Heather Plett

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After I wrote The Girl in the Velcro Dress, a number of people said they wanted to know how the girl reclaimed herself. This is that story. You may wish to read the other post first. Listen to me read The Girl in the Painted Dress: Once there was a girl in a velcro dress […]

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Co-regulation: What it Is and Why it Matters

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Co-regulation: What it Is and Why it Matters

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Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

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Co-regulation: What It Is and Why it Matters

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Understanding the Drama Triangle vs. Presence

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Understanding the Drama Triangle vs. Presence

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Understanding the Drama Triangle vs. Presence

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The Drama Triangle | Transactional Analysis Games | Lauren Kress

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The Institute For Collaborative Learning

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TESOL Journal - 2020 - Pentón Herrera - Restorative and community‐building practices as social justice for English learners.pdf

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TESOL Journal - 2020 - Pentón Herrera - Restorative and community‐building practices as social justice for English learners.pdf

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TESOL Journal - 2020 - Pentón Herrera - Restorative and community‐building practices as social justice for English learners.pdf

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De-escalation Preference Form from TraumaiInformed Care Resource Guide.pdf

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De-escalation Preference Form from TraumaiInformed Care Resource Guide.pdf

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De-escalation Preference Form from TraumaiInformed Care Resource Guide.pdf

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Ways to Implement Restorative Practices in the Classroom (Opinion)

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Ways to Implement Restorative Practices in the Classroom (Opinion)

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What are practical ways to implement restorative practices?
There is more and more interest in moving away from "traditional" school discipline and toward restorative practices. This series will explore what that kind of shift can look like-in practical terms-inside our schools and classrooms.

Today, Dr. Sheila Wilson, Maurice McDavid, Timothy Hilton, Ashley McCall, Bryan Harris, and Kara Pranikoff contribute their commentaries. You can listen to a ten-minute conversation I had with Sheila, Maurice, and Timothy on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.
"When You Know Better, You Do Better!" Dr. Sheila Wilson is a native New Orleanian. She currently works as a 5th grade teacher in Virginia. In addition to instructional leadership, she serves to improve the capacity of students, teachers, and families through her roles as grade chair, lead mentor teacher, family-engagement liaison, and SCA adviser. Dr. Wilson is also an adjunct professor, conference presenter, and self-proclaimed lifelong learner. She is passionate about amplifying instruction, school leadership, and equity:
We are all familiar with the discipline practices of yesteryear, which would likely cause any conscientious educator today to cringe. Corporal punishment/traditional discipline practices were widely accepted and viewed as a means of correcting unwanted negative behaviors. I can vividly remember being a high school sophomore assigned to write 500 lines for being caught passing a note in the classroom. And who can forget the ultimate ... getting paddled in the principal's office! Even though it didn't personally happen to me (really), just the idea evoked fear in students of all ages and deterred most from mischievous acts. So, why was corporal punishment acceptable then? Why is corporal punishment no longer an accepted discipline practice in most places? Is punishment designed for those who obey the rules or for others? These questions make me call to mind the adage, "When you know better, you do better!"

Countless studies have shown that traditional discipline practices are no longer effective in today's schools. In fact, traditional practices were so commonplace in part because the ability to apply an immediate consequence was less time consuming for the one doling out the punishment. However, we now embrace restorative practices because they draw their strength in their ability to empower students to learn from unacceptable choices, to understand their impact, and to grow personally in their ability to make more sound decisions and resolve problems. Restorative practices represent a positive step forward in helping all students learn to resolve disagreements, take ownership of their behavior, and engage in acts of empathy and forgiveness.

There are many ways to implement restorative practices in the classroom. First, teachers can incorporate daily morning meetings to build relationships with students, get a sense of their social/emotional mindset, and set the tone and focus for the instructional day. Teachers can also utilize goal setting with their students as a restorative practice. With goal setting, students take ownership of areas they'd like to improve (academically or socially), and they set realistic and actionable steps to work toward their goal. By providing individual goal conferences, teachers can check in to see if students are on track to meet their goals, and students learn to self-check and refocus as needed. Another useful strategy is when an unacceptable behavior has happened that the teacher allows the offended student to share how the offense made him/her feel. In this way, the offender is able to understand how his/her behavior impacts others and therefore understand the perspective of the other person. Finally, there is great restorative power in having the student who has made an unacceptable choice reflect on his/her behavior in writing by addressing very specific questions like: What choice did I make? How did my choice impact others? Is there a better way that I could have addressed this situation? If I had the opportunity for a redo, would I make the same choice? Why or why not?

There are a number of benefits or restorative practices:

Builds relationships

Strives to be respectful to all

Provides the opportunity for equitable dialogue and decisionmaking

Involves relevant stakeholders

Addresses harms, needs, obligations

Encourages all to take responsibility

Educators have come to realize that you can't punish a child into doing anything. Instead of simply instituting harsh punishment, we need to teach kids the kind of skills, supported by research, to help them improve their behavior. This is why districts are embracing the implementation of restorative structures in schools across the nation. In building socially responsible students, we must arm them with the ability to think critically, problem-solve, and be able to work collaboratively with others. It will be through their mastery of academic knowledge AND their capacity to engage successfully with others that will ultimately guarantee their future success. Therefore, as educators, we must invest our efforts wisely.

Four Restorative Practices
Maurice McDavid earned his bachelor's degree in elementary education with a minor in history and Spanish. He has taught middle school history, English, and Spanish, as well as high school geography. He was dean of students for three years and is now in his first year as assistant principal at a bilingual elementary school.:

There are four restorative practices that I have worked to implement in our school building that all work on the same model of restorative justice: community-building circles, norm setting, community circles for content, and restorative chats.

Community-building circles: This practice is great for the beginning of the year, as well as use throughout the year to build a community of learners. This allows the students to get to know one another, as well as the teacher. This practice builds empathy amongst the students and will reduce the negative attacking behaviors that can exist in classrooms.

Norm setting: This practice is done using the model of a community-building circle but emphasizes the building of classroom norms together. Oftentimes, rules are handed down by authority and are necessary. Through the norm-setting process, students discuss the values (love, kindness, honesty, etc.) that are important to them in a relationship. From there, students take the values and turn them into action statements describing how they could live out those values in the classroom. A list of action statements or norms are created and can then be edited together as a class. What is awesome about this process is that the norms created are not adult-driven but instead are created as a community and thus has more community buy-in.

Community circles for content: This again uses the community-circle model for the base of practice. The difference is that rather than simply looking to build community, you can use the circle to present content in a class. It is a great discussion model. I have used it to introduce units and gather feedback about students' background information. The students are able to share openly and yet in an organized fashion, using the talking piece to moderate.

Restorative chats: Restorative chats are used when students do not meet the norms that were established in the classroom. It can be one on one or can be done with the whole class. It is centered around the following four questions:

What happened? - This differs from what did you do and allows students to tell the whole story and feel heard.

What were you thinking at the time? - This asks students to go back through the mental process they used when making the decision to act outside of the norms. This is a meta-cognitive practice. It allows for reflection on what thoughts and/or emotions may have led to the behavior.

Who or what was harmed? - This question asks the student to be accountable for the idea that their behavior caused harm to someone or something. Students are quick to discover that they have harmed themselves and, oftentimes, see how their behavior has harmed a teacher or classmate. This builds empathy.

How do you repair the harm? - This question asks the student to think about how they can make the situation right rather than simply serving a consequence that is not directly connected to the action. Students may offer to apologize or clean up a mess created. Students get to be a part of deciding what happens rather than having a decision made for them.

Starting "Small" Timothy Hilton is a climate and culture specialist with the Fresno Unified school district, in California, where he coaches teachers on classroom management and class climate. Timothy has over 10 years classroom-teaching experience at every level of social studies, ranging from Advanced Placement to English-language development. Timothy is currently a doctoral candidate at Claremont Graduate University in the field of educational policy, evaluation, and reform:
The Restorative practices world is a world that many educators fear simply because they do not know a lot about it. Educators are rarely trained to an adequate level in how to make Restorative Practices (RP) work in their daily lives. Teachers are usually shown the heavy-duty re-entry circles or conflict mediation to demonstrate the power of RP, but this often leaves teachers intimidated, overwhelmed, and asking how this is going to work for them.

The best, and most practical way, to implement restorative practices in the classroom is to start small with some basic restorative skills that can be practiced in your classroom, and even in your life outside of school. These skills are listening, affective communication, and curiosity questions. Once these skills have been practiced, lived, and embraced, then teacher can begin working into the heavier-duty RP practices.

Listening: While the concept of listening seems self-explanatory, we as teachers do not always do it. We are often trying to do a million things at once and, in turn, never really listen to our students. We hear them, but do we listen? In a restorative classroom, there are a couple ways we can demonstrate that we are listening. First is by mirroring their emotions and feelings about a topic. If they are serious when they are telling you something, then be serious as you listen. Second is by demonstrating active listening and paraphrasing. Saying things like, "What I am hearing you say is ..." Third is by being present and validating their feelings. If they are telling you something, make sure you are in the conversation and not planning your grocery list. A big part of being present is validating their feelings. You can do this by making statements such as, " I understand why you are upset." Or, "I cannot even imagine what you must be feeling, but that you so much for sharing with me."

Affective Communication: Also known as I-messages, these are powerful restorative tools that can be easily used in every classroom. These statements are done to connect the actions of your students to the impact they have on you. Affective statements require teachers to be willing to be honest and share their feelings. Affective statements follow simple formulas that can be used in every affective statement you make, "I feel/felt _____ when you _____." Another example is, "I would like/what I need is _____." The statement frames can be combined or used independently and might look like this, "I felt disappointed when I caught you cheating on the test. " Or,

"I felt sad yesterday when I found out you lied to me because I have always trusted you. I need you to trust me enough to be honest with me. " These questions tie the actions of an individual to the effect they had, something students often forget about.

Curiosity Questions: These are genuine questions you would ask someone to learn more about their situation. Imagine a student just does not seem to be having a good day. You can pull them aside and ask some curiosity questions to find out more. Simple questions like, "How are you doing today?" Or, "You seem kind of off today, is everything OK?" These questions help dive into an issue, but curiosity questions can also help resolve a conflict, "How did it make you feel when Tommy hit you?" or "What do you need Tommy to say to you to feel better?" These are just some very surface-level examples, but many more can be found online and in print resources.

Online Resources for Support Ashley McCall is a 3rd grade English/language arts educator at Chavez Multicultural Academic Center in Back of the Yards (Chicago) where she serves as a teacher representative on the local school council. She is a Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship alumna and a member of the Teach Plus Board:
Many districts that are new to restorative practices are under the impression that it is a program to implement. It is not. Restorative practices are about shifting the mindsets and developing the capacity of stakeholders (students, families, teachers, administrators, receptionists, cafeteria staff, security staff, etc.) so they are invested in the culture and climate of the building and accept responsibility for maintaining a safe, enjoyable, and productive environment for all involved. When stakeholders are invested and properly trained, we are able to effectively sustain healthy school climates and respond effectively to breaches in our social contract.

If you are looking to shift toward more restorative practices in your school, you need buy-in across stakeholder groups. Consider how you (and a diverse group of stakeholders) will make a case for and create a sense of urgency around restorative practices at your school. Consider how you can use data as a reflective tool (rather than a tool for shaming and punishment) to drive conversations around the culture, climate, and current disciplinary practices.

Conflict-Resolution Sentence Starters As a career-long educator, Bryan Harris has served in a variety of roles from classroom teacher to district-level leader. Now working full time as a trainer, his work focuses on topics ranging from student engagement to teacher resiliency. Find out more at his website:
At the heart of restorative practices-in fact, it's right there in the name-is helping students learn how to repair and restore relationships after a conflict, hurt, offense, or fight.

The sad fact is that far too many of our students enter school without effective conflict-resolution skills. This includes the skill of recognizing when you've done harm to someone else and how to fix it. Notice that I didn't say that kids don't have any conflict-resolution skills. The fact is that they do-it's just that many of the skills and communication methods they've acquired are not healthy or productive.

So, as teachers and leaders, what do we do?

The first step is knowing that conflict is normal and cannot be fully avoided as long as you interact with other people. Once we help our students understand this very important idea, helping them develop and refine skills that communicate remorse is a great next step. In other words, teach them the power of an apology.

When students know how to sincerely offer and genuinely accept an apology, it serves as the foundation to restore broken relationships.

Have you ever seen something like this before?

Student A (we'll call them the offender) sheepishly walks over to Student B and says, "Sorry." They mumble the word under their breath while looking directly at the ground, arms folded the entire time.

Student B (we'll call them the victim) reluctantly says, "That's OK," while also looking at the ground and counting the seconds until they can run away.

In this all-too-common scenario, both students are likely embarrassed, and the conflict is not resolved. While some of the right words were used, Student A didn't truly apologize, and Student B didn't authentically accept it.

Imagine how different that interaction would be if students used specific words and phrases that communicate remorse for the offense and acceptance of an apology. It might sound like this:

Student A: "I am sorry for drawing that picture of you and showing it to your friends. I realize that made you feel sad. I promise I'll never do that again. Will you please forgive me?"

Student B: "Since you promised to never do that again, I accept your apology."

Notice the difference in the words. A great first place to start is by teaching students, by the use of sentence starters, which words are most effective at offering and accepting an apology. The following examples are great places to start:
How to Offer an Apology
* I apologize for ...

* It was my fault that _______ happened. I apologize for letting it happen.

* I realize that....

* I realize that _____ was my fault and I am sorry for making you feel ________.

* I am truly sorry that I did this. I want to make things better. Tell me how I can do that.
How to Accept an Apology
* I accept your apology. Make sure this does not happen again.

* Because I know you will not do this again, I accept your apology.

* I'll accept your apology because....

* Because you know that ______ was wrong, I accept your apology.

* Because you know that ______ hurt me, I can accept your apology.

Four Strategies for Promoting Restorative Practices
Kara Pranikoff is an elementary school teacher at a public school in New York City. Her book, Teaching Talk: A Practical Guide to Fostering Student Thinking and Conversation (Heinemann, 2017), shares many ways to keep the balance of classroom discussion in the hands of the students:

It was a beautiful springtime morning in New York. I walked into the yard to pick up my 2nd graders, and they swarmed to me, ready to begin our day.

Hudson stood atypically off to the side. Bending down to meet his eyes, I asked what was going on. "I don't want to talk about it now," he said quietly. "But may I give a public-service announcement when we get up to our room?"

"Public-service announcements" were statements that students needed to share with the rest of the community. Often these were messages that would increase our efficiency. (Can everyone place their jackets on hooks so that the space stays neat?) Or messages that would help us work better together. (Remember, we need to have a calmer science class so we can do our experiment.)

"I'd like to speak with everyone, even before we unpack," he requested. I was unsure about the content of his message, but it was clear that Hudson needed to begin our day.

Students entered the class, placed backpacks at their tables, and moved directly onto the rug. Hudson took a seat in the front corner of our meeting area, and I settled onto the bench in-between his peers.

"I'm feeling a little sad today," he began. "I just want everyone to know that last night my great-grandmother died. I want everyone to know that I might not want to play very much today."

The class responded with care. Some had questions that were typical of 2nd graders trying to get the literal facts: How old was she? How did she die? Then Hunter, Hudson's closest friend, raised her hand. "How can we help you feel better?" she wanted to know.

Restorative practices are essential for a community to care for each other and grow together. Our best learning happens when we feel safe and secure. This priority requires attention each day in order to bring together an entire classroom of diverse students.

The tools which enabled the students to listen and support Hudson in his time of need were put in place in the fall-nurtured and practiced each day-so that by springtime they could be used, with independence. Here are some essential ways to develop these habits of mind:

Have discussion in circle every day

It's said that one way to achieve closeness with others is to eat with them. It's not just the literal nourishment but the connection which is fostered by close physical proximity. The classroom equivalent is to set aside a space where the whole community can gather and face each other in a circle. This creates an area of inclusion where students can share their thoughts and ideas.
Make space for students to speak and respond to each other independently
Students' ownership of their shared space requires the ability for them to express their thoughts freely. Speaking in partnership or small groups can be woven into every day so that sharing and building ideas, independent of the teacher, is a regular practice.
Invite the lives of your students into the classroom
Restorative practice honors the full being of each student. For this to happen, students must have the freedom to share what is on their mind. We must embrace the child as a whole, enabling them to express the joys that happen both inside and outside of school, as well as the struggles.

Begin your day together

Each day we transition from our home space with family to our classroom community. By gathering as a whole class first thing every morning, we make a commitment to welcome our day together. We can set our intentions and get our minds ready for what is coming ahead in our shared learning.

Thanks to Sheila, Maurice, Timothy, Ashley, Bryan, and Kara for their contributions.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Two in a few days.

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Ways to Implement Restorative Practices in the Classroom (Opinion)

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Educators share their practical experience implementing restorative practices in their schools, such as holding goal-setting conferences with students and teaching them "the power of an apology."

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Official Login page for Canvas student login, School Search Canvas, Canvas Network, Canvas Community, and Canvas Free For Teacher accounts.

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Restorative Justice in School: An Overview

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Restorative Justice in School: An Overview

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Listen to my interview with Victor Small (transcript):
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A student threw a chair at a teacher.
That's the story I heard. It was a story meant to illustrate how bad a particular group of kids was, and now I can't even remember who the teacher was or where the school was located, or even the gender of the teacher or the student. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've heard two or three different stories about students throwing things at teachers, each one told with the intent of showing just how bad those kids were.

But every time I've heard a story like that, my first thought has always been, Holy crap. What kind of a relationship did that teacher have with those students? What was going on in the minutes, days, and weeks leading up to that chair being thrown?

And I know how that sounds. It sounds like I'm blaming the teacher. Or that I don't think a student should be held responsible for doing something as awful as throwing a piece of furniture at another human being.

I don't think that. But here's what I think probably happened in all of those schools: The student was removed from class and promptly suspended, maybe even expelled. And if and when that student returned to school, nothing much was done to repair that student's relationship with the teacher. Or to really address the other issues that may have been going on leading up to that chair being thrown. And if that kind of work isn't done, if we focus only on making our punishments stricter, then things like chair throwing will keep happening. And nobody wants that.

Getting students to behave in a way that is conducive to learning is a perennial challenge for teachers. On this site I have dealt with the topic a number of times. And every piece of advice-the tips and hacks and bits of wisdom-they are all useful.

But one approach to addressing problematic behavior-restorative justice-really stands on its own, because it focuses on building relationships and repairing harm, rather than simply punishing students for misbehavior.

I have wanted to share more about restorative justice on my site for years, but every time I started, I found that the topic was just too big, too complex to handle all at once. Usually, I try to share things that teachers can understand and apply right away, and the concept of restorative justice just wasn't letting me package and deliver it in a tidy little bundle.

So rather than try to do that, I'm going to just start with an overview. This will not be a comprehensive study of restorative practices, but an introduction designed for teachers who are just starting to get interested in this approach.

Helping me do that is Victor Small, Jr., a middle school administrator in Oakland, California. He has been using restorative practices for several years and supports other teachers through a Twitter chat-using the hashtag #RJLeagueChat -and a Voxer group called the Restorative Justice League, where educators talk about the challenges they're facing in implementing restorative practices and help each other work through tough situations.

In our interview, Small walks me through some of the basics of restorative justice-called RJ by many of its practitioners-and talks about how teachers can get started. You can listen to the interview in the player above, read a full transcript, or review the key takeaways here.

What is Restorative Justice?

The philosophy of restorative justice has its roots in the criminal justice system. When a crime is committed in a modern society, the typical response is to punish the offender, and that's about it. But societies all over the world have started to recognize that this approach doesn't repair the harm that was done; it also does nothing to address underlying problems that may have led to the offense in the first place. So they are starting to replace-or at least supplement-the standard approach with restorative justice practices, which focus on repairing harm for all parties involved. This process may include some form of punishment for the offender, but the lens is much wider than that.

"Say you stole a car," Small says. "Instead of you necessarily doing jail time, really what you would have to first do is make sure that you restore the situation to the person who you actually harmed, which would be the person whose car you stole, right? So you would have to restore that in some way. Either you'd have to get them their car back or get them a new car and apologize or something like that. Basically, the debt that you owe to society is to that person that you harmed."

This shift toward restorative justice has led to reduced recidivism (repeat offenses), greater satisfaction with the outcomes from all stakeholders, and reduced post-traumatic stress caused by the crime. (These results are summarized in this overview from the University of Wisconsin.)

Encouraged by these successes, educators in some schools have started using restorative practices to address disruptive or harmful behavior. With this shift, schools hope to see improved behavior and to reverse a disturbing trend: The zero-tolerance discipline policies of the past few decades have dramatically increased suspension rates in many districts, which can in turn lower graduation rates and ultimately push more students into the juvenile justice system. And again, those suspensions do nothing to repair harm.

Common Restorative Practices

The thing about restorative justice is that unlike a typical discipline program, it is not a cut-and-dried system with prescribed steps to follow in every situation. If done correctly, schools that shift to restorative justice will approach it holistically, looking at preventing wrongdoing as much as-if not more than-how to address it when it occurs.

"What we're essentially teaching students is your behavior affects people," Small explains, "and so in order to pay it forward or to deal with the consequences of that, you're going to have to figure out how to make things right. When we talk about restorative justice practices, we're talking about the things you're doing to ensure that students are recognizing when they're doing something wrong and finding a way to make it right."

Although restorative justice models vary somewhat from school to school, Small says schools that are doing it right have the following practices at their core.

Building Relationships

Schools that get interested in restorative justice may be tempted to jump right to the alternative punishments, but a true RJ program puts heavy emphasis on relationships. These relationships go in all directions: teacher to student, student to student, teacher to teacher, and between the school and the larger community.

These bonds are not forged overnight. Daily conversations, team-building exercises, telling our own stories and making time and space for students to tell theirs helps build relationships over time. "You've got to give them time to grow with one another," Small says.

And if you do, it pays off. "If you've got everybody in the school liking and getting along with one another, well when they do something wrong, it's a lot easier for that kid to apologize. The reason I'm really a very big proponent of RJ is if you're doing it right, you're going to prevent a whole lot of issues from occurring."

A Mindset Shift

To be effective with restorative justice, teachers need to adopt a restorative mindset, a way of looking at wrongdoing and punishment through a different lens.

"Everything that a kid does shouldn't have to have a consequence," Small says. "I mean if a kid gets angry and says something to another kid, and that kid gets mad, do they need detention for that, or do they need to just fix the problem and not be mad at each other? Probably just fix the problem, not be mad at each other, and go on about their lives. If they didn't do anything wrong to the class or the community and they just did something messed-up to another student, they can handle that between the two students. You could facilitate that. It teaches them, hey, you have to be accountable for your actions, because your actions do have impact on other students, without having them sit in detention, right?"

Circles

Pulling groups of people together into circles for conversation is one of the most recognizable features of schools that have adopted restorative practices. These circles can take many forms: mediation circles when a problem needs to be addressed, healing circles when group members are hurting or grieving, or circles that form just for dialogue and storytelling. When circles are a regular part of the school culture, they give students a vehicle for communicating when problems arise, rather than handling them in less constructive ways.

Where to Start

Small offers this advice for educators who want to get started with restorative justice:

Read about RJ

A lot of excellent books have been written about restorative practices. To make sure you and your colleagues are working from a solid foundation, read up on the history and philosophy before attempting to implement an RJ program. I have listed a few good starter books at the end of this post, and a lot more can be found online that detail specific practices.

Identify Your Biases and Triggers

A big part of addressing student misbehavior and building strong relationships with students is uncovering our own built-in biases. And the first step toward doing that is getting comfortable with the idea that we all have them.

"It's really painful for us to consider this," Small says, "but if we walk into our classrooms and we really try to believe that an approach to colorblindness is one that's effective, we're really shortchanging our kids' lives, because if we're just constantly telling them, 'Hey, I don't see color,' when they leave your classroom, someone's going to see their color. And someone's going to act possibly on the fact that they see their color, so we're setting them up for failure if we don't do our own investigation of, 'Do I have any biases against any particular type of culture, any particular type of culture activity, any of my students? Do I have any things that trigger certain behavior or fears or anger that they do that they do naturally? Taking a step back and wondering, is it me or is it them?'"

Build Culture and Community

If you have a school culture where students feel known, where they feel at home, behavior on the whole will be better and efforts to address wrongdoing will be more productive. Getting to that point will happen if you approach culture-building from a lot of different angles.

"Work on finding ways to include kids in what's going on," Small says, "like allowing more student voice, allowing more student opportunities for them to display their culture, act on their culture, be a part of their culture."

Having caring adults in the building who look like the student body is also more important than many people realize. "You need to give (students) opportunities to learn about people that look like them, that are from their culture, that represent them. If 99 percent of your staff is white and 99 percent of your student body is black and Latino, you're going to need to figure out a way to get more black and Latino staff members in your school." ( This conversation with former teacher of the year Nate Bowling dives more deeply into this topic.)

Finally, schools can work to make the school more integrated into the larger community. "If you can find ways to learn about the neighborhoods, the communities and find ways to bring people from the community and in the neighborhoods into your school, you're creating a school culture that the students can feel more at home in." And when students feel at home, when they know each other, there's less of a need to address misbehavior.

"They just get along better, so they fight less," Small says of his students. "There's less reason for them to fight, because everyone knows everyone else."

Okay, but what about the discipline?

Having finished this overview, I realize I never quite got to the question of How does restorative justice actually deal with the misbehavior?

The answer to this is complicated, because it's not as simple as detention-suspension-expulsion. There are conferences and circles, a lot of discussion about the harm that was done and how it can be repaired. Individual decisions are made on an individual basis. There's more to it than I can cover in one post, but I plan to do more posts later to dig more deeply into the details. I really do believe that restorative justice is the direction we need to be heading to create safer, healthier school communities.

I hope you'll take a step in that direction. ♦

To Learn More

These books offer a great starting point for learning more about restorative practices:

Better than Carrots or Sticks:
Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management
Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey

The Little Book of Restorative Justice
Howard Zehr

The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools:
Teaching Responsibility; Creating Caring Climates
Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, Judy H. Mullet

Touching Spirit Bear
(Reader Recommended)
Ben Mikaelsen

You can find Victor Small, Jr., on Twitter at @MrSmall215, and join him every Sunday night at 8pm EST for the #RJLeagueChat.

Come back for more.
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Restorative Justice in School: An Overview

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Instead of looking for ways to make punishments stricter, restorative justice seeks to build relationships and repair harm. Learn more about how this holistic approach works and how you can get started.

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The Role of Restorative Practices in Trauma-Informed Schools — Pathways to Restorative Communities

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The Role of Restorative Practices in Trauma-Informed Schools — Pathways to Restorative Communities

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The Role of Restorative Practices in Trauma-Informed Schools — Pathways to Restorative Communities

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As we emerge from a year of isolation that has had real psychological impacts, it is critical for the resiliency of school communities that we address the trauma that many children and adults have experienced over the last year.  Even before the pandemic, schools were becoming increasingly

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The Best Resources For Learning About Restorative Practices

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The Best Resources For Learning About Restorative Practices

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We've begun implementing some restorative practices at our school, and I'll be posting about the topic on a future Education Week Teacher column.

Here are a few resources that seem helpful, and I hope that readers will share more in the comments section:

Opening Up, Students Transform a Vicious Circle is from The New York Times.

Restorative Justice: Resources for Schools is from Edutopia.

Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools is from Opportunity to Learn.

An Alternative To Suspension And Expulsion: 'Circle Up!' is from NPR.

What Eva Moskowitz gets wrong about restorative discipline is from Chalkbeat.

Minding the Discipline Gap in Education is from the Pacific Standard.

Zeroing out Zero Tolerance is from The Atlantic.

Brilliant article: the mindlessness of school suspensions and a better way http://t.co/mY3Ht9uVMQ @acestoohigh @nctsn

- David Bornstein (@dnbornstein) May 18, 2015

Reasons to try out RJ a few schools at a time.//In Classroom Discipline, a Soft Approach Is Harder Than It Looks https://t.co/sTAzzToBps

- Paul Bruno (@MrPABruno) April 15, 2015

Quote Of The Day: Alternatives To Suspending Students
Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools: Summary Findings from Interviews with Experts is from WestEd.

When Restorative Justice in Schools Works is from The Atlantic.

Why some LAUSD teachers are balking at a new approach to discipline problems is from The LA Times.

In L.A. Unified, restorative justice has been slow to take hold is also from The LA Times.

Hillary Clinton Wants to End the School-to-Prison Pipeline. She Should Embrace Restorative Justice to Do It. is from Slate.
Quote Of The Day: "Unhelpful Punishment"
Is Discipline Reform Really Helping Decrease School Violence? is from The Atlantic.

One Key to Reducing School Suspension: A Little Respect is from Ed Week.

One way Denver Public Schools is addressing race and culture in the classroom is from Colorado Chalkbeat.
Important Analysis Of Schools With Fewer Suspensions Makes Important Points, As Well As Highlighting Gaps
When suspensions weren't working, this high school opted for a new approach is from The Washington Post.
NY Times Publishes Best Piece On Restorative Practices That I've Seen NY Times Article & Video On Dangers Of School "Zero Tolerance" Policies
Rethinking School Discipline is from The American Prospect.

Why Restorative Practices Benefit All Students is from Edutopia.

A Brooklyn Charter School Looks Past 'No Excuses' is an article in The New York Times that described a move towards restorative practices. Here's how it ends:

Implementing Restorative Practices In The Classroom is from Getting Smart.

School Suspensions Have Plunged: We Don't Yet Know If That's Good News is from NPR.

Nearly half of California school districts earn top ratings for lowering suspensions is from Ed Source.

Suspending Students Costs Billions in Economic Losses, New Study Finds is from Ed Week.

The School Discipline Revolution: How Policy and Rhetoric Outstrip Hard Evidence is by Matt Barnum.
Focusing On The Impact Classroom Disruptions Have On Others, Not On The Students Doing The Disrupting Good NY Times Piece On Empathy's Role In School Discipline The Best Story To Come Out Of The Shutdown Is How They Used A Talking Stick
Restorative Justice in School: An Overview is from Cult of Pedagogy.

Zero tolerance discipline policies won't fix school shootings is from Salon

One Ohio School's Quest to Rethink Bad Behavior is from The Atlantic.

The rise of restorative justice in California schools brings promise, controversy] is from Ed Source.
Quote Of The Day On Restorative Justice
New Study: Suspending Students for Minor Infractions Like Cursing Hurts Kids but Benefits Nobody is from The 74.
STATISTIC OF THE DAY: STUDENTS LOST 11 MILLION INSTRUCTIONAL DAYS IN ONE YEAR DUE TO SUSPENSIONS GUEST POST: HOW THE CLASS IMPACTS THE INDIVIDUAL AND HOW MENTORS CAN SHIFT THE BALANCE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF WHY WE NEED TO BE "DATA-INFORMED" & NOT "DATA-DRIVEN" BIG NEW STUDY ON RESTORATIVE PRACTICE OFFERS USEFUL DATA & MISSED OPPORTUNITIES GUEST POST: RESTORATIVE PRACTICES & THE STRUGGLE AGAINST "DUNGEON THEORY" "Circles" Is A New Documentary On Restorative Practices
Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools An Updated Research Review is from WestEd.

School suspensions related to increases in subsequent offending is from Eureka Alert.

Budget realities challenging California school districts' restorative justice programs is from Ed Source.

One Key to Reducing School Suspension: A Little Respect is from Ed Week.

California schools can no longer suspend K-8 students for using phones. Will this help or hurt learning? is from The L.A. Times.

The Starts and Stumbles of Restorative Justice in Education: Where Do We Go from Here? is from the National Education Policy Center.

A Bloomberg-era policy to reduce suspensions boosted test scores in NYC, study finds is from Chalkbeat.

CEPEG Policy Brief:Exclusionary Discipline and Restorative Justice is from USC.

Teaching Restorative Practices with Classroom Circles is from The San Francisco Unified School District.

Toolkit: The Foundations of Restorative Justice is from Learning For Justice.

Building a Positive School Climate Through Restorative Practices is from The Learning Policy Institute.

Study Finds That Restorative Practices Can Help Bridge Racial Disparities in Schools is from West Ed.

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The Best Resources For Learning About Restorative Practices - Help Me Find More

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We've begun implementing some restorative practices at our school, and I'll be posting about the topic on a future Education Week Teacher column. Here are a few resources that seem helpful, and I hope that readers will share more in the comments section: Opening Up, Students Transform a Vicious Circle is from The New York Times.

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Contextual Factors for SEL and Trauma-Sensitive Practices 

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Contextual Factors for SEL and Trauma-Sensitive Practices 

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By Jade Garratt When was the last time someone told you something you already knew? How did it make you feel? Edgar Schein opens his book “Humble Inquiry” with a story about his own experiences of this while out walking. […]

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Humble Inquiry: How Asking and Situational Humility Create Psychological Safety

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Humble Inquiry: How Asking and Situational Humility Create Psychological Safety

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Humble Inquiry: How Asking and Situational Humility Create Psychological Safety

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Humility and inquiry aren’t usually associated with effective leadership. The traditional view is “loud”: vision, setting goals, and driving the team towards success. However, this overlooks a crucial but “quieter” aspect: asking questions and listening. Humble Inquiry, developed by Edgar Schein, challenges the traditional view by emphasizing how humility

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