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Chapter 3 spoke to me from two angles which are interconnected through finding a sense of peace in the classroom and by having a restorative mindset while trying to build relationships with your students and finding equitable ways to help solve daily problems. Peace comes through having expectations that both you and your students know through practice and repetition. My first two months of teaching were extremely difficult in classroom management because I had yet to find a way to connect to some big personalities whose school culture I was now invading in their classroom asking them to follow learning expectations. I was told "no" by half of the class so I had to find ways create a peace that those other big personalities could still do their work and so that the other students would not be discouraged and join in with their classmates. This is still a work in progress but there is progress and I believe this comes from me promoting a restorative mindset. I am promoting more social and emotional tactics while I teach English so that while situations are happening they can be addressed right then and there so that these issues don't linger and reoccur the next day. I am holding myself accountable with my words and my actions by finding ways to promote self-love, fairness and justice for my students who feel wronged by the words or actions of other by addressing their concerns through our lessons and out of classroom conversations. I go into these interactions with a positive growth mindset where I am setting expectations for my students which are culturally relevant and understanding so that they can learn and/or repair something that is useful to them and where they can get foundation to build something meaningful.

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Having a restorative mindset means valuing communication, empathy, and collaboration over punishment. It recognizes that conflicts are opportunities for growth and learning, and it seeks to create an environment where individuals can take responsibility for their actions and work together to restore relationships. Having a restorative mindset is encouraged at the school I currently work at so many of my colleagues follow guidelines for restorative mindset. I am learning to use these methods more and more as the year progresses.

After reviewing the various ways peace is maintained, I believe that the biggest strength in my classroom is having a safe environment. The students in my class are all very comfortable sharing with the class, or just the teachers, they feel as if it is their own classroom, as they should. My co-teacher and I joke that maybe our classroom is a little too safe because some of what were supposed to be the quiet kids are chatting away and completely out of their shell. Although, procedures are taught for a week at the beginning of the year and then retaught after holiday break, I don't think they were clearly. My co-teacher and I bump heads at times and this is one of those times. Often times she gives too many directions at once and this confuses 2nd graders. When I have my own class I will make sure procedures are clear, written out and retaught often.

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A restorative mindset is crucial. The story I chose to use to exemplify restorative mindset happened this past week.

I was parallel teaching a math lesson with the main group and I asked a math question and one of my students raised her hand, but answered the question incorrectly. This is fine. But then I heard a student laugh. I immediately sent the laugher back to his seat to finish the lesson there because we don't laugh at students who make mistakes. It's unkind and mistakes help us to learn. I thought he was laughing directly at the incorrect answer and this is something we've talked about in the class several times before.

He started to move, but then got defensive, saying he wasn't laughing at the wrong answer. He was laughing at a joke another student had made. Another student had made a joke saying that the girl who gave the wrong answer wasn't smart.

Now, this was one of my all star kindest students. When I tell you he looked mortified. I wish this wasn't the case, but I'm honestly grateful that it was him, because I'm not sure I would have responded with as much care as I did. I like to think I would have, but quite honestly I was hurt. It hit me directly. Then I saw how it hit him and I swear my training from Defining Restorative Practices came back.

First, I sent the rest of the class from the rug to their tables with the direction to put their name at the top of the page and wait. (Since this is first grade, they can't answer questions alone because they can't all read. They end up answering the wrong question then get very frustrated when they have to erase.) Then I said to him:

"[student] how did that make you feel? How are you feeling right now?" silence. I said I can tell you're not feeling great about it. "Let's go to the back and have a conversation about it." But we couldn't because there wasn't space in the back of the room. There was my co-teacher teaching a parallel lesson on the back rug near the cozy corner where we usually have these conversations and I had a math lesson to teach to my half of the class. So what could I do?

Fortunately, the girl who I'd already offered the cozy corner to came up to me to say she wanted to go back to the lesson. It shocked me, but she seemed determined to keep working, completely unphased, she had let the words roll off.

So, I gave him the option to sit in the cozy corner and went back to my lesson. At first, he just stood at the back of the classroom with his head down. I figured he would move to the cozy corner after a few minutes, but as I got further into my lesson he still hadn't moved. I knew what he was feeling so intensely. He was feeling ashamed. I'm terrified of instilling shame in my kids because it makes you not want to share things. It makes you feel like the worst person in the world. It makes you feel isolated. I was mid-lesson and I didn't actually know who I owed it to more my class who needed to learn math and had already lost so much time to the conversation and aftermath. Or the student in the back of the room potentially developing negative self-image all for some words he said one time.

That's when the girl who gave the wrong answer, stood up, went over to him, put her arm around him and comforted him. She forgave him. The lesson was over. My time was literally up for the subject but also, I think they both learned an amazing lesson that in that moment I couldn't teach them. He of course had already apologized, she had been upset articulated what she needed to feel better, taken that time and space, then returned to her learning. And when she noticed that another friend was missing out and wasn't able to feel better on his own, she took it upon herself to help him through that emotion. She didn't have to minimize the impact his words had on her. She felt them, she recovered, and she turned it into something positive to share. I like to think she saw him as part of the classroom community and believed she could do something to bring him back from feeling like he had lost his membership to that community. She had more of a restorative mindset than even I did in that moment.

My kids are great. I am working with this girl in particular though, on taking care of herself first. I think she did so here though maybe gave a bit too much of herself. I'm not sure I'm the best judge. What I can say though is that there's another student in my class who takes advantage of her kindness often. I can see it's taking a lot out of her, but still, she claims that's her friend. She picks her to buddy read together. She sits next to her on the rug when the opportunity presents itself, though eventually she finds herself having to move because she's getting hit or pushed or having her space and boundaries crossed by that friend. It's a lot. I'm not entirely sure what next steps are for her. I don't want her to think showing kindness to people isn't something she should be doing. I also don't want her to think that there are any children who are not deserving of kindness. I also don't want her to lose this view of our classroom as a community. I think I just want her to know that when it gets to be too much, when someone is asking for too much of her, she is able to say no. I think it took me a really long time to learn that lesson.

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There are many factors that contribute to maintaining peace in the classroom. One of the most important components of peace in the classroom is respect. If students do not respect each other, there will be more interpersonal conflict. Creating a culture of respect and kindness is something that I have prioritized in my classroom. In the beginning of the year, there were many incidents between students, both verbal and physical. As the school year has gone on, I have seen a drastic reduction in the amount of incidents in my classroom. I believe that this increased level of peace in my classroom is due to the positive relationships students have formed with one another. One way I have promoted these relationships is by including more team activities and group work. Another way I have supported positive student relationships is by teaching SEL lessons about topics like kindness, bullying, emotional regulation, etc. every Friday. Reflecting on the start of the school year, I realize I was not doing enough to explicitly promote positive interpersonal interactions in my classroom. Next year, I will start off the year with more clear expectations for students and consistent consequences if they mistreat each other.

A “restorative mindset” is a growth mindset toward repairing relationships when harm is done. I wish there was more of an overall emphasis on restorative responses at my school. My coworkers have varying levels of restorative mindsets. Some teachers send students to the dean after one instance of a misbehavior, whereas other teachers give students many chances. This lack of uniformity leads to a lack of consistency in behavior management at my school.

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The sections in Chapter 3 concerning teacher expectations and standard operating procedures stood out the most. I think what I struggle with the most is teacher expectations. I do agree and believe that, on the average that if you set and hold expectations to a certain bar, then students will eventually know and meet you at that bar. However, I am currently having some difficulties getting students to accept and work up to the bar that's set due to the differences in teacher expectations across the grade team and from their former teachers. I acknowledge that as a 6th grader, it is incredibly difficult to navigate the transition from elementary to middle school; and for my students in particular, it is especially difficult to navigate when they are onto their 4th ELA teacher and 2nd math teacher this year. Some students have been appreciative of my attempts to give them more opportunities to practice and reinforce the material they are learning through weekly homework assignments and quizzes because they have seen the results of their hard work translate into not only better assessment grades, but they also gained greater confidence and comfortability with math. Contrastingly, other students have bemoaned about the extra work they have been assigned because their previous teacher and my current counterpart does not assign homework and often played movies during class time. I have tried to incentive students to do their work with prizes and rewards, but it's had mixed results.

A restorative mindset is a philosophical approach of supporting students to help identify and self-regulate their behaviors rather than issuing punitive measures. In the case of academic performance, a restorative approach would involve agency statements that praise a student's effort or challenge them to think about how they can improve for next time, rather than focus on their results.

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Peace in reviewed in different ways. My strength is building it. In my school every wednesday we have a session of 30 minutes in the morning on something called wayfinder. Wayfinder helps us go over different ways to address conflict that we may experience in our personal lives or at school. Wayfinder provides helpful videos and activities and when I do wayfinder I always provide different sentence starters that students could use whenever they are addressing conflict. As a young kid sometimes confrontation can be hard so I always build on forgiveness among students. I always express to them that although forgiveness isn't easy it is important because it will give us peace with others and most of all with ourselves. Therefore I always like to build on by sharing advice, sentence starters and even one on one meetings I have with students whenever they are going through conflict with each other. Sometimes the one I feel the most I need to work on is keeping it. Being consistent is key and although I do build on this peace as much as I can I also find it hard with so many things to do in general at school to keep it the same peaceful way always. One thing I have to change when I have my own classroom is having longer classroom agreements and more thoughtful ones in order to keep this peace in class. Lastly replicating the building on to peace as much as possible to remind students the importance of that and create a healthy environment. Now a "restorative mindset" is having the ability to solve and confront conflict on your own. Every student has the capacity to solve conflict on their own and when a problem arises having students talk it out with each other with the respectful sentence starters they can use is a way of showing that restorative mindset. I work with people who have one because in the case of my co teacher and I we both always respect our ideas but whenever a disagreement arises before leading into conflict we both express what we think and work from that in order to reach to a final decision we both feel comfortable with. Therefore conferencing with one another is highly important because it will give us a better idea of our thoughts and what we can do to arrive to a solution.

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In my school and classroom keeping peace is a strength. My co-teacher and I focus on making sure that peace is being made within our classroom. We started the year off with a class contract, which is a list of expectations that the students created among themselves. Then all the students signed this contract. This was made to ensure that the whole class was on the same page on how to treat each other, the teachers, and the classroom. This contract is a way that our class keeps peace. My co-teacher and I refer back to this contract when there is conflict or an issue within the classroom. We remind the students that these were their ideas of keeping a peaceful, safe classroom. In the classroom, we need to work together on making peace. I noticed that many of my students tattle on each-other lots of times, and do not support one another. In my own classroom, I will replicate the idea of having some sort of “class contract” and using that to reinforce rules in order to keep peace within the classroom. Something I want to change is having a box where students can write down what they are feeling if they are sad, or if a conflict took place. The student will have the opportunity to write their name, or make it anonymous, regardless the only person who will be reading the notes is me. Depending on the situation, I will talk to the student privately, or address a broad situation to the class. I will also make our morning meetings tailored to community building and mindfulness.

A restorative mindset is supporting students to be able to problem solve and face conflicts on their own. Students will be able to take initiative and use skills they are learning in class to be able to tackle a problem on their own. Teachers who use restorative mindsets chose to speak to a child separately after a bad behavior incident. Teacher’s who do not practice this mindset would single a student out in front of the class if they are showing bad behavior. The people I work with do have restorative mindsets. At our school, there is a no “yelling” policy. students are not called out in front of the class and are spoken to privately when there is an incident. We let students guide how to handle certain conflicts.

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The point from chapter three that stood out the most to me was the section on teacher expectations. I have been told many times throughout my teacher education process that "students will meet whatever bar you set for them." They know what you expect of them, even things that aren't explicitly stated, and they will match it in their behavior and work. For example, if a teacher does not believe their first grade student is capable of spelling out a CVC or CVVC word, then they will not. If a teacher does not believe their students can navigate safely around the classroom, then they will not. I have seen some new teachers hold their students responsible for not meeting their own incredibly low standards. "They were acting like a nightmare," they would say to me, after I watched this teacher poorly manage the classroom, stomp and yell to get the students' attention, and even calling the student's behavior "stupid" in a full-class berate, which is a term that I believe should never touch a classroom. There are many different words that we can use to challenge our students – "this could be better, let's improve" or "this is not the right choice" are good examples – but the term "stupid" should never be considered. However, although this was the teacher's individual philosophy, the school had a different expectation on their staff and this teacher was soon let go. After this, I became the head of my classroom and this teacher was replaced with a new teacher who had a teaching philosophy that I could agree with and learn from. The class went from being "up in flames" (with constant distractions and behavior callouts) to being a calm and safe learning environment. And student scores and relationships skyrocketed as a result.

A restorative mindset is setting the bar high for all students, especially those who come from difficult home lives, who are emotionally reactive, and who struggle to grasp educational content. The students who need the most support should receive said support, however, many are abandoned instead. In my own educational history, I have seen my teachers judge the entire class' progress based on the performance of the top two students. If a student couldn't match their academic ability, they were left in the dust and blamed for it.

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After reading Chapter 3, a particular moment that I took away in terms of how to create peace in the classroom is following restorative procedures. In the same way that we as teachers have an expectation for students to follow procedures for instruction and classwork, we should also teach expectations on how they should treat themselves and their surroundings. A strong example of this is one of the procedures stated which I believe is the most significant, to take care of yourself. This practice varies between students, and therefore is an extremely personal and important task for students tot understand. My school practices this procedure through the development of safety plans; a written list of practices students use whenever they feel a great deal of stress or discomfort. They are allowed to utilize any practice in their list whenever necessary, as it's important that their safety is prioritized.

This also aligns with having a restorative mindset, a way of life in which someone carries the fundamental understanding that change takes practice. Punishment and consequences are often seen as the only solutions rather than communication, community support, and most importantly, time for grace. This is especially the case for children, the people of the world who need restorative support the most.

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At the beginning of the school year, our school was given a list of step by step guidelines for classroom behavior that need to be laminated and blown up for all students and teachers to see. Included below was a list of consequences for students not meeting the expectations. This felt like a one size fits all, where the consequences for one works for everyone else. Each student understands and works differently. Throughout the year we have been working on peace building and making. Our students have grown tremendously from classroom circles where we talk as a class about gratitude, respect and perseverance. Each student gets their own talking time with a talking piece where it is a safe space to let any feelings they want. We also do restorative practice where both the victims and those who hurt the victim mentally or physically talk about what happened. As a teacher I have been part of this circle where students can understand why as teachers we do and say certain things. My restorative mindset has grown since the beginning of the semester. I have switched from negative consequences to building relationships with students who say or do things in the class. I work closer now with students to understand who they are and what bothers them instead of having them leave the classroom for punishment. Fairness is now understood with respect. The students see that we as teachers love and care for them and we don’t want them to be punished.

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A restorative mindset is a way of thinking that values inclusive and collaborative methods of transforming conflict. Rather than leaning on more penal systems of conflict resolution, this model values the idea of not only ending the conflict at hand but working towards repairing any harm and reducing the likelihood of conflict in the future. This mindset can come to life in a myriad of ways and is not limited to a single definition, but instead is an approach towards approaching conflict. When reflecting on this mindset within my school and classroom, I think we are making improvements towards acting in a restorative mindset. However, I sometimes feel like "restorative justice" is a term thrown around commonly without much action or change behind it. One way in which I use it in my classroom is when I pull students into the hallway when they get into a conflict with each other. Rather than simply punish the wrongdoer or bully, I usually find it most beneficial to bring together both sides, talk through it, and collaboratively problem solve on how to avoid the conflicts together. But, there are some ways in which I would love to see improvements within my school, such as a reduction of using students names when yelling to instill shame. While I have rarely done this in my room, I know that it is often a common occurence in other classrooms.

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In our classroom, my co-teacher and I are good at maintaining peace through conversations between the victim and the offender. When there is conflict between students, we take swift action and attempt to avoid announcing the issue in front of the class to avoid shame or embarrassment. Instead, we make time to pull students aside individually so we can understand the root cause of the incident (slow trigger), and then together so the students can communicate their feelings to each other peacefully after they have had time to deescalate. We are also good at questioning students to have them self-evaluate and decide if their behavior is appropriate. This gives students a chance to alter their behavior without feeling like they are going to be punished or shamed for making a mistake/not following an expectation. By giving students grace, our classroom becomes more peaceful because students are less likely to harbor anger or resentment. It constructs a safe space where students know that if they do fall short of expectations, they can always have another chance.

One thing we need to improve on is the way we handle whole-class conflict (dysfunction/disorder/disruptive behavior). At times, both my co-teacher and I have become frustrated, and as the text said, this can happen at the end of the day when we are both drained ourselves, and instead of handling situations peacefully, we yell to gain attention. Although it seems like the only solution to our at times chaotic classroom, it isn’t an efficient way of solving problems, and may only aggravate the underlying issue. Instead we should take a few deep breaths, rely on each other when one of us is exhausted, and handle the situation calmly in a restorative manner.

A restorative mindset places value on the steps that can be taken to mediate in situations that have or could cause harm to an individual. For example, instead of suspending a student who punched another, educators and school leaders could work with the affected students to repair their relationship and ensure that both students have their underlying needs addressed. A restorative mindset encourages individuals to grow and learn from challenges, rather than be penalized or blamed for mistakes. At my school, I believe there is a clear intent to foster a restorative environment. School leaders often pull kids with behavioral concerns in order to learn about their situation and use restorative practices to promote future learning and success. In classrooms, I have seen many examples of restorative practices, such as the ones listed above.

However, I do not believe this environment is always upheld, especially due to teacher/staff shortages. When there aren’t enough people to care for students needs, the needs are left unaddressed.

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Smith, Fisher, & Frey (2015) highlight many ways to maintain peace in a school setting. I recall in my school’s summer professional development the leaders emphasized the importance of what the authors called “teaching and reteaching procedures” (56). Ensuring that students are aware of all procedures such as, how to transition in the hallways; where to hand in classwork; where to sit when they enter a classroom; among other common procedures is important because it closes the gap for students to be doing all different things during these common procedures. In essence, setting clear expectations for procedures helps create a calm environment which in turn will create an ideal learning environment. I also appreciated the author's guidance on what expectations should entail, ones that are, “safe, productive, always responsible, respectful, and kind” (Smith, Fisher, & Frey, 2015, 59).

A way that I have implemented clear and high expectations with procedures is after winter break my co-teachers and I reviewed this information the first day back. This allowed us to help reset. In addition, it gave students another opportunity to all be on the same page and avoid confusion because not all students attend the first few weeks of school where we really homed in on these expectations. I think this is super important because students may come back from break hyper and by resetting with what they are expected to do helps set a calm atmosphere and get back into learning.

I think the restorative mindset focuses on developing relationships. My mindset definitely shifted in the beginning of the school year when I realized that I can not just teach students academics and behavior without getting to know them and building a relationship. I truly believe that all my co-teachers align with this view and work towards supporting students as a whole person not just in an academic setting.

An area of growth I am looking to make is sticking to what I say with my expectations. If I am teaching solo in the room I want to make sure that the environment is just as calm as when I am with my co-teachers so that students are doing just as much learning. In the end, students can not be set up for success without a calm environment.

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Peace can be maintained by having routines and clear expectations (rules) for the class or school community, ensuring that everyone is accepted, respected, and valued in the space, and creating opportunities for relationship-building with an overarching aim that one must care for oneself, care for others, and care the place. In such a community, students and teachers are expected to be regulated by established governing principles identified with respecting and supporting the needs of all persons. In my school and classroom, some educators are aware and invested in keeping, making, and building peace, and the administrator pushes the same. However, for myself and some other teachers, we are now learning about this practice.

"Restorative mindset" is the practice of developing and living by emphasizing healthy and respectful relationships as a value. Relationships that foster productivity, growth, and self-regulation in students. Restorative practice is encouraged in my school, however, it is not fully used by all or all persons are not fully entrenched/knowledgeable of this practice. I have observed how the students' deans interact with students - taking proactive measures by planning for student engagement when a teacher is out or when attending to a student who has misbehaved. They always take time to talk with the student, have them share their feelings, listen to the offender as well as the victim, give them voices and choices, and follow up on rebuilding relationships between the two. This practice is not the same for the teachers - some have been using it and others have not. For me, developing a restorative mindset will have to start with understanding my relationships with my students, exploration of implicit biases, experiences, and resilience. And then being able to understand and focus on developing healthy and supportive relationships that bring out the best in my students.

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Review the various ways that peace is maintained (keeping, making, building). Which of these are strengths in your classroom, or school? Which need work? What will you change when you have your own classroom? What will you try to replicate?

In order to maintain peace in the classroom, it is important that students feel they contribute to the conversation and have a strong voice that is heard. It is also important to create environments where students feel safe and important. I believe my school does a good job in this area. Within each classroom, it is expected that students create a set of classroom norms at the beginning of the school year. This is done collaboratively with students, rather than by the teachers/administration, so that students feel heard through these norms. After creating these norms, we constantly revisit them, especially after a long weekend or a break. Addressing moments where we are not following the agreed-upon classroom norms is also incredibly important. Chapter 3 spoke about impromptu conferences. These are important in providing students with the tools necessary to resolve conflicts peacefully. I believe we do a good job of this in the classroom. Instead of simply firing a command at students, we engage in a conversation.

What is a "restorative mindset"? Do you and the people you work with have one? If not, what can you do to develop one?

A restorative mindset is a focus on teaching students how to progress and repair, rather than treating accountability and punishment. It can be difficult to shift to a restorative mindset if you were not exposed to this mindset as a child and instead were often punished for misbehavior or conflict, rather than taught ways to progress. I believe the administration at my school do have restorative mindsets, but not all teachers at my school do. I hear rumblings of teachers talking about the lack of discipline or consequence at our school. I would say a way to develop a restorative mindset is to be shown the positive outcome of one. When a teacher sees a child they view as problematic respond to restorative practices, it can show the true power in a restorative mindset.

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Peace in the classroom is maintained by the teacher being mindful of student needs and motivation. Having high expectations of students play a role in whether or not students find success, therefore a teacher’s attention to their students is invaluable in encouraging them to do their best. It’s also crucial to respond appropriately to behavior issues by knowing when to take immediate action if necessary, or when to defer action so that you can gather all the facts before doling out a consequence. Peace is also kept by making expectations clear. Students need to know where the line is or they might step over it without realizing it was ever there. It’s not fair nor will it feel justified to a student if they are punished for something they didn’t realize was a problem in the first place. Teacher’s have to be intentional and explicit about expectations from the start. Students also need a sense of order and routine to feel safe in their learning spaces. They need predictability and reliability so they can engage and focus. If students are fearful of their teacher, peers, or environment, they might shut down which hinders their growth. I personally believe my school needs to create a more fair environment. They push us to give students deductions constantly for not meeting expectations, and it can be quite tedious. My school pushes us to meet a 3:1 ratio, but I cannot see how I could ever build trust with a student if I would give them a deduction purely to meet a ratio. I don’t think my students would feel as safe as they do if I started taking their merits away because I had a quota to meet that I valued over their well-being.

I work with a mix of educators, all of whom have different philosophies for why they teach and respond the way they do, and I have gravitated towards coworkers who I’ve witnessed exhibiting a restorative mindset. This entails not embarrassing students in the moment, not always correcting poor behavior directly after it happens, and speaking students privately when they have made a mistake. A colleague of mine will take students into a separate room to mediate an issue and talk it through so two students can get past their conflict, apologize, and come to a place of understanding and forgiveness. I’ve seen another teacher deal with a student who lied to her, and she waited until the end of the day to pull him into her classroom. He cried because he was sad to get in trouble and disappoint her, but he was able to say he was sorrt, ask his teacher if they could move past it, and he received a hug at the end of the conversation, as well as the same treatment from her the next day to signal that nothing had changed between them. I have a few colleagues like this who help guide and show me tangible ways to be a stern, but compassionate educator, which feels right to me.

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After reading the chapter, I am upset by my school’s lack of effort to maintain peace. To build peace, at the beginning of the year, we established a list of class rules and norms which included being kind to one another, the classroom, materials, etc., trying your best, and other ideas surrounding respect. This was an open discussion meaning every student had the opportunity to share and the class signed their names at the bottom of the list to indicate their promise to keep these rules. The class rules served as a way to build peace, since it established what our school envisioned peace looking like and empowered students to have a say in what they wanted. That said, since the first day of school, teachers handle the rule-breaking either punitively or with no response at all. If a student is mean to someone, they end up delivering a half-hearted apology. There are no circles and any sort of emotive statement is usually just delivered by the teacher “your behavior made X feel _.” As a result, I want to be more cognisant of how I handle interpersonal student conflict and ensure students hold themselves accountable for their actions. I also appreciated the author’s idea of class meetings as ways to build connectedness since I believe many of the instances in my class arise from the students not knowing one another and not feeling the need to work together.

A restorative mindset surrounds fairness and requires all parties accepting that it is okay to make a mistake. When a mistake does occur, all parties must holistically work through it to help ensure it does not happen again. Although my school’s responses lean on the punitive side, we possess a restorative mindset when it comes to the fact that we remind our students that everyday can be a new and better day. We also are keen on students “trying again” even throughout the school day and do not hold students to the few “consequences” they may receive. That said, I think we can make more effort to work on adopting a restorative mindset towards relationships in the building, something that can start through more targeted activities like a class circle or the teaching on affective statements.

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Peace is maintained in the classroom by lifting student voice, but also providing a structured environment so that they feel free to make choices and take appropriate risks. I appreciated the behavior "ABCs" - antecedent, behavior, and consequence, because I also like to think about peacekeeping in preventative versus reactionary measures. To keep the peace in the classroom it must be properly built in the beginning of the school year, then consistently maintained with fidelity, even (especially) as content gets more difficult and students and teachers grow more comfortable with one another.

To me, "restorative mindset" means having a lens of repairing and rebuilding, as opposed to punishing. One mantra our school repeats is that "an escalated person cannot de-escalate another person" and I agree. In order to de-escalate a student, a teacher has to be calm and treat the student with empathy and compassion.

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A restorative mindset is helping students through challenging behaviors by giving students the opportunity to work through problem solving skills before a problem arises so they will have the skills they need. I think myself and the school I work in can do a better job in having a restorative mindset. We have something called the "try again" chair where students go when they are not following directions or being too silly. It is a chance for them to reflect quietly on why they could not be with the group. It is not a punishment it is a time to get their body read to rejoin the group. I think we could do a better job of having a restorative mindset by taking time to explicitly teach students more problem solving skills. I'm thinking that a good time to do this would be during morning meeting activities or community time/whole group time activities. I think I/my school can develop a restorative mindset by incorporating problem solving activities into daily routines. In terms of peace, my classroom has a strong sense of peacekeeping by the classroom norms we established as a group on the first day of school. The norms help keep everyone safe and are hung up on the wall of our classroom to be referred back too. Some of the norms are keeping hands to self, raising quiet hands and using kind words. This helps keeps the classroom peace on a day to day basis and is important to implement on the first day of school. I think peacekeeping is a strength in my classroom. I think we have a strong sense of peacemaking in my classroom as well. There is always a lot of conversation and discussion on how to move forward rather then punishment. A lot of time is spent talking to students who may have had a conflict with one another on what the conflict is and what they can do moving forward to make peace. I think something that needs work in my school is peace building. I think students struggle with seeing other's perspectives and that is how conflict can arise. For peace building, I think my school can do a better job with teaching students about other students viewpoints and perspectives before a conflict arise. Ultimately, I think it is really important to establish classroom rules/norms on the first day of school to help all students keep the peace as best as possible.

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Respond to the following prompts based on chapter 3 in an individual post. Respond to at least 1 of your colleagues’ ideas by commenting on their post!

Review the various ways that peace is maintained (keeping, making, building). Which of these are strengths in your classroom, or school? Which need work? What will you change when you have your own classroom? What will you try to replicate?

What is a "restorative mindset"? Do you and the people you work with have one? If so, how do you know? If not, what can you do to develop one?