# data[].attributes.body
This was a conference led by FIS students, for students, based on the four compass points and the united nations sustainability goals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Changemaker Conference - Frankfurt International School | 23-25 March 2023

# data[].attributes.body
Currently, data are being collected in schools around the world from focus groups at international schools related to belonging and wellbeing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Alice Jackson
Science Teacher, Leysin American School, Switzerland

I consider myself to be a reflective practitioner driven by continuously improving my practice. Although evaluative observations may have their place in schools, their apparent focus on inspection and control of classrooms may not best serve the development of the teacher. I propose that observations are most useful when they support the action research cycle; identify an issue, collect data, and reflect with a colleague to improve my practice and student learning.

One student in one of my science classes was frequently making poor choices. He was disrupting other students' learning, lacked motivation, and was not making good progress. I felt that I had done everything that I could for this student; I believed that I was being positive, scaffolding appropriately and that I had been imaginative with visual cues and had set consistent expectations. Yet the situation was not improving.

A colleague offered to observe the class, remotely, through Google Meet, to trial a coded observation tool. Together we set a framework for what I would like him to observe: the student's behaviours, my teacher behaviours, and the behaviours of the seven other students in the class. We agreed that the observer would note his observations every five minutes using a coding system and write any other comments he felt were appropriate throughout the Wednesday afternoon lesson. As part of this pre-observation conference, I shared my goals, the lesson content, and a little background information. It was easy for my colleague to adapt existing data gathering tools and changed the descriptors for our needs.

There were eight points in the lessons where the observer noted the activity of the people in the room. In the majority of observations (fifty-nine of the sixty-four data points) the students were on task, either solo, communicating, or teacher-aided, at no point was anyone observed to be off-task and disruptive. It was cause for reflection that for four of the eight observation points, I was working with the key student. At no point in the lesson was I observed to be simply listening to the students as they worked. The result from reflecting on the data points is that I would like to build the independence and confidence of the focus student to be able to work independently, perhaps with an expert partner, to allow me to distribute my time more equitably.

My colleague noticed in his extra comments that the key student was constantly moving and craving praise. While I did give the student praise, he would often blurt out during the lesson that he wanted to show me something. If I was talking to another student and did not give an immediate response, the focus student would feel discouraged and no longer want to share his work or idea, for example cleaning his whiteboard of the correct answer. Finding a way for him to understand that I care about his work and that he is deserving of praise is critical perhaps with a hand for five, an agreed system of showing him my palm to ask him to wait five seconds for me to respond. This will be a challenging task for a student who struggles with their own self-moderation. This non-verbal cue would prevent me from disrupting my conversation with other students and allow me more frequent opportunities to praise the focus student.

Nine negative choices were observed to be made by the focus student during the lesson. In response to these, I gave a positive redirect in three cases, a negative redirect in two, and chose not to respond or did not see the behaviour in four cases. I found this very surprising, I felt that I had been consistently positive with the student, so this was a really useful reminder to be mindful of my tone. I simply would not have considered this to be an action step with only self-reflection on my practice. I hope that by trialing the hand for five systems, the focus student will have less reason to feel discouraged and likely to make a poor choice and I will have more opportunities to share praise.

Sharing my reflections with my colleague in the post-observation conference I felt empowered to create meaningful action steps, this formative observation tool felt like a move towards a collegiate system with a focus on growth and improvements; a far cry from the evaluative, inspection, and control model which seemed to focus on compliance and supervision.

The success of this peer-to-peer observation structure hinges on two critical ideas. Firstly, the observed teacher must be genuinely open to improving their practice, as I was surprised at the comments that I was given about my negativity, there is a danger that a teacher may not choose their genuine weakness and this type of observation becomes cosy and not developmental. The second critical point is that both colleagues in the partnership must have the ability to formulate helpful criteria for the observation, a consciously (or unconsciously) incompetent new teacher may not develop fastest using this observational style. Accepting these critiques I found that this observation tool supports my own development and reinforces my action research cycle
What do you think about the points raised in this article? We'd love to have your thoughts below. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice Jackson is a science teacher at Leysin American School with a physics specialism. She is originally from the United Kingdom and is finishing her fifth year of teaching.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Action Research Supported by Online Observation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Alice Jackson Science Teacher, Leysin American School, Switzerland I consider myself to be a reflective practitioner driven by continuously improving my practice. Although evaluative observations may have their place in schools, their apparent focus on inspection and control of classrooms may not best serve the development of the teacher.

# data[].attributes.headline
ECIS Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

# data[].attributes.subject
ECIS Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) commitment of ECIS is wholly aligned and is integral to our work. ECIS aims to highlight best practices, signpost to excellent teaching and learning resources, offer mentorship for everyone wishing to lead and engage with this work, and to promote and effect changes within international schools to conduct a self-study, and work towards equal and just practices.

We know it is imperative that as educators we embody the desire to learn and to combine reflective practice with a kind, curious and caring approach to creating change in inequitable structures.

Together with our DEIJ champions and carefully selected partner organisations, we provide support and resources to staff and students in our member schools and beyond, as we work towards our ongoing mission to create more just, compassionate and sustainable societies.

We aim to create opportunities for educators and students to learn with and from one another. To this end we provide mentorship programmes that encourage agency and self-efficacy. We strive to create a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, and has equal access to opportunities.
"With kindness and caring we will create mindful progress."
Kam Chohan
Executive Director, ECIS
READ OUR DEIJ ROADMAP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) commitment of ECIS is wholly aligned and is integral to our work. ECIS aims to highlight best practices, signpost to excellent teaching and learning resources, offer mentorship for everyone wishing to lead and engage with this work, and to promote and effect changes within international schools to conduct a self-study, and work towards equal and just practices.

# data[].attributes.headline
Compass Education: Systems Thinking and Sustainability

# data[].attributes.subject
Compass Education: Systems Thinking and Sustainability

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Compass Education – Sustainability and Systems Thinking for Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Collective Vision for the Future of Your School and the Good of the Planet

# data[].attributes.headline
Responsive Advisory Morning Meeting Book

# data[].attributes.subject
Responsive Advisory Morning Meeting Book

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Transform Advisory into a Responsive Advisory Meeting with over 150 structured, purpose-driven plans to build relationships, develop communication and social skills, and support and extend academics.

Transform Advisory into a Responsive Advisory Meeting with over 150 structured, purpose-driven plans to build relationships, develop communication and social skills, and support and extend academics.

A key Responsive Classroom practice for middle school, Responsive Advisory Meeting uses four components (arrival welcome, announcements, acknowledgments, and activity) to meets students' needs for belonging, significance, and fun while helping them build skills and explore their interests.

A year's worth of weekly plans at your fingertips

1-day plans for specific occasions

5-minute plans for when time is short or for those without a dedicated Advisory block

Plans-at-a-glance charts for easy navigation

Tips for success based on students' developmental needs and characteristics

Copyright ©2018 Center for Responsive Schools, Inc

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Transform your advisory with over 150 structured, purpose-driven plans to build relationships, develop communication and social skills, and extend academics.

# data[].attributes.headline
Council Of International Schools Restorative Justice Blog

# data[].attributes.subject
Council Of International Schools Restorative Justice Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Andrew McGeehan and Alistair Goold

Educational institutions have long been exploring methods to respond to student behavioural issues, interpersonal conflicts, and student/staff tensions that arise in the classroom and beyond.

Many traditional models focus on having standard outcomes that can often feel punitive in nature. Students are encouraged and implicitly taught that "good" behaviour is necessary to avoid punishment instead of it being about accountability, community, and upholding shared commitments and values.

Restorative practices offer an alternative approach by looking through a lens of harm, accountability, and restoration.

Starting from the assumption that all students, staff, and school community members are valued, conflict can be resolved in ways that facilitate healing, restoration, and learning.

An institution may choose to incorporate restorative practices into their way of doing things in a variety of ways-by encouraging restorative conversations, utilizing the language of harm and accountability, or by fully transforming their student discipline/code of conduct systems to be restorative at their core.

Our latest briefing for our members (find a link at the end of this post) introduces restorative practices, and their benefits-strategic research, training, and consulting should be undertaken before making sweeping changes to an organization. The briefing provides an overview of what is possible, and our school members can find it in the CIS Community portal > KnowledgeBase > Child protection & well-being > Resources.

To give us an idea of how restorative practices can work, two of the briefing's authors, Andrew McGeehan and Alistair Goold share how restorative practices have impacted their lives personally and professionally.

Alistair Goold, High School IBDP Teacher / Restorative Practices trainer at International School of Kenya

When teaching in the Middle East, I was Head of Year for Year Ten (Y10). We had an incident where bullying was occurring, and I had to deal with it. I had spoken to the father of the child who was affected, and he was angry and wanted justice! I was new to the role but knew that a punitive approach would never fix the root of the issue. So rather than opt for a traditional punitive model of detention or suspension, I asked the student who had done the bullying to attend a Saturday morning behaviour reflection session (BRS).

On the morning of the BRS, I went into detail to explain the impact this behaviour had had on the other student (who understandably did not want to have a face-to-face conference over the weekend but had given me permission to share how he had been feeling), I could see the "offending" student was visibly shaken by this realisation. I had a good relationship with both students and could sense that he was ashamed that he was now being perceived as a bully in my eyes.

I asked the student to provide a written response to the following restorative questions:

What happened?

What were you thinking at the time?

Who was affected?

How were they affected?

What needs to happen to make things right?

As he spent the best part of 40 minutes in my classroom on a Saturday morning carefully considering his response to these questions, I was quietly hoping that a written apology followed up by a face-to-face meeting and handshake would be the outcome. Once the 40 mins was complete, I read through the students' responses and reviewed his answers. Prior to this meeting he seemed oblivious to the harm that he had caused, but as a result of listening to the harm he caused and carefully reflecting, his empathy for his fellow student had increased dramatically.

When we got to the 'what needs to happen to make things right' question, I was astounded. The student had written that he wanted to phone the father of the student he had harmed and make an apology directly, as well as have a follow-up meeting with the student he had harmed to offer his apology and remorse. I was absolutely stunned. I immediately logged onto our school system to find the phone number. Within a few moments, the father was on loudspeaker, and as I explained the reason for the phone call, he immediately sounded guarded. The offending student started speaking, and as he did so, he broke into tears as he offered a heartfelt apology.

Through the course of the conversation, the father also started weeping, and his previous anger at the situation now turned to forgiveness and gratitude that the child had made contact. Before the end of the call, the father suggested that the student come to their house to join the family for dinner one evening.

It was a truly beautiful moment for me to observe as the Head of Y10.

Consider the alternative.

If the offending student has simply been suspended, how would the victim have been helped by this action? Would the father have been happy with that outcome? Would the victim's (and his family's) needs have been met? Would the offending student have learned any lessons?

Restorative approaches offer meaningful mechanisms to repair the harm that has occurred at the individual level as well as at the whole school level. This child would no longer be stigmatised as a 'bully' or 'offender' by those who knew him but as someone who was reintegrated into the community after taking responsibility to repair the harm he caused.

Apology and remorse are gifts with tremendous power but can never be demanded. Restorative justice has the capacity to encourage and promote such gifts.

Andrew McGeehan, Founder and Director, Trident Training & Consulting, working on issues of sexual misconduct, diversity & inclusion, and restorative justice/practices

One fateful day, I woke up around 06:30 for my usual bike ride. I got suited up, strapped on my helmet, pulled up my socks, affixed my light and phone to the bike and headed out. It's something I had done many times in the past, riding for about 1.5 years at that point, every 2-3 days. Thinking that this ride would be like any other, I commenced biking. Turns out this ride would kick off a six-month process that involved me getting arrested, being held in lock-up multiple times, and costing me a fair amount of my savings.

The short version of the story is that I collided with a pedestrian while using a path designated for bikers and walkers alike. I used my safety techniques-as I always do when manoeuvring around other humans on the path-but this time, it wasn't enough. We both fell. When I got up, I apologised and checked to see if the other party was ok. They were able to stand and speak. However, the group they were with still called the police.

Once it was decided to prosecute the case, I was arrested and put into holding for an entire day. This was months after the initial event. My passport and bike were being held the entire time as well. The next several months were a whirlwind of lawyer calls, court visits, waiting for outcomes, and extreme stress and anxiety. I was watching the process happen to me. I never had a chance to speak in court. I never saw the other party again. I saw the rigidity of the criminal justice system, which rarely seeks context, and prioritises strict interpretations of law over relationships and harm restoration. I faced having my work pass cancelled, spending all my savings on a lawyer, and potentially being kicked out of the country I'd been living for eight years.

The case was eventually resolved six months after the initial incident. I was given a discharge amounting to an acquittal and ordered to pay a large sum to the other party. Had I not been able to pay the sum, I would have had to plead guilty (risking jail time) or claim trial (in which I had been informed by my lawyer I would stand little chance of being found not guilty since the accident did occur).

This was ... justice?

I already was invested in restorative justice as an idea, but this direct experience in the criminal justice system made me realise even more how necessary it is.

To be clear, I am not saying that I should not have been held accountable for what happened. I definitely should have, and I am in full acceptance that my actions caused harm to someone else. A restorative justice approach doesn't mean there are no consequences or that harmful behaviour is okay if justifiable circumstances exist. But the process I underwent was dehumanising and stressful, not to mention expensive. There is very little agency in the punitive justice systems worldwide (and in our schools!).

Restorative justice is necessary in today's world.

As our understandings of human behaviour and psychology continue to grow and nuance, we know that nothing is binary or black and white. Everything is grey. Restorative justice allows us to live more in that grey area and examine why harm occurs, explore the context behind harmful incidents, and restore agency to all parties involved in a harmful incident.

An educational setting is a perfect place to pilot and begin to implement restorative practices.

Educational institutions can be places for students (and staff/admin!) to fail safely, learn, and grow. As explored further in the briefing, schools can begin implementing elements of restorative practice through training, resources, and consulting with outside experts.

Restorative justice (RJ) approaches require us to ask some key questions. Individuals or institutions wanting to begin their RJ journey can start here and should keep these questions in mind throughout:

Who has been harmed?
Identifying who has been harmed is the first step towards engaging in a restorative justice process. Harm can be caused to an individual, to a community, or an entire institution. Each of these kinds of harm requires a different type of intervention or response.

Who has caused harm?
Framing these conversations regarding harm eliminates the need to focus only on a code of conduct or specific policy violation. If harm is caused, it should be addressed, whether it fits neatly into a code of conduct/behavioural standards document or not. And again, harm may be caused by an individual, a group, or an institution.

What are the needs of the harmed party?
Once the harmed party has been identified, working with them to understand their needs is essential. This allows the harmed party the space to think about what resolution would look like for them, gives them agency to make their own decisions, and gives the party who caused harm the clarity of knowing how they can move forward.

What can be done to repair the harm?
Through conversations with all parties, but prioritising the needs of the harmed party, an agreement can be reached that will identify what next steps can be taken. An administrator or facilitator of the process should work with the party that caused harm to ensure they fulfil this agreement.

What is the need behind the action?
Very few people act maliciously or hurtfully just because they want to. There are reasons and motivations that drive behaviours. A restorative justice approach would explore these needs to reduce the chances of the same situation happening again. For instance, a student who hits another student may be expressing a need for control or recognition or emulating what they see at home. These different needs would require distinct and specific interventions from educators.

Restorative justice is a way for schools to teach positive conflict management skills, help students be accountable in substantive ways for their harmful actions, and give agency to students who experience harm. It is an impactful learning tool that can shift a school's approach towards harmful student behaviours.

For me, I would have far preferred a restorative approach to my situation. The outcome would likely have been the same (covering the cost of medical bills and any other damages), but the process could have allowed for more context plus the opportunity for me to apologise directly to the person who was harmed. I would have liked to have had the chance to hear from them how my actions had impacted them and heard directly what they needed from me. These kinds of conversations help to reinforce community and allow us to be more directly accountable to people that we harm.
Related content:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative justice and practices in international teaching and learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Educational institutions have long explored methods to respond to student behavioural issues, interpersonal conflicts, and student/staff tensions in the classroom and beyond. Restorative practices offer an alternative approach, looking through a lens of harm, accountability, and restoration.

# data[].attributes.body
Here is a link to an article about the responsive classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for social and academic success.

# data[].attributes.body
This is an organization that works with schools to incorporate school wide strategies for finding student passions and applying them to United Nations Sustainability goals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inspire Citizens are international leaders and designers of student-centered learning experiences for global citizenship, sustainable development, and peace. Through compassion, connection, and understanding, we aim to equip schools, educators, and students towards taking meaningful action and demonstrating engaged global citizenship in a complex world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Human Need for Belonging | Amelia Franck Meyer | TEDxMinneapolis