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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.