People often ask me why I advocate so strongly for Restorative Practices. I find that the question is usually posed without the Firstly, my sincere apologies to the many, many friends I have who are either Muslim or vegetarian for the clip I’d like to provoke you with today – but it’s funny and also happens to be one of my all-time favourite scenes from The Simpsons.
In it, Lisa declares herself as a vegetarian on animal rights grounds and Homer seeks to check whether she really means it – asking if she won’t be eating bacon AND ham AAAND pork chops. Rightly, Lisa points out that those are all from the same animal and Homer’s sarcastic “Oh yeah right Lisa – a wonderful, magical animal!” is just priceless.
I mean, how could multiple good things come from a single thing. It’s preposterous!
But what if they could? What if a single decision could do something positive about:
- student suspensions
- student engagement
- student attendance
- parent perceptions and complaints
- racial discrimination
- risks associated with poverty
- bullying, including cyber-bullying
- teacher stress and effectiveness
- student academic performance
Dare I say it “A wonderful, magical decision!”?
Well, that’s exactly what an entire district of schools did in Syracuse, New York when they got serious about full implementation of Restorative Practices.
When we do something ourselves it matters. But when we do something as a collective, together, and with other schools in tow too – it becomes profound.
Why not aim to be profound in 2017?
Free WEBINAR – Unlocking Student Motivation
It’s a very real question that far too many Teachers are posing for it to be a myth. “What happened to Student Motivation?”
While it’s always been a challenge to harness the attention of students who’d rather be outside having fun, they now have a plethora of distractions to keep them from the critical task of learning.
- increasing engagement and on-task behaviour.
- capturing the attention of today’s distracted students.
- elevating and rewarding higher levels of effort.
- choosing instructional modes that are productively preventative … in preference to “putting out spotfires”.
This Real Schools Webinar is aimed at Teachers, School Leaders and Administrators of all phases of learning.