my school requires us to do at least 3 home visits a year. One day we are released early so we can do home visits. They send us in groups of 3. I find it so helpful because you are able to connect with your students and their families. You also get a sense on how the family is and why the kids act certain ways.

Thank you for this recommendation! I am on my school’s PBIS team and also teach Middle School History. I really enjoy your videos, thank you for putting yourself out there!

Thank you so much for this video and recommendation! My management style is an informal version of this method but I can't wait to get to research more and fully implement restorative justice. Middle schoolers especially need to be guided through making the right choices and how to repair and make amends when they don't. I love the power it gives students to be their better selves and to grow from being "the bad kid". I use a few of the questions you mentioned at the end but I am now pondering making reflection cards for my students with those questions. I can't wait for the book to arrive and as always thanks so much for sharing your great practices! 💕

I’m so glad you addressed whether or not this book will help if your school does not implement restorative justice. My school does not, and when I brought it up to my principal last year, he indicated that he was not in favor of it. This year we re-started PBIS, and I joined the team so I could bring it up there with other teachers. Also, my principal is leaving at the end of the year, so I have my fingers crossed for next year. Yet, I still think I want to read this book just for the change it could effect in my own classroom, even if it won’t be implemented on the broad spectrum.

Oh my gosh I clicked on the link for the book, and I want to get ALL the books related to this book! What a great find, thanks for sharing!

Glad you went in depth in restorative practices. Great video💙

I’m reading this book right now. I am highlighting so much. I’m excited to implement this in my classroom this upcoming school year!

I’m definitely going to be picking this up! We had a full day of restorative training at the beginning of this school year as a campus, and I loved everything I heard and implemented the circles. It seems like not many were on board though or forgot all the great things we learned and my campus then had our worst year for discipline since I started there 5 years ago. We’re all in survival mode right now while some things got out of control, and I really feel like if we had truly committed to this as a campus it would have been a really different and better year. I’m not giving up though! Here’s to hoping next year restorative practices are implemented more school wide!

I just read this book too. I bought it last summer at the PLC conference in San Jose. I really, really liked it. I feel like it provides such a strong framework for building relationships with students and approaching classroom management through a lens that meets the needs of your individual students. I think that the book really ties into a lot of the same ideas and practices as another book called Tribes: Discovering Gifts in Middle School (which is one of my favorite teacher books). Also, I read SO MANY teacher books. I just get all nerdy about it and get so excited when someone shares a great teacher book with me!

Thanks M, for reviewing this book. My colleague and I have been waiting on your thoughts. We are recommending this to our admin. I know they'll be on board. Keep the good stuff coming!

Thanks for the recommendation, I bought this book (along with others) to help me in my journey of teaching. I switched fields and will be teaching middle school for my first year.

I just bought it! Sounds exactly like my vision. Thanks for sharing.

I just ordered this book and will be receiving it tomorrow! I'm going to start teaching at a title 1 school in August and I was looking for a good book that would help me with handling tougher classes. Thank you for the recommendation!

Cool! I have the book as well, Dominique gave us a training being that he operates in San Diego. Informal circles are great whereas the formal restorative conferences takes a teacher and staff really trained in Restorative Justice for it to be effective. I agree it is a great book!

Thank you for sharing this Megan! I often struggle with behavior management and I've been on the lookout for a book like this.

I already love it just from the title, danial Pink’s drive is really good as well, he presents research that explains what motivates ppl (def not carrots or sticks)

Getting ready to download this book.

Love this video! This is totally my area of expertise, and so refreshing to hear you talking about it. Most SPED teachers are trained in taking behavior data. If you work at an inclusive school where your ModSvere teachers co-teach, often they can help look at problem behavior. Also, the way we got school social workers was through a lot of work and school site funds. We worked with our county social workers, and eventually one wanted to be part of our school site. My principal was on board and made it happen. The beauty of having school social workers is they can train others...so you end up with Interns for the year too. That makes many counselors on staff! I also am trained in Restorative Practices, and am trying to use more circles this year. If you want a stellar school to look at...El Cerrito High School has done some incredible work with Restorative Practices. I believe you can look up their work online. Really good stuff. Thank you for this video, Megan! Xo, Denise

I’m not a teacher but you did a good job explaining this.

I think I'm going to make this one of my summer reads! So excited to dive into this book!

This is an amazing video. I love how you've explained restorative circles in the past, but this video really motivates me to try it! I like to try new strategies at the end of the year with a class that is familiar with my expectations. I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. I have about 14 students in each class. We have two weeks of class and one week of finals left this year. It is a small school so I have every single student in these middle grades, so I feel like if I implement it well it can have a huge impact on our school culture. I want to implement it next year more completely, but do you have any tips for giving this a try in the next few weeks?

LOL.. I feel you on the names. I teach music so I have 600+ names to try to learn... but it's so important

Do you know of any online PD for Restorative Practices over this summer? I would LOVE to learn more about this and I think it would be a vital thing to implement in my school!

You know, in the book Touching Spirit Bear, the main character goes through Sentencing Circles. I was constantly making connections between what you were talking about and the book. Gave me a whole new path to take when teaching it. Very interesting video. Thank you.

Great review! I bought the book when you mentioned it in a previous video. It’s going to be my first summer read. Do you remember who your district brought in to do your training?

Yay! I am always looking for new resources for classroom management!!! I was wondering if you could share your attention signals I have seen you use in your classroom vlogs, please!!!!!!!!!!!

What's the name of book?

So since two years ago, is this book still useful or is their more useful ones?

Is this book helpful for all age/grade levels or is it more for older kids? I will be teaching 1st grade next year (after many years of teaching K-8 art) and I would love to implement some of the things you talked about from the book, just applied in perhaps a more simplified way for younger students.

❤️❤️❤️

Hi I have been a substitute teacher for 4 ½ years and I dealt with a student the other day who was interrupting me intentionally and making it almost impossible for me to do my job do you think any thing in this book could help me deal with the behavior? Thanks Ms. LeBlanc

For teachers the basic sentence starters, and the understanding of what they did and committing to not doing it again, is very good practice, and it is good to know what restorative practice is. However, in most schools things do not work like the Brady Bunch. There is a Big problem with Adult Bullying, by teachers towards other teachers, group teachers bullying teachers, staff, students, parents, Admin to teachers, etc. basically to anyone they know they can get away with it. Students watch how adults get away with bullying and they imitate it, because they see that it works. When we stop Adult bullying in the workplace, we can get a grip on bullying amongst children. The field of education has the most bullies employed in it. It is naive to think that all people are honest and sincere, because according to Forbes most if not many who run the work place are sociopaths. So, if a student knows a student is doing something because they are essentially a bad character, and they have to apologize and make nice with each other, the bad character is just putting on a show and mocking the other student, and the other student knows it. You can't change personality disorders. All schools use to be required to have several councilors educated in social work, but education has decided that they can cut corners, and most teachers will never say no to anything they are told to do. Do not encourage teachers to now be councilors, this is like asking someone not trained to swim to be a life-guard. Teachers need to stop taking on the jobs of every department, the things that the teachers now do in cleaning up their rooms, staking chairs, wiping tables, cleaning up floors,etc. use to be the custodians job. Testing needs to be done by professional testers who come to the school and teach students and then come back and test them. During this time the teachers could catch up on work they have to get done, but teachers are not doing this because teachers just keep agreeing to everything that they are asked to do. Why? Pretty soon they will be cleaning school grounds, bathrooms, cooking, hanging blinds, painting, etc. etc. Regarding Teachers lounge, in a Brady Bunch school sure, but in schools where the teachers talk bad during a meal about admin, and everyone, it is a negative environment, also it is where the group bullying goes down . Check out what 'one fab teacher' has to say about eating there. This is reality, a perfect world where everyone is friends, is not reality.

Common sense lol students love me and some want to call me mom lol