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Restorative Justice in Education: A Personal and Reflective Examination

As educators, we constantly seek methods to cultivate environments where students feel valued, respected, and supported. Over the years, restorative justice has emerged as an approach that addresses disciplinary issues and promotes a culture of care, empathy, and mutual respect. This article reflects on my experiences with restorative justice in education, highlighting its strengths, benefits, and connections to positive behaviour theories such as positive behaviour in schools (PBIS). I'll discuss the role of traditional disciplinary measures, like time-out, detention, and suspension, within a restorative framework. However, my stance is that these should be employed as a final option when there is no room for relationship coaching or the other strategies prove unsuccessful in achieving positive behavioural outcomes. I am going to preface this article and state that it is informed by my Christian perspective. I am committed to fostering a learning environment where students are enc...

How do we Build a Culture of Inquiry and Data Use?

School systems have a shared responsibility to improve student learning outcomes. Likewise, for staff there is an obligation to provide extended opportunities to build on what they already know. High quality recording methods that ascertain growth mapped over time can identify trends and highlight threats allowing organisations to predict implications of applying a learning initiative or intervention. This can become complex and messy due to competing agendas and a variety of interpretations. For this reason, organisations have an obligation to develop a fair, ethical and shared understanding how data will be used and interpreted (Stoll & Fink,1996). A strong and user-friendly data system when properly implemented, empowers teachers to discover value in functions that bring student data to their fingertips (Brunner, Fasca, Heinze, Honey, Light, Mandinach & Wexler , 2005). Therefore, teachers require adequate learning support if they are to use data to improve practice ...

Guerrilla PD - The Rise of Social Media for Educators

I was recently asked by a group of preservice teachers what has been the most powerful professional development strategy that I had undertaken during my career? This was a profound question because they had give me permission to share with them a practice that had revolutionized my world as an educator. My response initially took them by shock but as I explained my reasoning and philosophy they discovered an untapped supply of experts, experience and resources. Social media once was just thought of as a means to connect social stories, updates and status but in recent times there has been a professional revolution with many educators taking up Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest etc. as a means for quality professional development. It has become a form of "Guerrilla Professional Development" where educators have access to professional conversations happening around the world anytime, anywhere, without cost and restriction. For me my choice in social media has been Twitte...

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