Miss M's Learning Space

A few weeks ago I was able to attend the professional development workshop called  Creating a Positive Junior/Intermediate Classroom Environment: Using Restorative Practices to enhance Classroom Management and support Mental Health.  It was an incredible experience; I had never really heard about what restorative justice is until this conference. Restorative Justice in a Nutshell If I could summarize in one sentence I would say that restorative justice is a process where the perpetrator and the victim of violence or harassment can meet to hear each other's side of the story and find peace and closure to move forward. In a classroom setting, this can be done fairly quickly with the teacher acting only as a facilitator (i.e. not probing or stating their opinion) while the students involved in the incident can share their perspective on what happened. In it's most formal form , restorative justice is used to help 'restore the harm caused by crime.' The facilitator

While I was on practicum at Rosedale School, I had the opportunity to run the 'Winter Warm-Up' fundraiser with the other teacher candidates at the school. The idea behind the fundraiser was to collect as many non-perishable food items and warm winter accessories (i.e. hats, mittens, scarves, etc). The results were overwhelming. As a school we collected 465 total items to donate to Good Shepherd. We also held a competition between classes in order to encourage donations. I'm happy to say the class I was placed in came in first with 180 items collected. MacCuish, Megan (2016). The tree with items collected in the Rosedale Lobby. MacCuish, Megan (2016). The bulletin board recording our progress.