Student comments — Continuation High School Circle

We received this note from a counselor at a continuation high school: Dear Amos and Jeanna, I feel so blessed to have had the experience of the circle and the trainings you provided. It is such a powerful experience, but also such a simple and real state of being human that we all probably did [...]

Toward a Restorative Student Attendance Review Board (SARB)

Yesterday I had a great conversation with a couple dozen school administrators who are responsible for the Student Attendance Review process in their schools and districts. The point of the conversation was to explore how restorative principles could fit in with the SARB process. SARB happens when a student is chronically truant. The purpose is [...]

Circles: Overhype = Underimplementation?

I’ve been wondering if one of the barriers that prevents some teachers and disciplinarians from implementing circles has to do with how we express our enthusiasm for circle processes. Because we believe in them so strongly, we may have a tendency to be less than objective in our assessment of their effectiveness and promise. This [...]

A circle activity

Last night the focus of the Sonoma County Circle Keepers Group was “Reflection and Silence.” After our opening round we responded to the question, “Where in our lives are we making time for silence and reflection?” It’s a good topic and we went deep quickly. The next round was perhaps even more interesting. Introduced as [...]