Restorative discipline pt. 2: Steps for implementing restorative discipline in your school
Now that you know what restorative discipline is and its many benefits for student-teacher relationships and school culture, let’s talk about how you can easily implement it. As educators, we know you have a lot on your plate. So, we put together this step-by-step guide that you can follow to start practicing restorative discipline in your classroom.
Follow these easy steps to start addressing student behavior through restorative discipline practices:
Step 1: Set Classroom Standards
All classrooms have rules, but does yours have standards? Think about standards as a way to live, not just behave. Establish standards in your classroom by setting clear expectations of what you expect from your students, and also what they can expect from you.
At The Social Institute, we have created the Seven Social Standards to guide teachers and students in navigating their social experiences and making high-character decisions.
Bonus points: if you have expectations and resources to support student well-being posted around your classroom these will also help you set your classroom standards!
Step 2: Gather Insights into Student Experiences
Capture student perspectives through surveys and lessons so that you can understand student experiences, challenges, school culture, and all things social media & tech, which has a profound influence on student well-being. #WinAtSocial Insights is an example of software that can provide this invaluable trend data to inform teaching as well as school policies and communications.
Step 3: Set Goals With Students
Encourage your students to set short and long term goals, in and out of the classroom; even set some for yourself! You can help students target challenges in their own lives and come up with positive solutions. Then, discuss these goals with your students and ways they can stay on track.
Step 4: Revisit Topics Consistently and Regularly
We know schedules change and things get moved around, but a big piece of classroom culture is consistency. Consistency helps your class stay on track. You can provide this through daily or weekly meetings with your students to check in on their well-being and their progress with their goals. This prevents their short and long term goals from falling by the wayside as class activities and academics ramp up.
Step 5: Have Restorative Chats With Struggling Students
Restorative chats are used when students do not meet the expectations that you established in the classroom. These one-on-one chats with students who are not living up to the classroom standards will help you get to the route of the cause and come up with a more impactful solution together. You might even develop a stronger relationship with your students!
Step 6: Establish Community Building Circles When Discipline is Needed
If restorative chats don’t seem to work or are not an appropriate solution for the problem at hand, utilize community building circles! These circles bring all responsible parties, affected parties, supporting parties, and facilitators (which may be you) to the discussion. Encourage the students to talk about the incident that happened, how it made them feel, and what solutions are appropriate. If you’re interested in utilizing these circles in your school, read here for more information.
Step 7: Implement Engaging Student Well-being Education
A final, yet perhaps one of the most important ways, to build strong relationships with your students is to meet them where they are at. These days, that’s online. It’s no longer enough to scare and restrict students from using social media and tech when disciplinary issues arise. Instead, we can proactively empower them to navigate their experiences with social media and tech in positive, high-character ways. #WinAtSocial is a gamified, online learning platform that equips students with the modern life skills they need to build their social skills, decision-making skills, self-awareness, and resilience that will fuel their future health, happiness, and success.
Want to learn more on how student well-being is influenced by social media? Check out our School Playbook that outlines 5 more important steps to addressing social media in the classroom and strengthen student-teacher relationships and school culture. You can learn more about #WinAtSocial here, or you can request a demo for your school today.
The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in understanding student experiences and creator of #WinAtSocial, a gamified, online learning platform that equips students, educators, and families to navigate social experiences — online and offline — in healthy ways. Our unique, student-respected approach incorporates topics like social media, technology use, and current events that have a significant impact on student well-being. Lessons teach life skills for the modern day to inspire high-character decisions that support the health, happiness, and future success of students. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities.