Before we get started, I have two quick announcements

1.     I’ve been hearing a strong interest in how to support beginning teachers. I went into some key practices last year in episodes 214 and 215, so if you are in the mode to think about how to support your BTs (and ECTs), give a listen to episodes 214 and 215

2.     The July 22 episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast we feature a panel discussion with myself and five assistant principals. Some are national/state AP of the Year awardees and others are just wrapping up their first year as assist principals. The focus of our discussion is being a first year AP! We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, topics, advice, or stories, please consider sharing. Please email them to me at [email protected]. I would love to be able to name contributors but will only do so if you explicitly give permission for us to include your name and affiliation. We are recording on July 15, so don’t wait.

Okay, now onto the episode…

Show Notes, Episode 20: Change Starts from Within

About this show:

The topic of this show is restorative practices, but the show title is the key to implementing such practices: Change starts from within. In this episode we take a detour from the common one-two-three approaches to kicking off a restorative justice program in your school. Instead, we focus on you. Or more accurately, we focus on getting you to focus on you? If the discipline approaches you are relying on aren’t working, then this podcast is for you. Just don’t expect a magic bullet or paint-by-numbers approach. The change will start from within.

Notable Quotes

Gabby Grant

“Restorative practices in schools really focus on relationship building, a sense of community, while centering on accountability while repairing wrongdoing and harm. Versus a punitive punishment-based system that really focuses on individualized behavior that is rooted in punishment around shame and judgement that isn’t really focused on future behavior.”

“One of the biggest pieces of a school that is implementing restorative practices is that there is a culture of trust and value that everyone present is a valued member of that community and school, therefore everyone has a voice in what happens to them in the discipline process”

“The first step in understanding and implementing restorative practices is understanding how you handle conflict yourself”

“If you want students to have open conversations, you need to be able to have them amongst yourselves first”

“It isn’t authentic if the transformation doesn’t start from within and then spread out, it isn’t going to be sustainable”

“This type of work transforms all facets of your life”

“Change starts from within”

Frederick

“If punishment worked, you wouldn’t be inundated with referrals”

“The system is really designed to extract student compliance”

“The change will begin with you, Assistant Principals” 

“If you’re not willing to follow up on it, or don’t have the capacity to follow up on whatever you’re doing, don’t do it… If you can’t follow up on it and help them, all you did was put pressure on them”

Links:

My email: [email protected]

The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html

Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition

Website: www.frederickbuskey.com

Blog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)