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After yesterday's class I was unsure of how to incorporate restorative justice into my own classroom. This was the reason why I decided to do the remainder of my posts for this class on the theme of restorative justice. I was able to find 3 different lesson plans and one article that a teacher might use in his/her classroom in order to build a community focused on restorative justice. I hope that these links are as much interest to you as they are to me. This first lesson plan comes from two educators in Alberta. The lesson is called the community web. In the community web students learn about different roles in the community and how each of these roles aid in the process of restorative justice. Students each take different roles (eg. teacher, principal, victim, offender etc.). Then, using a ball of yarn the students create a web of strings by passing the yarn around the circle to other participants. Students soon see how interconnected all participants are in the process. This lesson is a great way to show students that there are more people involved in the justice process than simply the victim and offender.

This is an article written by Harriet Wall, a teacher, trainer, and consultant of behaviour management and restorative justice. The article, entitled "Restorative justice: behaviour and relationship management in schools" goes through what restorative justice is and how and why it can be effective in the classroom. The author offers some suggestions of how teachers can employ restorative justice and how they might already be doing so without knowing it.

This is a link to a restorative justice lesson plan. The lesson plan focuses on teaching students how to develop restorative consequences as a group. In order to do this, students participate in a classroom meeting/restorative justice circle. Students learn about coming to a consensus, how to come up with consequences for offenders, and why offenders commit crimes As a result of this lesson, students will learn how restorative justice can help offenders to stop their negative behaviours and how this can be incorporated into a classroom setting.

This site has a great explanation for this week's topic - restorative justice. It offers key questions to ask when using a restorative approach, explains the aim and identifies potential advantages of restorative approaches in a school setting. The site also provides excellent charts that outline which type of restorative approach to use in a particular situation and identifies the roles of the members involved.

This site provides links to many articles and resources regarding restorative justice, and many of the principles can be applied in the classroom. This is a good site for those interested in adopting this philosophy in their classroom.

This video shows an example of restorative justice in action for a student in grade four. It outlines the benefits of implementing restorative justice techniques for students at the elementary school level because it will help them learn life skills. Feel with your heart, not your fist!

This lesson plan comes from two educators in Alberta. In the lesson students learn about the concept of justice circles through role play. This helps students to learn respect for others in the classroom. Justice circles are similar to the classroom meetings in the previous post, however, justice circles are more focused on allowing the victims and offenders to get a better sense of one another. The goal is to resolve conflict while remaining respectful to all involved. In this lesson plan students role play different situations in a justice circle. Additionally students also write about one participant and what his or her involvement was in the justice circle. They then have to reflect on the process and why it was or wasn't effective. This lesson will help students understand how restorative justice can provide a support system for both victim and offender and how that is different from retributive justice.

Emotional intelligence in my eyes is related to the restorative justice, but concentrates on the skills needed to use restorative justice. It is more of an awareness of their own emotions, their peers emotions and being able to manges emotions and not lash out at peers.

The Friends program is used across Canada and the world to help children & youth (8-16 years of age) cope with feelings of fear, worry and sadness. I thought that this would be something that could be used in conjunction with a restorative justice approach. Clearly, the whole community needs to do something to deal with escalating bullying.