Comments on: What does Kris Miner consider to be a Circle . . . http://circlespace.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/what-does-kris-miner-consider-to-be-a-circle/ for circlekeepers and rj practioners Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:44:57 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: A Restorative Conference, a Conference Circle and Circle-circle « Restorative Justice and Circles http://circlespace.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/what-does-kris-miner-consider-to-be-a-circle/#comment-502 A Restorative Conference, a Conference Circle and Circle-circle « Restorative Justice and Circles Wed, 20 May 2009 02:07:06 +0000 http://circlespace.wordpress.com/?p=584#comment-502 [...] If you have been doing, what you think is a Circle – they you call it Circle.  Maybe that is the best word to describe it.  If a ‘Conference’ is between a victim and an offender, what if you have other people attending.  Even more complicated, you can add a ‘talking piece’.   To me, that is bringing a tool from Circle into the ‘Conference’.  I think Circles have some key elements – I did a post on that here. [...] [...] If you have been doing, what you think is a Circle – they you call it Circle.  Maybe that is the best word to describe it.  If a ‘Conference’ is between a victim and an offender, what if you have other people attending.  Even more complicated, you can add a ‘talking piece’.   To me, that is bringing a tool from Circle into the ‘Conference’.  I think Circles have some key elements – I did a post on that here. [...]

]]> By: Catherine http://circlespace.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/what-does-kris-miner-consider-to-be-a-circle/#comment-312 Catherine Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:49:47 +0000 http://circlespace.wordpress.com/?p=584#comment-312 I totally agree with your comments that everyone has their own idea of what a circle should or shouldn't be. In addition to that I have found that my classroom circles tend to change according to circumstances. If someone in my own classroom asks to "bring" an issue to closing circle I know we can have the circle opened and closed within 15 minutes. I can shorten up certain parts because the process is embedded into the classroom practice for all the students. An example is the stage of committing to values. Again, this is only if there are no outside members in the circle that day, then I simply ask someone to read aloud agreed upon circle values (posted on the board) and ask everyone to give me a thumbs up if they can abide by the values listed. This takes only a minute and gives the children a quick moment to committ without taking up precious time to talk about the the reason for having the circle that day. Or another quick way to committ to the values is pass the talking piece and the ask the students to pick one of the posted values they are really going to to well today. (All the posted values were agreed upon by the entire the first day of the school when I was introducing circles) The exact same thing can happend for the "getting acquainted stage". We have two circles everyday and if the closing circle is a "problem solving" one, then we skip the "getting acquainted stage" just that once. Every single morning we have an opening circle where we never skip the opening or getting acquainted stages. So skipping it once in a while due to the time contraints in the classroom works out fine for me. This story could go on and one describing the every changing circle in my classroom. The KEY....have circles daily and make them a fun part of your classroom. You can start changing the circles around to fit individual needs AFTER the students and you have fallen in love with them. I totally agree with your comments that everyone has their own idea of what a circle should or shouldn’t be.

In addition to that I have found that my classroom circles tend to change according to circumstances. If someone in my own classroom asks to “bring” an issue to closing circle I know we can have the circle opened and closed within 15 minutes. I can shorten up certain parts because the process is embedded into the classroom practice for all the students. An example is the stage of committing to values. Again, this is only if there are no outside members in the circle that day, then I simply ask someone to read aloud agreed upon circle values (posted on the board) and ask everyone to give me a thumbs up if they can abide by the values listed. This takes only a minute and gives the children a quick moment to committ without taking up precious time to talk about the the reason for having the circle that day. Or another quick way to committ to the values is pass the talking piece and the ask the students to pick one of the posted values they are really going to to well today. (All the posted values were agreed upon by the entire the first day of the school when I was introducing circles)

The exact same thing can happend for the “getting acquainted stage”. We have two circles everyday and if the closing circle is a “problem solving” one, then we skip the “getting acquainted stage” just that once. Every single morning we have an opening circle where we never skip the opening or getting acquainted stages. So skipping it once in a while due to the time contraints in the classroom works out fine for me.

This story could go on and one describing the every changing circle in my classroom. The KEY….have circles daily and make them a fun part of your classroom. You can start changing the circles around to fit individual needs AFTER the students and you have fallen in love with them.

]]> By: Sue Bogard http://circlespace.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/what-does-kris-miner-consider-to-be-a-circle/#comment-304 Sue Bogard Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:55:43 +0000 http://circlespace.wordpress.com/?p=584#comment-304 Hi Kris, Thought you and your readers might be interested in the upcoming Introduction to Restorative Practices training to be held March 25 in Detroit. Here is the link to the flyer; http://www.iirp.org/pdf/OneDayConfFliers/1DayConfFllwUP_Detroit.pdf Thanks and Happy New Year. Sue Hi Kris,

Thought you and your readers might be interested in the upcoming Introduction to Restorative Practices training to be held March 25 in Detroit.

Here is the link to the flyer; http://www.iirp.org/pdf/OneDayConfFliers/1DayConfFllwUP_Detroit.pdf
Thanks and Happy New Year.

Sue

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