I recently completed a Summer Course with Anokha Learning and found it very practical and beneficial for the teaching and learning in my classroom. Every course that you complete with Anokha Learning also has an additional module on Restorative Practice.
Restorative Practice was relatively new to me and I was very interested in this area. Within the additional module it talked through creating a classroom environment that is collaborative with effective communication between the children and also between the teacher and the children. The module also outlined how to deal with incidents if they arise. There are many steps to effective Restorative Practice in the classroom, they are reflective classrooms to focus on the behaviours and not the child in question. The questions focus on past (what happened)), present (who has been affected?) and future (what can we do next?). In this way children can see how their behaviour has affected others, but also how they can change and what they can do differently now. There was an interesting video on how a principal used Restorative Practice in a Secondary School which is definitely worth a watch.
Further information on Restorative Practice can be found here.
Courses from Anokha Learning also include Bullying Prevention: cultivating friendship and inclusion, Emotional & Mental Health Fitness for Well-being in the Classroom and Cyber Bullying. I really enjoyed the course, I felt it was beneficial for me as to how I could change my classroom, both the environment and the relationship with the children, so I could improve and build on a collaborative and co-operative classroom environment which will benefit all my pupils.
Further information on these courses can be found on their site.
Aistear Múinteoir 