Restorative Practices Training by Dana Creek
I attended and
will be reviewing the Restorative Practices Training lead by Anthony
Ceja. The
workshop took place on March 3rd in our CSP662B class at
San Diego State University. Anthony Ceja
is a certified trainer for restorative practices who works for the San Diego County
Office of Education, providing trainings at different schools throughout San
Diego County on how to incorporate restorative practices into their school
environment, structure and discipline policies.
I chose to review this training because last semester, in one of our first school counseling classes, we had a
presentation from a school counselor at one of the practicum sites where she
talked about her experience in the field and the particular interventions being
used in her school; that intervention being Restorative Practices Circles. She explained the basic principles behind RP
and how it was being implemented in her school; using circles to create a safe
school community where students can share their feelings and open-up to their
peers without fear of repercussions such as bullying. As well they use circles
to create healing within the school when an individual member of the community
displays behaviors that harm the community at large, behaviors that would
normally get kids sent to detention, suspended or even expelled. Her words really spoke to me and I’ve been eagerly
awaiting this workshop to learn more about Restorative Practices.
There were several inspirations for me deciding to pursue a career as a school counselor. The main impetus was assisting my daughter with the college application process. In that process I also helped some of her friends that were also desperately seeking guidance on the tedious process of college applications. Now, having started down the path of receiving a Master in School School Counseling degree, the passion of wanting to help kids get to college has only grown stronger for me. In order to research this topic further, I attended a “Cash for College” workshop at Vista High School on January 31st to see how school counselors are assisting their students fulfill their college dreams with one of the most tedious parts of the college application process – financial aid forms. 