I am grateful that I had such a great role model of what active reflection into our teaching practices looked like through my guide teacher. Almost every day we would discuss the things we thought we could do better regarding how we responded to the challenges we encountered in our classroom ranging from if we raised our voice when we got frustrated during the umpteenth interruption during a lesson to more structural aspects of our teaching practice such as 'are we contributing to X student's impulsivity and outbursts by how we are responding to them'? We would reflect on our biases and frequently talk about whether we're being as restorative, social justice, and equitable as possible. I think as much as there are larger systems at play within social justice and equity, so many micro opportunities of being socially just and equitable happen in the classroom on a moment-to-moment basis and I've found if I'm not constantly reflecting on my practice and trying to be better at addressing those tiny but significant interactions, they go by unchecked and therefore unchanged.  

I didn't appreciate how fundamental and impactful it was to have a school backing your social justice and equity endeavors, especially regarding restorative behavior approaches, until I experienced the support and restorative approach my student-teaching placement at Baker Elementary had. To list a few initiates the school had relating to social justice and equity were language clubs and other enriching clubs for our students, parenting classes, student-led family conferences, the community liaison at the front office who would contact families and help support them with chronic absenteeism amongst other areas, a strong focus on literacy and developing higher-order critical thinking skills and academic language. Baker Elementary exemplified a very welcoming and family-centered culture that was tangibly felt at the school by how the families were encouraged to be involved into the school community.  It is now a benchmark for what I hope to find and create, if needed, at my future school.

I found it important to have a critical and reflective view of how I conducted and managed my classroom norms, culture, consequences, and community agreements. This became incredibly apparent when supporting students who needed that extra TLC. There was a student in particular who was battling a number of inequities outside school. Because of those external factors, he had an extremely tough time regulating himself in class resulting in numerous outbursts at all points of the day. Initially, when my guide teacher and I had yet to dig deep and think of a more restorative approach, we sent him out of the classroom after repeated incidents because we didn't really know what to do as no other tactics were working to help his impulses. It wasn't until after reading "Rooted in Joy", an incredible book highlighting what equity in the classroom actually looks like, that I realized how much we were contributing to perpetuating this student's inequities. We changed tactics and simply focused on trying to keep him safe in the classroom as much as possible so he would not keep getting pushed out of the classroom for his behavior which in the long run, can perpetuate into the school-to-prison pipeline system. We channeled an equitable approach and had him do art therapy frequently during the day to help him stay regulated enough to allow him to remain in the classroom safely.