Rebel Educator®

What happens when we give students the tools to restore relationships rather than simply punishing behavior? 

In this week's episode, AJ Crabill, Senior Coach at Student Led Restorative Practices, shares with us how community circles build belonging, mediation circles resolve conflicts, and restorative circles address harm. 

Tune in to learn why these approaches better serve student success and how you can implement them in your own spaces.

Airick Journey "AJ" Crabill is the Senior Coach at Student Led Restorative Practices and serves as the Director of Governance for the Council of the Great City Schools where he leads school board supports for the nation’s largest urban school systems. Improving student outcomes is his relentless focus. His passion to improve student outcomes is rooted in his past: bounced in and out of foster care, he attended eleven different schools as a child. Guided by the idea that student outcomes don’t change until adult behaviors change and drawing on his intimate familiarity with the triumphs and terrors of America’s safety nets for children, he has devoted much of his adult life to advocating for the well-being of the United States' most vulnerable youth.

He recently served as the Conservator at DeSoto (TX) Independent School District. During his guidance, DeSoto made double digit literacy gains and improved from having F ratings in areas of academics, finance, and governance to the district earning B ratings. He served as Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency and he spearheaded reforms as board chair of Kansas City (MO) Public Schools that doubled the percentage of students who are literate and numerate and, eventually, led KCPS to full accreditation for the first time in decades. He received the Education Commission of the State's James Bryant Conant Award, which recognizes extraordinary individual contributions to education and is the author of, "Great On Their Behalf: Why School Boards Fail, How Yours Can Become Effective." His new book, "Our Tools They Deserve: Why Adults Choose Retribution, How Students Can Practice Restoration" is about a fresh approach to school behavior that focuses on equipping students with the tools they need to succeed—both in school and beyond.

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In each episode of the Rebel Educator podcast, I deconstruct world-class educators, students, and thought leaders in education to extract the tactics, tools, and routines that you can use as teachers and parents. Join me as we discuss how to shift the classroom, the learning environment, the mindset, and the pedagogy, to resist tradition, reignite wonder, and re-imagine the future of education.

This podcast is dedicated to all of the educators who work thankless hours to make our next generation the best it can be.  It was designed to begin conversations on how we can redesign education for the future of work and the success of our students.  It is meant for teachers, students, administrators, homeschoolers and anyone who interacts with and teaches youth.

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