SEL Awardee

Chris Palmer

Highgate Elementary School
Missisquoi Valley School District
Highgate Center, VT
“At Highgate, we have worked extensively to integrate Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Restorative Practices (RP). In general terms, PBIS provides students with explicitly taught, consistent schoolwide expectations, acknowledgments and celebrations of positive behavior, and predictable structures for responding to and supporting students in meeting expectations. RP cultivates a classroom culture in which students feel that they are safe and necessary for the community to be at its best, and uses students' feelings of respect, safety, belonging, voice and social responsibility to their learning community to encourage the desire to repair any harm that they have brought to that community. This year, a team of Highgate educators will work with a consultant to create an archive of Restorative Circle resources that can be used to teach and practice RP concepts AND to train our staff to use these resources effectively.”
Tags: Elementary School, Mindfulness, Restorative Practices, Rural, Student Engagement, Student Leadership & Voice, Teacher, Teacher Leadership, Traditional Public School, Trauma-Informed