A new practice that we are implementing this year that you may have noticed or heard about is our Safe Keeper Ritual. The brain functions optimally when a person feels safe. The basic job description for a teacher in a Conscious Discipline classroom is “My job is to keep the class safe.” The children’s job is “To help keep the class safe.” The principal is the Safekeeper of the school.
Safekeeper Rituals look different in different classrooms. One of the most common Safekeeper rituals involves each child selecting or creating an item that represents him or herself (a cutout, a photo glued to a popsicle stick, a small toy, etc.). Each morning the teacher states the Safekeeper job description and asks the children to commit to keeping the class safe by putting their item in a decorated Safekeeper box. This also helps a support a child's development in the area of understanding community, expectations and goal setting.
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