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Mindfulness helps us with stress, not losing our keys and staying focused. But when it comes to a deep committed practice, mindfulness can bring to our awareness things about our "selves" that are hard to face, that cause shame. When that happens, we need support to travel the vulnerable road towards a peaceful relationship with how "self" has been expressed and is expressed in our lives.

The restorative Circle practice I offer schools is very different from my original exposure to circles, but their power to connect and heal come from the same source—presence. The lesson? Presence and trust have more to do with successful circles than perfectly prepared scripts.

This post is from my recent graduate work at Antioch New England. In it I reflect on the powerfully transformative work of Carol Rodgers as expressed in her essay from Voices Inside Schools— "Seeing Student Learning: Teacher Change and the Role of Reflection."

Teaching Tolerance has developed wonderful set of resources for schools interested in restorative practices.

My response to a 1993 article in the Harvard Educational Review by John Tremmel, who makes a powerful case for the role of reflective practices in the art of teaching.