WEBVTT

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[Music] Welcome to A Notably 
Peaceful School Climate.

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My name is Mariana Gaston,
and I'm the Assistant Principal

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of P.S. 24, The Dual Language School

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for International Studies
in Brooklyn, New York.

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Our basic perspective
that underpins our approach

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to children involves making sure
that when a child "misbehaves"

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that we have a conversation with 
that child, and we approach him

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or her by saying, "We don't 
think you are a bad person,

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but you've made a mistake here."

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And so, basically, our perspective 
is, "So, what happened?

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What were you thinking about?

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What triggered your behavior?"

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to ensure that the child understands
what were the conditions under which

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that person acted, and what prompted
that person to do that as a way

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of making them less defensive
in being able to look at themselves

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and figure out a way that they 
could have done something

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different in the same 
circumstances.

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So, it's a pretty lengthy 
conversation that we have

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so the child can open 
up their thinking

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and open up their heart 
to reflect on.

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In order to help our students 
be able to manage their anger,

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we have several strategies 
that we use in the school.

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One of them is to help them calm
down so they can then access their

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intelligence and speak
about the situation and write

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down what happened.

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And the parts that we ask them
to write is what happened,

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what role did you play in the situation,
because we say everybody had a role

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in the situation, and what 
could you have done differently.

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The other thing that we do is 
teach them to breathe deeply.

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We teach them to count 
backwards from ten to zero.

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We teach them that whenever they're
upset, that their mind can be stepping

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out of the anger by 
distracting their mind

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because we can't always manage it.

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So, one strategy you can use
so that you can deal

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with the situation is start 
distracting your mind.

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So, let's look at what's going
on in the room.

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Let's look at the pictures.
Let's walk around.

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That's another strategy 
to help them,

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and with some children 
it works very well.

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All those things, and they 
have this sort of toolbox

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of options to be able to 
think about what to do.

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We have guidance counselors,
which help children

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on one-on-one sessions or in 
group sessions where children talk

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to each other and look at how 
other children behave and sort

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of help each other figure 
out how to manage themselves.

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And they role play situations
that they have faced,

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and other children give them 
feedback about how they behave,

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looking at their body language,
looking at their tone of voice,

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looking at the question 
of attitude.

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Attitude is a big thing
to upper-grade children,

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what is attitude and how they 
interpret it.

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So, they analyze these things,

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and they give each other ideas 
of how to handle situations.

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Part of the reason that we 
have made a big difference

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and success in our school with 
a work of social-emotional learning

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and conflict resolution is
that we have put

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in place several different layers 
of intervention to make sure

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that everyone in the community 
is affected by this work.

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We have the peace helpers,
the peer mediators, the lunch clubs,

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the classroom lessons,
the PASS after-school program,

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the guidance counselors,
school psychologists, the partnership

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with the local hospital
for mental health clinic,

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and the problem-solving approach
on everything that we do.

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We teach self-awareness, social 
awareness, self understanding

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and self management,
communication skills,

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problem-solving skills,
and building positive relationships.

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We've seen over the years the impact
that this program has had on us,

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on our school.

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And visitors always comment
on the climate that they perceive

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in the school, not only in terms
of children just being learners

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and being in the classroom
and everbody's learning

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but also the tone of the adults talking
to each other, the adults talking

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to children, the way
that people interact.

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It's notably peaceful.

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To learn more about maintaining 
a notably peaceful school climate,

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please explore the additional resources
on the Doing What Works web site.