If you caught our recent interview with Staff Developer Iris Laurencio, you know that one of Morni
Stories & Voices
Tales and reflections about our work in schools, including In the Circle by Marieke van Woerkom and See and Be Seen by Dionne Grayman
November 25, 2024
Circles are a container for so much that Morningside Center does. From my first day as the new writer at Morningside, it was clear that they are foundational to our work, but as someone who had never been in a Circle I really needed to know: exactly what is a Circle? And why are they so foundational? Thus began my journey to learn how Morningside practices, teaches and continues to improve how we facilitate Circles across SEL, restorative practices and racial equity.
October 11, 2024
We at Morningside Center invite you to both honor Native and Indigenous communities, wisdom and history and remember the joy and genius of First Nations and Cultures. Below we share commitments, learnings and event opportunities as we shine a light on the Lenape Center.
September 17, 2024
As the new writer/editor/storyteller at Morningside Center, I have the privilege and responsibility to write about our work from a few points of view.
September 4, 2024
Students are coming to school with many emotions. How can we help them name their feelings and start getting to know each other?
November 15, 2023
A powerful article making the case for social and emotional learning, by Morningside board member Robert Kim.
November 15, 2023
In their article in AfterSchool Today, Morningside's Bryanna Kolja and Sully Diaz share strategies for creating after-school programs where every student feels they belong.
September 11, 2023
Young people and adults are coming to school carrying heavy burdens. One Harlem school showed how generosity can lighten the load.
August 1, 2023
Morningside's founding executive director shares a story about smoke, the climate crisis, and his brand new book.
May 30, 2023
Some people believe that students with disabilities can’t participate in community-building circles. These students prove them wrong.
April 22, 2023
It takes time and patience and attention. It takes a coalition of the willing, purveyors of hope, and believers.
March 27, 2023
January 18, 2023
Dionne Grayman, a retired football mom, reflects on Damar Hamlin, why our society has grown so desensitized to the breaking of Black Boy bodies and spirits, and why we need a pause.
November 30, 2022
Teachers tell how their school has strengthened connections among students and empowered them to resolve their own conflicts. The key? Circles.
September 29, 2022
What do you really know about our national parks? Maybe not as much as these kids, says Morningside ED Cassie Schwerner.
August 1, 2022
On a visit to our Summer Rising program at Brooklyn's PS 24, I watched kindergartners work to repair harm and restore the community.
May 2, 2022
Some adults seem unable to grasp that young people are scared. Terrified. And angry. They feel abandoned. We can do better by our kids.
March 23, 2022
"Because love is in the details, we can operationalize it to rebuild schools into centers of joy, creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and cultivation of the unlimited potential of young people."
January 12, 2022
A collection of classroom activities to explore the life, ideas, and strategies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
November 29, 2021
Self-care isn’t just an essential part of communal care, it is what makes community possible.
November 15, 2021
I wish I could have told my teachers about the microaggressions I was experiencing, but children don’t have the words to talk about racism until they’re taught them.
October 18, 2021
"My self-care makes me possible because it sustains the source of my humanity," writes trainer Dionne Grayman
September 20, 2021
Self-care is about more than candles and Epsom salt baths and exercise and sleep and saying no, says Morningside trainer Dionne Grayman.
April 12, 2021
Our long-time colleague Liz Young shares stories about her own experience as an Asian-American woman in the U.S. in this 10-minute video.
March 31, 2021
High school teacher Sarah Outterson-Murphy shares how her students developed their English skills by grappling with a "real, urgent, relevant, large-scale, yet-unsolved problem."
October 8, 2020
We offer our gratitude for the practices of Indigenous peoples, and share our land acknowledgment statement.
September 9, 2020
"On one hand, as a white person, I know I have an opportunity and an obligation to interrupt. But I also have the trepidation of entering into something uncomfortable that I’m not entirely prepared for," writes staff developer Lili Arkin.
August 30, 2020
Centering diverse cultures can strengthen community and sense of belonging for everyone, writes Morningside Center staff developer Nicole Lavonne Smith.
August 23, 2020
Reading and discussing fiction gave my students time and space to respond creatively to the climate crisis —and consider how to use their own power to address it.
July 29, 2020
"Be brave in your teachings and don't let denial and biases get in the way of your personal growth and progress – and our collective healing," says Nicole.
July 27, 2020
"This work has strengthened my resolved to counteract oppression," says Mamzelle.
July 26, 2020
Teachers’ social and emotional well-being must be a priority of any plan to reopen our schools.
July 19, 2020
In her first "Motivational Monday” video, Morningside Center staff developer Angela Polite gives us some warm and invigorating encouragement at the end of an extremely challenging school year.
July 17, 2020
"The work that I do as a staff developer is truly an investment in people," says Angela.
July 14, 2020
"I am humbled every time I build a new relationship with a student and/or educator, where they trust enough to share their hopes, dreams, life challenges and sometimes secrets with me," says Ava.
July 14, 2020
"Social and emotional learning and restorative practices are vehicles for listening to the struggles, resilience, and wisdom of our students," says Jonah.
July 13, 2020
"This year, Juneteenth and the 4th of July arrived amidst a protest party in full swing. Both days were heightened displays of Black love and joy, Black pain and resistance," writes Nicole Lavonne Smith.
July 2, 2020
Laurine is a gifted actor, activist, and educator.
July 1, 2020
"Finding ways to build trust and connection in the online space feels urgent," says actor, writer, director and staff developer Jason Jacobs.
June 7, 2020
Educators must not be complicit and co-conspirators in the act of not allowing Black students to just BE their wonderfully made selves.
March 29, 2020
The students who aren't joining us online may be the ones who need us most. How can we reach out to them?
March 10, 2020
Here are six suggestions for how to facilitate a circle without passing a talking piece from person to person.
April 1, 2019
Sully Diaz, Director of our PAZ After-School Program at PS 24 in Sunset Park Brooklyn, shares how she and her staff make everyone feel welcome in a program whose participants come from all over the world.
October 21, 2018
I usually saw Shaun during one of his many hall laps, when he would literally pass the door to the Restorative Practices room about half a dozen times in a given period during the school day.
September 20, 2018
Morningside Center staff developer and blogger Dionne Grayman reflects on the experience of being "invisibilized" as a student - or adult - of color.
February 5, 2018
In the classroom, students who lack assertiveness skills may hesitate to share their thinking openly or ask clarifying questions when they’re confused, or allow a classmate’s bullying to go unchallenged. And teachers who lack these skills may struggle to set clear behavior expectations in the classroom or hesitate to seek support from coaches and principals.
November 30, 2017
The principal was greeting students on the steps of the school when I arrived. His normally cheerful demeanor was slightly subdued as he told me about the two major incidents that had happened the day before, each one centered around one student, Justin, in particular.
October 24, 2017
The class had already earned a reputation for being one of the more difficult ones in a school that considers itself the last stop for young people who have spent the majority of their student careers majoring in "Disruptive" and minoring in "Challenging."
September 28, 2017
Edward was a part of a cohort of teachers in a middle school that was participating in a unique project to develop a whole-school model for restorative practices.
July 21, 2017
During 2016 (winter-spring of the 2015-16 school year and throughout 2016-17), Morningside Center supported 13 NYC expanded-day programs in piloting our C Squad curriculum – which was t
July 5, 2017
Students learn about and discuss the remarkable success of an organization of farmworkers that is fighting abuse and demanding dignity on the job. The activity includes two short videos, discussion, and a reading.
January 20, 2017
It is Thursday, January 19th, 2017, and I am sitting in a large, warm, aesthetically comforting office at a school that I have been sitting in every school day since Tuesday.
December 23, 2016
When I was in Ohio a few weeks back, I visited four different middle schools that recently started implementing circles. I had been asked to do some modeling, so that teachers and counselors who were expected to run circles with their students could get a sense of what a well facilitated circle process looks like. I wasn't making any promises about what these circles would achieve, because I didn't have a relationship with any of the students and there's only so much that's possible in a first-time circle.
December 19, 2016
A few weeks ago in Ohio, several of the teachers I was coaching raised a concern I've heard before. It's about handling student emotions in a circle. "Was it safe to raise emotional issues in a circle?" these teachers asked "After all, they weren't therapists."
November 28, 2016
Dionne was asked by her daughter's school to facilitate a post-election circle for parents and staff. Many who came were upset about the election. Here's what happened.
November 5, 2016
Morningside staff developer Dionne Grayman shares what happened when she introduced circles in an NYC classroom.
July 19, 2016
The news of the police shootings in Dallas on July 6 was still unfolding Friday morning, as I was getting ready to co-facilitate a restorative circle with colleagues at Morningside Center. The circle was to prepare us for the 5-day professional development training we'd be doing with educators over the summer — a new version of our training that includes material on "celebrating identity" and "standing up to oppression." Extremely relevant, it turned out, in the context of the week's events.
June 1, 2016
Leaders of a network of after-school programs in Nashville wanted to find out what it would take to
March 20, 2016
"Everyone is needed for what they bring" is one of the seven core assumptions of restorative circles. We all have stories, perspectives and ideas to enrich each other's lives. In circles, we are all teachers and we are all learners.
February 25, 2016
Note: This is the final post in a 3-part series on Trusting the Process. The series describes a four-day training session on restorative circles with a group of around 20 school staff members, some of whom had reservations about the training and the circle process. We hope it will be useful for circle keepers, especially those who are encountering resistance from circle participants. See Part 1 and Part 2.
February 17, 2016
Note: This is Part 2 of a 3-part blogpost. The series describes a 4-day training session on restorative circles with a group of around 20 staff members from a school, some of whom had reservations about the training and the circle process. See Part 1 here.
February 8, 2016
The circle process is powerful, transformative at times, but it can also be challenging and time-consuming. For teachers, sharing of themselves in a circle with students can be uncomfortable. Many also worry that the circle process will open up upsetting personal issues students are facing—issues that they as teachers aren't prepared to handle. They aren't trained therapists, after all (nor am I).
January 28, 2016
Jon, an 8th grader in our PAZ After-School Program at PS 214 in the Bronx, wrote this poem as part of a PAZ project leading up to Martin Luther King Day.
November 10, 2015
Much of the power of the circle process resides in the talking piece - the object that we pass in order from person to person around the circle as we invite each person to speak or to pass.
July 15, 2015
In a survey, 4Rs students were asked about the most important thing they learned, and about situations where they were able to use their new skills. Here are some of their responses:
July 8, 2015
In a survey, 4Rs students were asked what they do when they get upset. Here are some of their responses:
July 1, 2015
In her recent HuffPost blog, YouthBuild founder and CEO Dorothy Stoneman writes that "social entrepreneurship" has actually been around for a long time: "The idea that individuals create solutions to social problems, raise philanthropic dollars to replicate them, and then ‘take them to scale' with public funds, to solve the big problems across the land, is not really new..."
May 20, 2015
When I was in college, I practically lived in the painting studio. But I didn't keep it up after I graduated. When I tried to get back into it I discarded canvas after canvas, thinking the next project would surely be easier. After a while, I convinced myself that I had forgotten how to paint. Maybe I just wasn't good at it anymore.
April 28, 2015
Introducing mindfulness into the middle school classroom has been an interesting endeavor for me this year. Mindful awareness (attending to the here and now, being fully present, with intenti
April 15, 2015
I was working in Warren recently, a city hard hit by layoffs and shutdowns in the Ohio Rust Belt. One of the 8th grade teachers asked me if I could model a circle in her classroom.
February 18, 2015
I've been complimented on my English about as often as I've been asked why I don't speak Spanish. In high school and college I was frequently labeled "exotic." My curly hair is mystifying to people everywhere, it seems, as I am constantly asked a stream of questions about it. Is it really just like that? How do I control it? Why don't I straighten it?
January 19, 2015
I recently heard the educator and writer Parker Palmer talking about silences with Courtney Martin on NPR’s On Being. Palmer said that we need to "learn to listen deeply to each othe
January 5, 2015
To say I've had powerful experiences using restorative circles in schools is an understatement. Circles are radically changing the way staff and students interact with each other at some of my schools.
November 24, 2014
If you are a dreamer, come in
If you’re a dreamer, a wisher, a liar
A hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer ...
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!"
- The Invitation by Shel Silverstein
August 25, 2014
Four lessons on partnering with researchers
July 10, 2014
Lupe, a 12th grader from Brooklyn, talks about why she decided to become a Circle Keeper and the impact it has had on her interactions with other students.
June 12, 2014
Alyce Barr, principal of the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, reflects on our Restorative Circle program at her school, and on a classroom Circle she observed:
May 21, 2014
Some end-of-year words of encouragement from high school teacher Lauren Fardig-Diop, who received our Courageous Educator Award in 2012.
I know that we are all exhaling a huge sigh of relief because June is within our reach, but I encourage you to press on; keep teaching how you know is right, every day that you have kids sitting in front of you.
May 5, 2014
Beth, an Earth Science teacher, talks about the impact of our Restorative Circles Program on her class at Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies this year.
"The circle allows people to feel vulnerable, to feel safe in the community. And because [students] feel safe, they are able to console each other and empathize with each other, and just be kind..."
April 22, 2014
Maya, Peer Mediator, PS 116
March 25, 2014
Caryn, 12th grader, on Restorative Circles
February 25, 2014
Joseph, 12th grader, on restorative circles
February 10, 2014
We encouraged students at our PAZ After-School Program in Brooklyn (grades 2-5) to write poems about their community, their dreams, what they love, what angers them, and other things they are passi
January 15, 2014
The students in Mr. Van Nort's senior English class had their last Circle in mid-June. Mr. Van Nort asked everyone to reflect on their experience together at the Green School, a public high school in Brooklyn. Then he passed the group's talking piece (a pink and purple stuffed dog) around the Circle.
January 7, 2014
From our 2013-14 Annual Report
It's been a year of anniversaries. In November we commemorated the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination and the 150th of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. In August we remembered the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
December 11, 2013
Educators at the Dunbar Learning Complex in Atlanta have built our 4Rs Program into their remarkable center. For a closer look, take their virtual tour or read about their approach.
March 13, 2013
A Message from the Executive Director
I PLAY THE RECORDER, and I’m part of an amateur ensemble. Rachel is our teacher and coach. From time to time, if we lapse into a moment of sloppy or careless playing, she’ll look around at us, a twinkle in her eye, and ask, “Is that how you want to be remembered?” She is challenging us to play mindfully, listening to the music we’re making and going for beauty with every note we play.
September 26, 2012
Several years ago, Morningside Center decided to try out an innovative teacher coaching model called “My Teaching Partner", developed by researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA). When our staff developer Cora Miles asked for teachers who wanted to participate in the project, a third-grade teacher, “Denise,” stepped forward. Denise was in her second year of teaching at a school in the Bronx, and she was open to coaching, even though some parts of the model made her nervous.
September 19, 2012
A KINDERGARTEN STUDENT in Warren, Ohio, whom we’ll call Mia, was both a leader and a bully in her class. “The other girls would emulate her,” says Morningside Center staff developer Bruce Gill. “If she had a certain color of fingernail polish on, the rest of the girls would get the same color.” But Mia also intimidated her classmates, and over time more and more of them didn’t want to play with her.