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Fall 2013
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Welcome back to school!  As you embark on a new school year, here are a few tips for maximizing the impact of Open Circle in your school:

 

In the Classroom

  • For the first two weeks of school, hold Open Circle Meetings daily for 15 minutes to establish classroom routines, rules and community.

  • After the first two weeks, hold Open Circle Meetings twice a week for 15 minutes - put it in your schedule - it helps! Find a time that works best for you and your students (e.g. beginning of the day, after recess, after lunch - see what works).

  • Encourage students to problem solve getting in and out of the circle. Come up with a plan, try it out, evaluate, revise, and test again. It's problem solving in action, right from the start!

  • Pace yourself. Give yourself permission to get through part of a lesson in one meeting. Go at a pace that suits your class and your student needs.

  • Send Home Links letters to families to reinforce Open Circle approaches at home.

  • If this is your first year implementing Open Circle, be patient with yourself as you learn and practice facilitation techniques.

Across the School

  • Create a schedule for all adults in your school community to visit and sit in the open chair during an Open Circle Meeting.

  • Unite your school community by infusing Open Circle vocabulary and non-verbal signals into special subjects, whole school events, announcements, and visuals throughout your school.

  • Strengthen staff relationships by leveraging Open Circle concepts and community-building activities in staff meetings.

  • Obtain books from Open Circle's Literature Connections lists and designate an Open Circle section in your library.

What's In A Name?

Open Circle's Children's Fall Literature List

With the opening of school comes a whole backpack of emotions: excitement, anxiety, fear! Many of these feelings relate to questions about the new groups that are forming. Whether you are 6 or 60, when you join a group you might be asking yourself, "Who else is in this group? Will I know anybody? Will I fit in? Will people know who I am?"
 
Kamilah Drummond joined Open Circle as a Program Manager in June 2013. 
 
The co-founder of the Dorchester Collegiate Academy Charter School in Boston, MA, Kamilah served as the school's first board chair and later stepped down to work directly with students as the Director of Wellness. She oversaw the social and emotional programming at the school. This included developing the social and emotional curriculum, coordinating services with outside mental health and social service agencies, as well as working directly with students and families. 
 
Kamilah is passionate and committed to the field of SEL and Open Circle is thrilled to welcome her to our team!
Coping Options for Positive Emotion (COPE) 

COPE is a research treatment study for child depression that is funded by the National Institutes of Health. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Dikla Eckshtain from Harvard Medical School.

 

COPE includes 1-2 types of therapies focusing on decreasing depressive symptoms, increasing positive mood, and providing coping skills that studies found to be helpful for depressed children. COPE is provided at no cost.

 

If your child is 8-12 years old, has signs of depression, and you and your child speak English, your child may be eligible to participate in COPE. For more information please call 617-278-4242.

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Open Circle

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