Community Circle LA
Linda Glaser
Social and Emotional
Educator
Director
Coordinator
Teaching social-emotional skills and
building character
benefiting students throughout their lives.
About Me
Since 2006 I have been providing weekly lessons emphasizing communication, friendship and problem solving to students in elementary schools in Los Angeles and teaching parent volunteers to do the same.
For the past ten years, I have recruited, supervised and trained wonderful parent volunteers to lead weekly social emotional and character development lessons in the classrooms. With parent participation we have been able to reach every classroom in the school. I strive for school-wide participation so all students will benefit from this program.
Our discussion topics encourage social-emotional learning, and serve to help
build self-esteem and character development focusing on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.
Research shows that fostering positive communication and conflict resolution skills early in a child's development will affect their success as a student as well as later in life. Providing a safe group setting within the classroom is the perfect environment to learn and practice these tools, strategies and skills.
I am a former LAUSD school teacher and a Social-Emotional and Character Development certified leader. I am passionate about this program and believe focusing on interpersonal skills and helping children manage conflicts while building confidence is essential to emotional growth and maturity.
The Program
Community Circle LA in the Classroom
-Facilitate age appropriate discussion groups with the students
-Lead with different formats - role playing, student interactive participation, book reading with discussion
-Establish guidelines to keep our circles feeling safe (attentive listening, the right to pass, confidentiality, put-ups)
-Provide a nonjudgmental, inclusive arena
-Respect different opinions and ideas
-Topics include friendship, listening skills, respect, self-esteem, anger management
-Group meets once per week for 20-30 minutes
Outcomes for Students
-Learn tools for resolving conflicts
-Develop relationship skills and empathy
-Learn different approaches to challenging situations
-Become comfortable to share in a safe space
-Build self-esteem
-Become better decision makers
-Class bonds as a community
-School-wide use of problem solving skills
Parent Volunteer Program
-Recruit parent volunteers to learn the program and become Community Circle LA leaders
-Distribute curriculum notebook with lesson plans
-Meet with volunteers weekly for approximately one hour for planning, feedback and mentoring
-Review a new lesson from the curriculum each week
-Volunteers share their classroom experiences and receive suggestions
-Feedback forms are distributed to teachers mid-semester and end of school year
-Volunteers are supervised, mentored and observed throughout the year. Support is always available
Resources
Use Community Circle LA Tools at Home
The Community Circle program has themes. Each week will focus on a new topic. You can ask your child to tell you about the topic of discussion in the Community Circle LA lesson this week. Ask them to tell you what a Solving Cirlce is. Ask "what is a true friend?" Ask your child to tell you who they helped in school today, what could they improve upon and what are they grateful for? Ask "What are the steps to become tease-proof?"
Testimonials
Read what our Teachers, Parent Volunteers and Students have to say about the
Community Circle LA program:
From Our Teachers:
“Community Circle LA gives students specific vocabulary and strategies for solving interpersonal problems. Community Circle LA also reassures student that their feelings and experiences are valid.”
“It helps the students feel safe to express their feelings and for students to be good listeners.”
“It brings up issues and gets children
thinking about other ways to deal with situations.”
“I especially appreciate that a person other than the teacher runs these sessions. It benefits students to know that they can learn from many different teachers.”
“I’ve learned how to help the children do Solving Circles to help us settle a problem in a respectful way that everybody feels okay with.”
"The students were introduced to lifelong skills in a unique and memorable way. I wish that all children had opportunities to learn these skills at an early age. Every lesson was useful. We enjoyed lessons about apologizing, interrupting and sharing our feelings in an appropriate way."
"I feel it has helped many students in validating their feelings of insecurity and helped give them tools for dealing with awkward situations."
"Students showed improvement in interpersonal problem solving skills."
From Our Parent Volunteers:
"I have volunteered with CCLA for 3 years. I loved the opportunity to work with children and coach them how to better cope with the everyday social and emotional problems life has and will continue throw at them. These skills include dealing with bullies, learning how to best apologize, facing big emotions and how to help others in need. As a parent volunteer, I learned how to incorporate these life lessons into my own parenting style. When my own children are arguing with each other or dealing with social and emotional issues–both internal and external–I am better equipped to help them having been a volunteer with Community Circle LA."
Andrew - Parent Volunteer
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"I was a CCLA volunteer for 2 years, and the days that I got to talk with the kids are some of my favorite memories at school. I had 1 son who recently moved up to Middle School and I have 1 more son in the 2nd Grade. Both of them have spoken with affection for CCLA.
I worked with the younger kids in my 2 years as a parent volunteer, 1st grade and Kindergarten, and while I can't speak for everyone, I found the children to be very receptive to whatever topic we were discussing. The mindfulness breathing exercises helped them to focus and settle from the initial excitement of someone other than their teacher being in the classroom, and there were always requests from the students for their favorites. "Spaghetti Arms! No, let's do Big Belly Breaths! Mr. Seth, can we give ourselves the Big Hug?"
The favorite lessons were when I got to read a story and have a discussion afterwards. Ms. Linda always did a great job of finding stories that spoke to our broader lesson plan and the books she selected seemed to have been written for the topic of the day. Friendship, Bullying, etc.
I would spend 20-30 minutes a week with the students and they loved the opportunity to speak openly about their concerns, feelings and accomplishments. The students expressed to me several things during our sessions:
Issues with siblings
Issues with friends
Excitement about their team sports, birthday parties, playdates, holidays
How to manage big feelings - fear, anger, worry, sadness, loneliness
The conflict resolution portion of CCLA was wonderful. We taught the kids to identify and verbalize how they felt in familiar situations in order to effectively communicate to others. Bug and a Wish. The Solving Circle. The students practiced in front of the class with demo scenarios, and then we put that practice to good use when there was real conflict between some of the students.
The empathy lesson is key. Teaching the children to imagine how someone else might feel is invaluable for raising good human beings. How will our children learn to respect someone else's point of view if they aren't taught?
The CCLA program had a huge impact on me personally too. Right after the beginning of the program, the students would say hello to me on the street and I would get to meet their parents. The parents would express to me how excited their kids were about talking with Mr. Seth, how they would hear about the lesson and get to continue the conversation that we started in class. It was an opportunity to strengthen our school community even further because I have children at the school and care about what happens there. The students in my 1st grade class made me a book of poems, letters and drawings that I will always cherish. Many of the kids still greet me on campus even after the beginning of a new school year.
I was proud to be a part of something so special and am truly grateful to Ms. Linda for the opportunity."
Seth - Parent Volunteer
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"My experience overall was a very positive one. I was impressed that there was a Community Circle LA program when I first went to the School Tour eight years ago. I believe the teachers talked about the program in detail, and I wanted in that moment to become a volunteer. Community Circle LA was one of my reasons for choosing Canfield as the school for my daughter to attend. Once my son entered Kindergarten, I decided to join up as a volunteer. It was just as good of a program as I thought it would be. The lessons are incredibly well thought out and designed to be age appropriate. The weekly check in meetings gave me so much direction, and I never felt alone or like I had to come up with anything on my own. I felt supported by Linda, and the other volunteers. I also felt like the teachers really looked forward to getting Community Circle LA in their classes.
The kids (K & 1st graders) were so ready for the lessons that were taught. The kids were so bright and inquisitive. One of the things they liked the most was “right to pass”. I noticed times when they would do that just to see if they really could exercise autonomy. Once they felt sure about it, they wanted to share and rarely used it unless it was a matter they really didn’t feel like delving into. The kids learned so much about empathy, feelings, how to feel any feeling is completely fine but how they act is important to look at. They learned coping strategies for when their feelings made them want to act in a way that wouldn’t work out well for them or others. Also, conflict resolution by way of feeling heard is something that was normalized in their classroom and hopefully in their lives. The understanding of a “go-to person” was reinforced, which I believe is one of the best things children can have an understanding of.
Something that really stood out to me is when I did the up-stander vs. bystander bullying lesson this last year. I realized that not only are these lessons teaching the kids how to stand up to bullies…it is also making less of a chance for these children to become bullies. I feel like when you name something and describe it, and understand how smart kids actually are, they are going to recognize that they themselves don’t wish to bully others."
Evana - Parent Volunteer
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"I really enjoyed this program . It was a privilege to be a part of it. I think it serves a valuable purpose.
I really appreciated the curriculum and it provided a solid framework for our discussions."
Greg - Parent Volunteer
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"I volunteered as a Community Circle LA Leader for 9 years.
My experience as a Community Circle LA Leader was transformative. I gained more confidence as a parent and it inspired me to make a career change that allowed me to bring the skills to other individuals and families.
I learned important relational and parenting skills including how to listen attentively and not always have answers. I learned the importance of being present in the moment and in my own experience so I could respond with more compassion and intention.
So many big and small moments. Watching kids connect the lessons to their own lives. When kids would take care of themself by asking for what they need: space, time, quiet, help, a friend. I always loved the lessons that invited kids to share and learn something new about themselves/their peers."
Kimberly - Parent Volunteer
From Our Students:
“I like Community Circle LA because it teaches you how to be nice to other people and some people might learn to be nicer to their friends.”
“I like the song and the koosh ball, and the teacher is really nice.”
“I like Community Circle LA because it’s nice and good because you can share your thoughts.”
“I like it because it has a fun song and I learn from it. It helps me because it teaches me life is not all about roughhousing, we have to be kind to other people like they would be kind to us.”
“It’s really good because I learned to be kinder and nicer to people. Also it made me less shy and also I like more people in this class.”
“I like Community Circle LA because it teaches everybody a new lesson.”
“I learned how to solve things.”
“I like when we do Solving Circles and when we ‘Stand Up in the Circle.’”
Links to Articles
Understanding why Community Circle LA is important and how it will make an impact in students' success.
Empowering our children to deal with trauma through SEL
Helping Children Cope with Frightening News
Modeling Healthy Behavior
Get Involved or Learn More:
Interested in getting involved with Community Circle LA and discovering more about our program? Contact us today!