Community Circle LA
Linda Glaser
Educator
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.
Our 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
Testimonials
Our teachers and students comment on their experience with
Community Circle LA in their classrooms.
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 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.’”
Resources
Become a Volunteer Leader
Interested in becoming a Community Circle LA Leader? The first step is to observe one of our current leaders teaching a lesson in the classroom. Please fill out the form below and we will get in touch with you.
Use Community Circle LA Tools at Home
Ask your child to tell you about the topic of discussion in the Community Circle LA lesson this week. Ask "what is a Solving Circle?" 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?
Links to Articles
Understanding why Community Circle LA is important and how it will make an impact in students' success.
Get Involved!
Interested in getting involved with Community Circle LA and discovering more about our program? Contact us today!