Responsive Circles: A Guide to Resolving Student Conflict and Building School Community (a Step-By-Step Guide to Restorative Classroom Management)

In Responsive Circles, author JR Entsminger equips educators with practical strategies to address conflict and improve student behavior through restorative practices. The book emphasizes using responsive circles to repair harm, foster empathy, and address student conflict while reducing reliance on traditional punishment. It also explores bias, social-emotional learning, and integrating restorative practices or approaches into school culture for a healthier community schoolwide.

• Benefit from leader- and teacher-specific implementation guidance
• Understand which facilitation tools to use and why
• Receive the five steps and necessary tools for facilitating a responsive circle
• Learn to navigate responsive circle resistance and resource limitations
• Address underlying behavior issues and learn alternatives to excluding students from their school community

JR Entsminger, EdD, is an esteemed elementary school principal in Burbank, Illinois. He is the former cofounder and coprincipal of a STEM-focused magnet academy, also in Illinois, where he developed curricular programming that included engineering courses, dual-credit high school classes in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, computer coding classes, and foreign languages. He has been an educator since 2008, with experience as a teacher, coprincipal, and principal, gaining all his experience in low-income school districts that serve primarily students from minority backgrounds. He has also instructed graduate-level courses on best practices in the ELA classroom and on designing and implementing literature circles in junior high ELA.
Dr. Entsminger is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Illinois Principal Association, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, and ASCD. In 2024, he was honored with the Administrator Award for Meritorious Service by the Illinois State Board of Education. Entsminger’s leadership and learning philosophy are grounded in the belief that relationships are the foundational pillars for all learning. He advocates for using the responsive circle process to help students manage and resolve conflicts, which he believes cultivates a culture of prevention. Dr. Entsminger also establishes cultures of high expectations that have helped his schools make impressive gains in student achievement. He has presented throughout the United States on topics ranging from responsive circles and conflict management to integrated project-based learning.
Dr. Entsminger holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Illinois State University, a bachelor’s degree in English secondary education from Governors State University, a master’s degree in school leadership from Concordia University, and a doctorate in curriculum and inquiry from Northern Illinois University.