Conflict Management and Social Emotional Learning

If we wish to create a lasting peace we must begin with the children.  -Mahatma Gandhi

Now that winter break is over and students are back in school, they probably have settled into a relatively productive school routine.  While January, February, and March are often the most academically productive times of the year, it’s also a time when students might challenge classroom routines and social emotional guidelines.  Prior to holiday break, students had internalized classroom expectations and for the most part followed and respected class policies.  However, upon re-entry in January, there's always a trial period when they test the status quo and the strategies you so painstakingly taught them last fall.  While having a vague memory of class routines, they act as if those procedures are irrelevant and no longer need to be followed.   During mid-January, a management refresher may be in order to discuss rules, routines and procedures.  The transition back to school is not always seamless, but with a little effort focused on classroom structures, excellent teaching and engaged learning are possible.

Another management issue that always seems to come up after the holidays is the type of behaviors I call “social nastiness” or bullying!  A group of kids start gossip about a classmate, children gang-up and make snide comments; they exclude a student from their social group; they tease and taunt one another, etc.  These kinds of situations have the potential to leave life-long scars and can be extremely damaging.  While teachers get easily frustrated with these issues and feel they don’t have time for such nonsense, the truth be told, teachers don’t have the luxury not to deal with these situations.  When social emotional issues get out of hand, they interfere with academics and classroom climate.   

All schools have a positive behavioral intervention system, whether it’s PBIS, Character Counts, or any other management system.   These programs are critical in fostering a healthy school climate and a positive learning environment.  They give teachers and students a common language for discussing the many ethical issues that happen at school.  Most students can recite the steps of the conflict resolution process, but they often can't apply them to an interpersonal situation.  Teachers can effectively coach students to learn to use the process, and while conflict coaching is an effective strategy, the process is time consuming.  That being said, time spent in conflict coaching is worth all the time and effort expended.

By teaching children emotional literacy skills, the students can facilitate the mediation process for classmates under the teacher’s supervision.  Peace rugs and peer mediation sessions allow teachers and trained student mediators to work through difficult social emotional issues.  A student can conduct the mediation sessions with the classroom teacher as an observer.  Often these types of sessions take place during the noon hour or during study hall.

Try this process when dealing with a  conflict situations.

·      Calm Down: Wait until the emotional surge is over and students calm down.

·      Share the Upset: Have each student share their impressions of the upsetting act using “I” statements. While the student explains the situation, there's no discussion or interruptions from others.  Then the other child gets a turn to share his side of the story using “I” statements.  

·   .     Summary Statement: Each student sums up their upset with a summary statement.  The following format works well.  

            -I feel _______  when _______  because _______ .
For example, I feel stupid when people interrupt me because they I think I'm not being respected.  Then each person restates the summary sentence of the other child to indicate that they understand their point of view.

·      Create an Action Plan: Each student takes responsibility for his own behavior and his part in the problem. Together they brainstorm solutions and create a plan to prevent a repeat of the problem.

The real power of conflict resolution is to teach children awareness of another person’s point of view and to help them find peaceful solutions to problems.

All we are saying is give peace a chance...    -John Lennon

February is African American History Month

During the month of February, you will be discussing the contributions of African American's to our country's culture and productivity.  The Library of Congress offers comprehensive resources to support instruction by way of lesson plans, primary sources, and other materials designed to bring curriculum alive.  Take a moment to look at this link to the Library of Congress Resources for African America History Month

To develop your background knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement, consider seeing the movie Selma that's current in the theaters.

Using Video to Improve Practice

“Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.” -Leo Tolstoy

CANI, Constant and Never-ending Improvement, is a life approach that focuses on ongoing learning, personal improvement, and growth.  Each day is dedicated to doing tasks with increased skill and determination.  In Japan the approach is call Kaizen which translates as improvement or change for the better.  The concept of CANI or Kaizen,  while a business philosophy, seems to apply to all aspects of education, especially to classroom teaching.  As you know, being a teacher takes tremendous dedication, ongoing growth, extreme flexibility, and grit to refine skills that meet dynamic and changing student needs.  Because you most often work alone,  you may not always receive feedback on your teaching style or the effectiveness of particular strategies.  Due to the complexities of classroom life and the intense give and take relationship between you and your students, you usually only get a glimpse of your real-time practice.  

Video lends a quick peek into the reality of your own classroom and offers a gauge to guide professional growth.  By simply connecting a cell phone or tablet to a tripod and pushing the record button, you are able to observe evidence of your own practice.  It’s hard to change what we can’t see; consequently, by using video recordings you have powerful evidence of what’s working and what needs refining.  During a prep period or at the end of the day, you can scan the recording, make notes, and reflect on what’s working and what needs to be changed.  The ultimate goal of this process is increased self-reflection that can lead to improvement of skills.

At first, you may want to get an overview of what’s happening in the classroom, but as time goes on, specific strategies can become the target.  Observations can be made on the clarity of directions, the effectiveness of group work, the frequency of feedback, or the quality of higher order questions. By starting small and recording one class per week, little changes can be made that will effect overall teaching quality.  It is best to review the video the day of recording while instructional goals are fresh and details relevant.  Video recording is also a powerful preparation for evaluation visits.  Since there are only a few ways to cite evidence of practice besides student work samples or video taping, you may choose to share the fact that you are using video to improve teaching skills with your principal or department chair. 

With the introduction of video recording, your students will be very curious.  At times it might be appropriate to share some of the recordings so together you can reflect on specific aspect of classroom life such as student participation, complexity of responses, or time-on-task.

The ultimate goal for using video capture is to become the best teacher possible.  By developing meta-cognitive skills around instructional practice, you can develop realistic views of your own skills and set goals for personal growth and professional satisfaction. 

“You don't need to change the world; you need to change yourself.”   - Miguel Ruiz