The Peaceable Classroom - Primary Teacher Summer Course

This course was delivered by Thomas Riedmuller as a 5-day summer course in July 2002 at Scoil Padraig Naofa in Bandon organised through the West Cork Education Centre. The following course outline is an adaptation of this course as a 10-evening class.

Aims: - To raise teacher’s awareness of how conflict and its resolution evolve in their lives and in their classroom reality and how discipline and general communication practices are interrelated. To introduce several practical, positive approaches to establishing and maintaining harmony in the classroom. To practice skills of preventing, de-escalating and solving conflicts, particularly in the classroom, but also with parents and other staff.

Underlying Values: educating for democracy, diversity, cooperation, peace, mutual respect. We teach more with our behavior and living example than with curriculum contents. Personal growth and increasing awareness of our own communication patterns are therefore essential for improving our quality of teaching.

Activities: The course is experiential i.e. participants will see and hear the practices of positive communication in the way the course is structured and delivered. They will also have opportunities of trying them out in practical exercises. Inspiration is taken from the Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program (US) which has 20 years of successful experience, from M.B. Rosenberg’s Model of Non-Violent Communication and from my own experience in teaching communication and conflict resolution skills to primary school children, transition year students and adults.

Course structure – 10 Week Evening Course

Each session takes 2 ½ hours, and contains practical opening and closing activities Cost: € 40 per hour (€ 100 per evening) plus travel expense Number of participants: 15 - 30 Room requirements: space enough for the participants to sit in a big circle (standard classroom size). Flip Chart and wall space for pinning up wall charts.

1st Session

                    Introduction
    Gathering Activity (Go-round about conflict and discipline experience)
    Mini-Lab about needs and expectations
    Workshop-Approach versus Standard Lesson Approach
    Agenda Review
    Principles of the Peaceable Classroom
    Effective Rulemaking
    Put-down awareness – “Getting to the heart of it”

2nd Session Opinion Continuum about Conflict Non-Violent Communication (NVC) The Language of Jackal and Giraffe The Power of Empathy

3rd Session

                   Gathering (What colour is conflict)
    Types of conflict
    Art, Music and Puppets for processing classroom conflicts
                    Win-Win Resolutions
    Conflict Escalator as a tool for teaching conflict awareness
    Techniques for de-escalating conflicts

4th Session Teaching I-Statements NVC for resolving conflicts with parents and colleagues Role-Play (practice and applications in the classroom)

5th Session
Gathering (Rainstorm) Improving Communication Skills: Self-Assessment Observation (Eye-Witness Accounts; Changes; Martian Viewpoint) Perception – Beliefs – Frames of Reference Listening (Good Listener Checklist, Pete and Repeat)

6th Session Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Literacy: Identifying Emotions (React; Happy-Sad-Mad Way; Feelings Vocabulary) Expressing Emotions (Grump & Growl; Anger List; Anger Thermometer) Learning Self-Control (Bossy; Want to-Have to; Personal Conduct Code)

7th Session Gathering (You like, I like) Teaching cooperation through games and group tasks Lion, Fox, Deer and Dove (activity for exploring roles and behaviour in
groups) Teaching Tolerance and embracing diversity

8th Session
Gathering (Birthday Line-up) Leadership and other roles in the classroom The disturber as a leader Awareness of Rank, Power and Privilege as a major tool for de-escalating
conflict (rank-o-meter)

9th Session Gathering/Go-round (Teachers in your lives + values in education) Effective Feedback Mediation, Arbitration and other techniques as a school strategy Mediation Role Play

10th Session
Child Assessment of Conflict Resolution and other Social Skills Mini-Lab: next steps in putting all above into practice Cooperative Discipline Questions, Answers and Summary Feedback round Closing