Thrive in Action Blog Series: Class Community, GPS 8 - Restoration After Conflict
The Thrive In Action blog series highlights practical applications for Great Pedagogy Strategies (GPS) within the EdConnective Thrive Framework, summarized here. The EdConnective Thrive Framework is unique in that it can be applied to teaching actions seamlessly whether learning is in-person or remote. This week we get more familiar with:
Class Community, GPS 8 - Restoration After Conflict: Teacher and students facilitate productive handling of conflict or unmet expectations by using restorative practices with the goal to restore all learners fully to the class community.
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Restoration after conflict is a crucial part of any class community and relationships in general. During this time, the teacher and students facilitate productive handling of conflict or unmet expectations by using restorative practices with the goal to restore all learners fully to the class community. As educators, we must ensure that a conflict is resolved and resolved in a way that puts balance and trust back into our class. During this time, we let students know that mistakes happen, but we learn from them and fix them.
In the classroom, restoration after conflict is an ongoing strategy that is always happening. After a student has shown a behavior that is not positively contributing to the classroom family, the teacher and the student speak about the incident privately. After the conversation, we make a plan for it to not happen again and learn from it. For example, a student may get into an argument with another student in the class. The teacher will speak with both students separately, and then bring them together where they can talk about their differences, make a plan for how to learn from it, and apologize to each other.
In a virtual setting the same principles still apply but how we go about it might look differently. Teachers might speak with students or their families one-on-one by phone or video conferencing to resolve any conflicts or challenges, making sure to allow for time to hear from the student’s perspective, and commit together on next steps to resolve the issue.
Download a summary of the EdConnective Thrive Framework here. EdConnective provides 1:1, personalized non-evaluative coaching to teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators, as well as small group coaching and large group training.