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Sitting student holding up peace sign

Wishing for peace and managing conflict

On Monday, students in grades 3-8 will be taking the El down to Daley Plaza to participate in the citywide celebration of United Nations Peace Day. This is a tradition we have participated in since 2018. Students make their own peace signs, travel to the El, and participate in the call for peace, a ceremony…

Waiting for the potluck

What We Learn at a Potluck Lunch

When I was planning spirit week with the middle schoolers, I divided them up into pairs and told each pair to brainstorm about a theme, constumes and activities for spirit week. Half of the teams proposed potluck for the activity on their day! Before Covid-19, potlucks were a more regular occurrence in our school community.…

Two friends wearing school t-shirts sitting next to each other, one with his arm around the other

Learning to be Responsible Peace-Makers

Peacemaking, for young children, does not start with large societal or nation-level conflicts. It often starts with simple things, like an argument about what the rules of a game should be, being hurt by a chance comment, or deciding who gets to use the pink fairy first. Luckily, serious transgressions like bullying involving young children…

Diagram on a whiteboard illustrating the bob cycle

Big Bob

During a social-emotional learning lesson on revenge recently, I asked students to think about a time when they felt very upset and wanted to get back at someone. I asked them to think about what feelings they had in the situation. I called on one student who said that it felt like “Big Bob.” It…