Inviting Conflict into the Classroom

May 6, 2024

By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President

Listen to this week’s Hooray For Monday podcast for words of appreciation from Aleta and the audio version of this week’s post.

Last week, in anticipation of Teacher Appreciation Week, we shared A Bouquet of Appreciation, composed of six glorious original drawings Jenna created for you, our teaching community. We hope that bouquet continues to bring you strength, love, wisdom, and more.

Teachers, we appreciate you. And right now, we really need you.

The extreme polarization plaguing so many college, and some high school, campuses underscores the importance of the work teachers do with students before they head to college and careers. We have a critical opportunity, and responsibility, to teach students – from our youngest children to teenagers about to graduate from high school – how to step outside of their comfort zones. How to seek out differing viewpoints. How to receive those viewpoints with curiosity, even when it is difficult to do so.

Friends, I am encouraging you to invite conflict into your classroom. If we truly want to educate our children so they are able to collaborate with others, and to make meaningful contributions to society, then we must teach them how to navigate conflict now, while they are in school, when the stakes are still relatively low.

Inviting conflict into your classroom can be particularly challenging if your students have never been asked to talk across difference before. But exploring our differences doesn’t have to be scary.

You can start slowly, with topics that are relatively straightforward. For instance…

Ask students if they can think of a time they tried a food they’d never encountered before. Did they expect to like it or not? What happened after they tried it? Then invite students to bring in different foods (or, if allergies prohibit this, recipes) they grew up with. Have students exchange foods/recipes and then…talk to each other about the history of what they’ve shared, its importance or significance, a special memory it elicits.
Ask your students what kinds of music they like. Invite them to list their favorite songs and partner with someone who likes a different genre. Encourage them to ask, “What do you like about that type of music?” “Why do you like it?” Encourage them to listen to the responses, and to the music.
Have students pair up and tell each other about the kinds of pets they have. Ask students to find a partner with a different type of pet and find out what it’s like, for example, to have a snake or a hermit crab sleeping in your bedroom!
Invite students to ask one another about their family history, where they grew up, where their parents grew up, where their grandparents grew up. This conversation can open up a host of learning opportunities, involving geography, language, culture, and more.

Soon, you and your students will be ready to move to more complicated conversations.

Teachers of young children: if your students grow accustomed to talking with people with different perspectives on a regular basis, you will not only support this critical aspect of their learning, you will also make life so much easier for your teaching colleagues when your students get to middle and high school.

And it goes without saying that middle and high school students who learn the difference between, “I disagree with you,” and “I hate you,” will bring a much-needed skill-set to college campuses in future years.

All students, like all people, crave meaning. They crave connection and the opportunity to talk about something that matters. Adena, a high school student in our Speak Truth program, said it best, “We deserve the provocative!”

For more concrete tools and some really wise guidance, please read “A Letter to College Students: 10 Ways to Side with Humanity” by Starts With Us Founding Partner Daniel Lubetzky and Lonnie Ali, Co-Founder of the Muhammad Ali Center. They describe themselves as “a passionate Jew and a passionate Muslim.” While the letter is written for college students, it contains simple and profound guidance for all of us.

And please read Good Conflict, in the May issue of Kappan magazine. This piece, which Jenna and I wrote, includes more concrete ways to teach your students how to navigate conflict, as a natural part of life.

Thank you, teachers, for the extraordinary work you do. My colleagues and I see you; we appreciate you; and we truly need you.

For additional insights, resources, and information on Inspired Teaching teacher and youth programming, subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter!

Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication by Center for Inspired Teaching, an independent nonprofit organization that invests in and supports teachers. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Our mission is to create radical change in the school experience – away from compliance and toward authentic engagement.

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InspiredTeaching · May 6, 2024: Inviting Conflict into the Classroom

Micaiah Anderson

Community Outreach Specialist

As a Community Outreach Specialist, Micaiah is responsible for program promotion and outreach support for Inspired Teaching events and workshops. Micaiah has a passion for collaborating with community members to build-power and connect. She is an educator with a heart for youth and has experience supporting students fight injustices within their schools and communities. She has a BA in Political Science from, the real HU, Hampton University & anticipates graduating in May 2024 with a Masters of Arts degree in Educational Policy Transformation from Georgetown University.

AUTONOMY

"I want to have a say in what happens to me."

Autonomy is the need for independence; the ability to make choices, to create, to explore, and to express oneself freely; to have sufficient space, to move around, and to feel unrestricted with opportunities to exercise free will.

Brady Maiden

Outreach Coordinator

As the Outreach Coordinator, Brady helps maintain Inspired Teaching’s social media presence and supports the organization’s mission to connect with DC community leaders, educators, and parents. Brady has her Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University and her BS in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. She is passionate about community, equity, and coalition building recognizing that learning and growing with the community at large is how we continue to be impactful.

What brings you joy in life?

I find joy in spending time with my friends and family and meeting new people. I like going to concerts and festivals, and finding new books to read.

The Learner’s Cycle, Wonder-Experiment-Learn, and the Teacher’s Cycle, Observe-Plan-Instigate, comprise Inspired Teaching’s approach to engaging students in inquiry-based learning.

When they are engaged in the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, students are immersed in learning. They take the lead in designing authentic learning experiences around their own interests and their school’s standards of learning. Each discovery leads to a new question which in turn leads to more wondering and more learning. In the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, Learn is not a destination or an endpoint; it is a deeper understanding, leading to a deeper wondering and new possibilities that create new entry points to further exploration. The cycle continues because what students have learned generates more wonderings that require more experiments that foster more learning – and on and on.

The Observe-Plan-Instigate Cycle is the work of an Inspired Teacher. While a student is expected to follow the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, the teacher joins them on the learning journey while following their own cycle of Observe-Plan-Instigate. This cycle ultimately serves to ensure an inquiry-based atmosphere is at play in the classroom.

Jaqueta Abbey

Teaching and Learning Specialist

Jaqueta is the Teaching and Learning Specialist for Inspired Teaching. In addition to her current role with Inspired Teaching, Jaqueta is a first-grade teaching assistant. Her background features a variety of traditional and non-traditional experiences in the field of education, including working as an adjunct professor, teaching summer reading programs to children and adults, and tutoring children in the foster care system. Jaqueta earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Interactive Media from Elon University.

What brings you joy in life?

Creative self-expression! In addition to my passion for storytelling, I love dancing of all kinds. I've studied belly dance, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk among other styles. I also enjoy glass fusing, crocheting, photography, and cross stitching. These art forms allow me to express myself and build connections with other people at the same time. I think life would be a lot less vibrant without artists and storytellers!

Michelle Welk

Communication & Marketing Specialist

As Communications and Marketing Specialist, Michelle is responsible for finding and creating new ways to highlight Inspired Teaching and promote its programs in order to expand and deepen the organization's impact. Michelle has worked in communications in an array of settings, from creative agencies to state politics to national nonprofits. She has a BA in Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia and is passionate about education, access, and equity.

What brings you joy in life?

My son, the beach, making a persuasive argument and good food!

Max Peterson

Real World History Assistant Teacher

Max received his Bachelor’s degree in History and African American Studies from Boston University in May 2016. He has worked in museum curation at the Museum of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Max has worked with young people of varying ages from young children to young adults transitioning to college.

Feedback and Accountability

We grow through feedback and an understanding that the quality of our work is a reflection of what we are learning, but the shift to remote learning this spring disrupted a lot of the tools teachers were used to using to evaluate student growth. How might we do things differently this fall? Participants in this workshop will explore ways to bring meaningful assessment into the virtual and/or socially-distanced classroom and approaches to student feedback that strengthen motivation, and build relationships and achievement.