We believe that social, emotional and conflict resolution skills are a central component of becoming a compassionate community member.  The Peacemaking curriculum creates a safe, respectful environment where deep learning can take place and fosters skills reflected in NOCCS Core Principles.  Peacemaking lessons are led by the peacemaking teacher in each class, once a week for 45 minutes.  Peacemaking skills are supported and enhanced by classroom teachers in daily routines in order to create a prosocial, proactive, positive school climate.  Each class will create expectations/agreements, have a peace area where students can go to cool down, resolve conflict, and access peace learning materials, and will hold morning and closing circles and/or class meetings where issues can be discussed in a safe, supportive environment.   

 

Peacemaking Outcomes   Orientation abilities to develop values, beliefs and attitudes which promote nonviolence, empathy, justice, trust, tolerance, self-respect, respect for others and appreciation for controversy. Perception abilities to understand how oneself and others can have different, yet valid, perceptions of reality. Emotional abilities to manage and effectively communicate a range of emotions including anger, fear and frustration. Communication abilities to improve active listening skills, speaking to be understood and listening to understand. Creative-thinking abilities to construct cognitive models and to perceive and solve problems in new ways. Critical thinking abilities to contrast and compare data, predict and analyze situations and construct a test hypotheses. Mindfulness abilities to cultivate self-awareness, inner peace, intuition, connection and forgiveness Social abilities to learn to be a member of a community through collaboration, cooperation, interdependence, compromise, and appreciation for diversity and differences.

 

Peacemaking Program Description

 

Peacemaking is an interdisciplinary program that supports and enhances all curricular areas.  The focus is on helping students develop self-awareness and recognizing their role in the larger community. 

 

Kindergarten/First Grade:

Peace Begins with Me

• Understands concepts of rights and responsibilities within a classroom community
• Develops awareness and appreciation for similarities and differences
• Identifies feelings and expands feelings vocabulary
• Accesses inner resources for peace and forgiveness
• Uses verbal and nonverbal communication, and active listening skills to effectively communicate and receive information about feeling and needs
• Develops and practices basic mediation techniques

 

Second/Third Grade:

Conflict Resolution

• Understands anger response and cycle
• Recognizes conflict styles
• Uses problem solving steps to resolve conflict
• Deepens awareness of inner peace through mediation and visualization
• Predicts consequences of choice and learns to accept responsibility for choices 
• Understands importance of and practices empathy and perspective taking
• Identifies and discriminates needs from wants
• Develops appreciation for different cultural perspectives and lifeways

 

Fourth/Fifth Grade:

Peace in the Community/World

• Applies critical thinking skills to analyze mass communication (media)
• Develops awareness of stereotyping and prejudice
• Explores social justice concepts and how s/he can make a difference in the larger community
• Service learning