Why We Should Actively Listen to Others

Actively listening to others is an essential skill that can benefit both the listener and the speaker. Active listening involves not only hearing what someone is saying but also paying attention to their body language, tone of voice, and overall message. Let’s explore some reasons why active listening is so important.  Firstly, active listening builds […]

Embodied Care in the Classroom

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was a Masters student trapped inside my bedroom apartment separated by family and friends, while also living as an artist facing cancelled job contracts. As a response, I and a group of artists in Hamilton and Toronto formed a small art collective in an attempt to band together […]

3 Peaceful Ways for Educators to Rest this Summer

I smiled and waved at the screen, thanked the class for their great participation and wished them well for the rest of their quadmester. There were seconds of silence, the “bloop-bloop” MS Teams log-out sound, and an anticlimactic rising in me. “Thud,” is the sound that would come after closing my laptop before I’d take […]

Transforming Classrooms: The Impact of Peace Education

“Make sure you have strategies to maintain authority in the classroom.”“You can’t let your students walk all over you.”“You’re their teacher, not their friend.” As a Teachers College student, these are phrases I’ve heard from various educators. I’ve received several assignments focusing on how to establish classroom expectations on the first day of school. I […]

A Powerful Tool to Stay Grounded in Conflict

Early on in my role as a TREE facilitator, I was feeling preoccupied trying to juggle our lesson while keeping my attention on our time limit. I was inattentive to a student’s (let’s call him Phil) contribution to our discussion, which they had voiced in the chat window. I was engaged in mindlessness. Mindlessness is living […]

Creating Spaces for Inclusive Conversations

To be inclusive means to welcome and accept others, not in spite of their identity, but with all aspects of their identity celebrated; this means people of different cultures, sexual orientations, races, religious beliefs, genders, socioeconomic statuses, abilities, family structures, immigration statuses, and educational background, to name a few. Creating atmospheres of inclusion in our […]

Setting Boundaries for Healthy Conversations

Being able to change the subject mid-conversation is really more of an art than anything else; being able to redirect a conversation is useful and powerful. No matter how gracefully you might be able to change the subject, there are some topics that come up again and again that you might not be in the […]

Managing Conflict in Times of Stress

In times of high stress or anxiety, we respond in very different ways (see also: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn); some of us are extroverts, some are introverts, some people process internally by processing over time, others process externally by talking things through with others. All of these are exceptionally valid ways of navigating our […]

3 Approaches to Support Others in Conflict

As someone working in the peace and conflict field, friends often often ask for advice about a conflict they’re experiencing. Sometimes this is an issue with a friend or family member, sometimes they are experiencing conflict with a co-worker or supervisor, or sometimes the problem they are experiencing is with a system that is working […]

3 Tips for Building Conflict Resolution Skills with Teens

The teen years are a time of rapid change for the youth in our lives. During this time period, youth are further developing their concentration, reasoning skills and perspective-taking, while continuing to build their sense of self. Decisions about the future may become stressors, while simultaneously navigating increasingly complex relationships with their peers. Here are […]