You never know what you'll hear if you listen.
"There are so many different dimensions to a conversation," conflict-resolution specialist Iman Shabazz said late last month during a break in a class he was helping lead for new Richmond teachers. "Hopefully, this will teach them to be mindful of all that's involved."
Shabazz and Santa Sorenson, both of the Richmond Peace Education Center, were helping the city's newest crop of middle school teachers learn good ways to defuse tense moments. Along the same second-floor hallway at Armstrong High School, three other groups of mediators from the center were leading similar sessions for incoming elementary and high school teachers.
This is the first year the system has offered such specific training during its annual New Teachers Institute, said Darlene Currie, the director of professional development for the Richmond school system. The two-day program included sessions on all manner of things new teachers will need to know, such as how to sign up for benefits.
There has long been a session on classroom management, Currie said, but this is the first time it has been specific to resolving conflicts.
"It's all about setting the right expectations from Day One," she said. "We'll have ongoing training, but this helps them start right."
The stakes are high, and so is the goal, she said.
"We'll have better students who are better members of society," she said.
Back upstairs in room 203, three new teachers and one instructional specialist -- Joyce Bassette, the school system's music guru, came to observe but quickly began participating -- did a role-playing exercise during which they took turns telling a story, then dissecting it for facts, feelings, needs and values.
"I think it's really helpful," said Karen Vary, who will teach physical education at Lucille Brown Middle School after two years as an elementary teacher in Henrico County.
Terry Rayl, a 53-year-old career-switcher about to begin his new life as a science teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, said he learned plenty about conflict resolution during careers in retail and the ministry but that there was no such thing as too much.
"We all need to be reminded of the basics sometimes," he said.
He suggested his fellow teachers learn a trick he learned years ago: "Back up sometimes and just listen. Don't give in to that first impulse."
Sorenson said the key was taking the time to pay attention. "Get to know your students," she urged the group. "It'll give you such fertile ground where conflicts can be solved."
Bassette reminded the group to remember the lessons long after they left their classrooms.
"These will help me with adults and with my personal life, too," she said. "It's good in helping me to truly listen, to weed out the important pieces."
As the teachers took turns playing the different roles in their exercise, Shabazz looked on with a smile.
"I'm the last person who should be teaching this," he said. "The place I grew up, there wasn't conflict resolution. Physical encounters were more likely.
"That just shows you anything is possible. But there's no such thing as mastering conflict resolution. You just have to keep working on it."
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.
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