Coach Jaep creates Conflict Corner at SPARK Academy

Jan. 10—Students at the SPARK Academy at Cowart Elementary will have a new way to resolve conflict during their physical education time.

"The purpose of the Conflict Corner is to give students opportunities to take ownership and responsibility of problems that may arise with other students during their PE time," said SPARK PE teacher Brook Jaep. "Physical Education is a time where students tend to get competitive, and with competition certainly brings disagreement."

She went on to say, "while teaching my students about the Conflict Corner, I explained it to them like this: 'when someone makes you feel mad, sad, or angry during a game, you can ask this person to go to the Conflict Corner with you. This corner is a place for you to calmly explain your problems and work towards fixing this problem together.'"

Before leaving the corner, the students must compliment each other, even if it feels a bit awkward.

"This allows hurt feelings to turn into happier feelings," she said.

The Conflict Corner encourages calm body language and patience and understanding when communicating with peers and allows them to come up with a solution together.

The conflict corner achieves this in steps:

"When you read step 1 of the Conflict Corner, it tells students to put their hands out with their palms facing up. This allows students to relax their hands and show calm body language toward each other before they explain their problem.

Another step in the Conflict Corner that students must follow is listening to each other — meaning listening to both sides of the story. This encourages patience and understanding while communicating with their peers. So many times we catch students wanting to scream and talk over each other. The Conflict Corner is designed for calm communication.

Students also learn how to problem-solve together. This is the next step on the Conflict Corner poster. Students are able to come up with a solution together so that the same problem does not occur in the future.

The last steps are to shake hands and give each other a compliment. This teaches students to use nice words towards their peers, even though they just had a disagreement and had upset feelings with each other," Jaep explained.

The Conflict Corner is for second and third grade students.

"I feel that second and third graders are forming the ability to solve problems on their own, and I want to be able to give them a healthy outlet for problem-solving with their peers," Jaep said.

"I am excited to have Coach Jaep as a part of the SPARK team. This conflict corner is one of the many ways she innovates and explores new ideas in her PE class," SPARK Principal Lorian Charles said.

Assistant Principal Darran Alexander reiterated Charles sentiment.

"Coach Jaep is a first-year teacher and has done a great job trying to teach the 'whole child' in her P.E. classes. Having a place and opportunity to resolve conflict, at this age, in a calm and independent way, is a huge life skill that appears more crucial than ever in this day and age," Alexander said.

He went on to say, "when you observe two 8-year-olds discussing a conflict with each other and being able to walk away with it resolved, can not only be encouraging to adults but also humbling as well."

The idea for the Conflict Corner came from another educator in the PE community.

"The idea for the Conflict Corner came from a physical education teacher that I follow and frequently grab ideas from," Jaep said. "This particular PE teacher is from North Carolina, and he has a full website and blog where he shares his ideas and materials that he uses in his classes."

"This is one of the many reasons I love the PE community — everyone is always willing to share tips, materials, ideas, and strategies," she said.