I just love Ms. Jonas, the English teacher at ACE Charter High School in Reno. She is an innovator who teaches job related scenarios and skills needed to address them.

Ms. Jonas uses a technique called “Quickwrite.” Each week, she gives the students a word and asks them to write about it.  But first, she provides background information and encourages conversation to get them thinking.

Naturally, I was immediately intrigued when I found out that “CONFLICT” was one of the words that Ms. Jonas highlights.

She provides the students with an article entitled “We Need a Resolution,” written by Temekia Reece in a 2008 issue of Career World magazine.

The author provides six conflict-resolutions strategies:

• Keep your cool
• Listen
• Walk in their shoes
• Use “I” statements
• Take responsibility
• Don’t always give in

Included at the end of the article is a worksheet that describes three workplace conflict scenarios and asks students how to best handle each situation based on the lessons learned in the article.

And then Ms. Jonas takes it one step further and asks the students to think about experiencing conflict at home, at school or with friends. She challenges them to think about how these personal conflicts would differ from conflict at work. Ms. Jonas explores why it would be important to solve and handle workplace conflicts and not let them go or fuel them to escalate.

A byproduct of this English class is a life lesson on maturity and how to handle tough work situations.

Thank-you, Ms Jonas, for going the extra mile for your students.

Jeanette