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Peace Flags Displayed to Recognize Gandhi’s Birthday
September 29, 2010 – 4:53 PM | Updated: October 1, 2010 – 11:09 am
The Peace Garden at California State University, Fresno will display 100 peace flags Friday through Sunday, October 1st-3rd in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and the 20th anniversary of the garden.
Highlights of the Peace Garden anniversary are a concert and candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. Friday and a ceremony beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with garlanding of the Gandhi statue, speeches and a reenactment of Gandhi’s Salt March in 1930 that set India on the path to independence from British rule.
The flags in the garden were decorated on Mediator Appreciation Day in May by 900 peer mediators – elementary and middle school children from the Fresno, Clovis, Central, Sanger, Dinuba and Chowchilla schools. The mediators are trained by Fresno State students to help resolve disputes between children at over sixty area schools as part of Fresno State’s nationally acclaimed Mediator Mentors project.
The flags were initially constructed by Fresno State teacher education candidates and decorated by the children, with phrases encouraging communities to embrace peace.
Each flag carries the Fresno State Centennial logo, symbolizing the university’s commitment to peaceful resolution of disputes and its 100 years of preparing teachers for central San Joaquin Valley classrooms.
“We can all be encouraged by the fact that our youngest citizens are learning the skills necessary to negotiate the challenges presented by the complex world they will someday lead,” said Dr. Pamela Lane-Garon, an education professor and director of Mediator Mentors.
School Recognition for Bonner Center Winning Schools
Figarden Elementary School, led by Principal Larry Petersen, and Homan Elementary School, led by Principal Suzanne Webster-Jones, have been selected for the Bonner Center’s Virtues and Character Recognition Awards. This was the second Bonner award for Homan. Webster-Jones attributed the recognition to the school’s strong peer-mediation program, which has helped decrease the school’s suspension rate; incentives for students from local businesses; and participation as a Cohort 1 Safe and Civil School. Webster-Jones said students have been complimented by two separate visiting performing groups this year on their respectful behavior. At Figarden Elementary, character-building is not only included in the school week, but extended to activities in the community, Petersen said. The school also encourages parent involvement when students’ good character and behavior is recognized.
Pinedale Mediators Get New Shirts Styled By Emma Deleon
When you come to Pinedale School this fall, you’ll see their student mediators on the playground, wearing a cool new t-shirt. The design will catch your eye right away with the bright blue on black. What will catch your heart is to find out that was designed by a Pinedale student, inspired by the drawing that she did in chalk on the sidewalk at Fresno State during last spring’s Mediator Appreciation Day.
Emma Deleon is in her second year as a Pinedale mediator. Last year she attended the Mediator Appreciation Day at Fresno State with the other peer mediators from her school and teacher leaders, Laurel Graves and Claudia Graves. One of the day’s events was to have all students in attendance think about how they are doing community service at their school through peace making. Then, they were asked to represent that work in sidewalk chalk art, which we called Chalk Talk. Emma’s sidewalk art was noticed by her teachers for uniquely combining their school mascot, the Pinedale Eagle, with the theme of giving to the school through peacemaking. She used a peace sign in the middle of eagle’s wings spread open. Emma said “I had been thinking about the design for a long time before and then I did it with the chalk.” She said she was excited to find out that the teachers wanted to use it for the t-shirts when they took a picture of it. Claudia’s Graves took the picture to the graphics design department at Fresno State to help with the transfer to a screen and then onto the t-shirts. Emma said, “I was really surprised to see it on the t-shirts. It looks good.”
Pinedale School in Clovis Unified, is in the second year of implementing their peer mediation program. Under the excellent leadership of teachers Laurel Graves, Claudia Graves and Scott Larios, it is a model program in the valley.
Mediator Appreciation Day May 19
The seventh annual Mediator Appreciation Day was Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at California State University, Fresno, recognizing the work of public school students who volunteer to help resolve their peers’ conflicts.
Up to 1,000 student conflict mediators from Central, Fresno, Clovis and Sanger Unified School districts gathered at the Satellite Student Union on campus to be honored for participating in Fresno State Mediator Mentors.
The program is a nationally acclaimed university-public school partnership based in Fresno State’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development. It trains the student mediators and their teachers by pairing university students headed for helping professions with school-based conflict-mediation programs.
“These students 'give up' hang time with their friends to serve others,” said Dr. Pam Lane-Garon, a professor in the Literacy and Early Education Department, who directs the program. Joining her at Fresno State are coordinator Karen DeVoogd and Dr. Arthur Wint, a professor in the Peace and Conflict Studies program in the College of Social Sciences.
“The relationships built between mentors and mediators are mutually enlightening and supportive,” Lane-Garon said. “Mentors also learn from the teachers, counselors and social workers employed at each of the school sites.”
Partners include the Friends of Civic Engagement, Peace and Conflict Studies, the Bonner Family Foundation, the Garabedian Foundation, Spano Enterprises Inc., the Lemmon Family, JAMS and the Association for Conflict Resolution.
Congratulations to the Maple Creek Peer Mediation Program
Recipients of the 2009 Peacemaker Award
Pictured here from left to right: Mr. Gordon Zante, Ajay Davis, Ms. Shannon Lawrence, Madeline Frediani, and Miss Chris West
On March 20th, 2009, Maple Creek Elementary School Peer Mediators were awarded the 2009 Peacemaker Award for their outstanding school wide, peer mediation program. This was presented to the school as part of the opening event at The Cesar Chavez Education Conference at CSU Fresno. This program is coordinated by Miss Chris West and Mr. Gordon Zante, both teachers at the school.
The following article outlines the implementation history of this award winning program:
Maple Creek Elementary in Clovis Unified School District has a student population of nearly 800 students. Along with a large student population is the potential for more student conflict. Maple Creek Elementary School Principal Shannon Lawrence often times would spend an hour or more following recesses assisting students with sorting out conflicts and disputes. Ms. Lawrence having attended California State University, Fresno recalled a class she attended by Dr. Pamela Lane-Garon in which the Peer Mediation Program was presented as a peaceful solution to assisting students in solving their own problems. Ms. Lawrence contacted Dr. Pam Lane-Garon with the Kremen School on Mediator Mentors programs at CSUF last school year and began a program involving 70 3rd - 6th grade students from Maple Creek. The students received a two day training in peer mediation that assists them in becoming skillful problem-solvers. These Peer Mediators returned to Maple Creek to assist the students of Maple Creek solve conflict peacefully. The students are easily identified by their bright colored Peer Mediator vests that were generously donated by community partner Thomas Nakazawa owner of Stitch Master. Peer Mediators work during recesses in pairs to assist students with communication and strategies for effective interpersonal problem solving. The program is monitored by Maple Creek teachers Miss Chris West and Mr. Gordon Zante. When the Peer Mediator Program first began the peer mediators were very busy with their work of assisting their peers with solving problems peacefully. Currently Maple Creek has over 100 trained peer mediators. Maple Creek's Peer Mediator Program is in its second year and has been instrumental in a much more peaceful and positive school climate. Office referrals are down, students are developing life-long skills at conflict resolution, and Ms. Lawrence can spend more time in classrooms focused on student academic learning. The Peer Mediator Program at Maple Creek has brought a positive impact on the school as well as for all students!
Submitted by Shannon Lawrence, Principal
Mediator Mentors program featured in Fresno State Magazine
Until last year, whenever Thomas Elementary School Principal Bob Nelson returned to his office from lunch, he would find a handful of students waiting for him to settle their arguments. Nelson’s afternoons have been transformed, he says, by a peer mediation program begun with help from Fresno State’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development. "There used to be tons of disputes, but now more students are learning to take responsibility for themselves and solving their own problems," Nelson says. More...
Fresno State to train Fresno Unified teachers, students in conflict resolution
Faculty and students from the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno will provide conflict resolution education to Fresno middle schools beginning this week. At the invitation of Fresno Unified School District, the Kremen School will work with selected teachers and children in all 18 of the district’s middle schools. The request for assistance comes after the death in November of an Ahwahnee Middle School seventh grader who was fighting with a 14-year-old boy in a parking lot near the school. See article in The Fresno Bee.
National attention for Mediator Mentor program
The Fresno State-based Mediator Mentor program at Ewing Elementary School in the Fresno Unified School District was in the spotlight at a session of the Association for Conflict Resolution's national convention in Philadelphia. Pamela Lane-Garon, an associate professor in the Literacy and Early Education Department, was joined in the presentation by a representative of a similar program in Lansing, Mich. The principal difference in the partnerships between a university and a public school district is that Fresno State's program is aimed at future helping professionals, while the Michigan program helps develop lawyers. More