After a conflict occurs, calm down the students to avoid any more flair-ups. Once things have settled down, identify the students involved in the conflict. Ask them, one at a time, to give their version of the events that led up to the conflict. This will help establish a timeline of events for you. Listen closely to what students have to say and try not to interrupt them, except to ask questions for clarification. Avoid jumping to conclusions or forming opinions before hearing everything that each student has to say.
Repeat each students' version of the events. Ask those involved if you are correctly telling their viewpoint. In doing this, students will know that you were listening to what they were saying without being partial and without overreacting to what they said.
After everyone has had a chance to speak, move forward to determine how to resolve the conflict. Ask the question, "What can we do to resolve the problem?" Students who feel they have been wronged, may want to see another student punished. As the teacher and mediator, you can guide them into acknowledging the feelings and viewpoints of others and offer ideas that would help prevent the situation from occurring again. If students are still angry or refuse to see another's viewpoint, you may have to offer ideas of your own to get them to join in the conversation of coming up with solutions.
Once the situation is resolved, it's easy to go back to the classroom routine and forget that it ever happened. However, it is important that you follow up on the situation to make sure students are carrying out the ideas that were agreed upon to resolve the conflict. You can use this as a lesson for the entire class on how to handle such conflicts in the future. If the conflict had to be reported to a school administrator, stress to students how important it is to make sure situations do not get out of hand and result in having to face unexpected, and possibly severe consequences.