Saturday, June 12, 2010

GLSEN Response

Hyperlinks


As a parent I have had experience with middle school bullying, and it was difficult to deal with the administration at my daughters school. Recommending this website to the admin at her school would have been a great place to start.
As a teacher of young children, direct discussions about sexuality are pretty much considered inappropriate, however bullying, and name calling (including "you're gay) are definitely a problem in all grade levels at my school and are the precursor to later behaviors. I was intrigued by the No Name Calling Week and its 5 elementary level lesson plans. They had some great ideas for classroom activities and ways to break down the concepts and consequences of name calling and begin a dialogue before problems begin. I forwarded the site to my principal just to see what he thinks. I think the lessons would be more appropriate for the beginning of the school year when teachers are developing a classroom community and lessons could be spaced out over months - that way they would be more easy to fit in and would keep the conversation going over time. They could also be incorporated into a school wide PBIS rewards program for students exhibiting positive behaviors. I found some other resources for teachers and students including tips for teachers on how to intervene when bullying is happening,as well as how to offer found individual follow up and support. It can be found at http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.helin.uri.edu/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.42.
I also found a compelling video to encourage classroom discussion at http://mrpullen.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/anti-bullying-video/. Pbskids.org has games involving bullying, rumors and dealing with embarrassing moments in school at http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/games/index.html. Helping children recognize bullying behaviors in themselves and others at an early age is a worthwhile use of precious teaching time, and can help create a safer school experience for all.

4 comments:

  1. These are some great resources. I really liked the link to the PBS site. The Beat the Bully Game is a nice way to help students learn how to deal with the issue. I also liked the Rumor Control Game. It explains how to handle different types of rumors. The Anti-Bullying Video is very powerful. I can see how this can be used to start some classroom conversations about the issue.

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  2. I agree that the anti-bullying talk would be something to do in the beginning of the school year and revisit throughout the year. It's something to help create a positive learning environment for all children. The links you have are very good. I also came across the pbs kids one. I think it is great that they have fun games to promote anti-bullying!

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  3. Anne, I am really interested to hear what your principal had to say after looking at that website. I would love to hear what he had to say about it.

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  4. Anne-you wrote something that really hit a nerve for me. The idea that a topic addressing behavior needs to be introduced and revisited over time is critical to establish any hope of internalizing new behavior. One of the problems at an elementary school I work in was that they would have one lesson promoting anti bullying behavior and then drop it. Despite numerous attempts, (I once handed the principal and guidance counselor an anti bullying contract for the parents to sign and provided student curriculum) the principal refused to implement a program. Fortunately, the next principal started a program called social competency which employs circle time weekly addressing social issues of all types, including discussions about bullying. The times they are a changing...none to soon!

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