Well hello there teachers! What is your favorite quote national holiday? I’m sure if you looked, you could find something for every day of the year. Just off the top of my head there’s National Sons and Daughter Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, National Coffee Day, Pi Day, Star Wars Day. I could go on and on. Now think about the months. There’s Childhood Cancer Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month and again, we could keep going. Well, October is National Bullying Prevention Month. I couldn’t do a series on October lesson plans (grab my virtual fall plans here) without mentioning National Bullying Prevention Month.
Keyboard warriors, trolls, cyber bullying
Let’s be honest, bullying is a struggle every teacher has experienced. Many will even say they’ve noticed a rise in the last several years. How many students can you recount that have confided in you about a school bully, or social media bully? With the rise of social media, bullying is arguably worse than ever. Think about all the nicknames they have. Keyboard warriors. Trolls. Cyberbullying.
How many of you have a day dedicated to having a bullying lesson? Do your campus counselors come in and do a short lesson for you? While I recognize you probably don’t have time in your plans to stop everything for a day, or sometimes even an hour, I wanted to give you small things you can do with your students to help build community and hopefully reduce the bullying and raise awareness.
What can we do?
I’m a firm believer that bullying can be reduced through meaningful, respectful discussion and conversation. The conversation doesn’t even need to be anything structured. But instead, by spending quality time with one another before there is a problem, we can build relationships and memories that will help each and every student feel like they belong.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I want to say it again. Kind words can go a long way. How do you feel when somebody tells you that you have a great smile? How do you feel when they tell you you’re a great friend? That they appreciated your insight, or that they liked the way you solved a problem? I know that for me it helps fill my cup.
Fill your students’ cups
So, let’s fill our students’ cups! In the classroom, I liked to occasionally write every student’s name on a sticky note. I would randomly put those sticky notes on desks. As their morning warmup, students had to write one kind thing about that person they got on their desk. Students turned the notes into me so I could make sure all the words were kind and distribute them. These were anonymous unless the student wanted to reveal themselves.
Jamboard or Flipgrid
I loved watching my students’ faces light up. The kind words made them so happy! So, how do you do this virtually? Well, on Jamboard, there is an option to place virtual sticky notes. The only downside is, there isn’t a moderation option, so what’s posted is posted. However, you can also have students create a Flipgrid – which is a short video recording – and share it with the student, but this is a little more intimidating. The plus side to Flipgrid, however, is there is a moderation option. So, you will be able to watch each video before you allow it to be posted.
Read Alouds
If you don’t know by now, I’m a big advocate for read alouds, for the littles and the not as littles! I believe mentor texts and fun stories can bring some much needed insight to a classroom. There are tons of books about bullying out there, and I’m sure you have your favorite one. Use this as an opportunity to break it out, even if you’ve already read it this year! A little reminder never hurt anybody.
Internet safety and technology day
One of the standards I remember being required to teach each year was a short lesson or unit on Internet safety. I also got a huge cautionary tale from my parents when I was about 10 and starting to use the internet on my own.
It went a little something like this: don’t tell anybody your name. Don’t tell anybody where you live. Make sure you don’t share your address, email address, school, city, or anything else that can identify you. They went on and on. Seriously, there was a list I had to keep by my computer.
Cyberbullying
If I were to give that same lecture to my son now, I would also make sure I talked about cyberbullying. Nowadays, it’s so easy to get away with saying something mean to a friend, or even a complete stranger and getting away with it. Creating a fake account isn’t hard. Hiding your identity on the surface isn’t hard. But, you know what is hard? Recovering from hurtful words. Recovering from receiving hurtful words over, and over again. So, if you also have to teach a technology unit like I did, consider extending it to also talk about bullying. I’m sure there’s somebody that needs your guidance.
Organizations
How could we talk about National Bullying Prevention Month without also talking about organizations dedicated to helping those that are bullied, or helping prevent it at the start? What can you and your students do for those organizations? Can you host a fundraiser and donate money? Can you provide awareness for that organization? Will they come to your school and do an assembly? How meaningful would it be to pick an organization and dedicate the month to serving them, in whatever way you can. Heck, it might just be thank you notes and pictures from your students. You know how meaningful those can be! I still hold onto the ones that came at just the right time and helped fill my tired teacher cup. I’m sure they will do the same.
Wear blue!
And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the simplest one of all – wear blue! Encourage your students to wear blue on say…Friday to show their support and dedication to preventing bullying. It’s a great way to raise awareness and have some fun with it. Catch a student wearing blue? Put their name in a drawing for a prize at the end of the week. Are you feeling crafty? Decorate blue shirts with your students. The fun can go on and on here, and can help students take ownership as well.
Bullying vs Mean
I know, this one was heavy. Nobody wants to remember that bullying exists. Nobody wants to think about the extent to which it can harm a person either. That’s why I feel like it’s so important to address it early and frequently. Oftentimes, I don’t think students can correctly label bullying. In my experience, the word bullying was used when it wasn’t. And when it should have been used, that’s when I found students were the most quiet.
Bullying can be one of those taboo subjects that nobody wants to broach. Heck, I even found writing this episode hard. It takes delicacy. It takes grace and understanding. And compassion. It takes so, so much more. I know I only skimmed the surface. And I know you as teachers have so many thoughts and ideas and experiences surrounding this topic as well.
So please, feel free to share these. I’m a believer in a strong community of like minded people, and teachers that can challenge you in the best of ways (not the worst of ways, which is so important to note, too). Let’s learn from each other. Let’s help each other. And, let’s help our students everywhere. That’s it for today, teacher friends. Chat soon.
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