I Am the Majority! Bullying Prevention Week 2013

Across our school district, this week has been designated as "Anti-Bullying Week" in accordance with HEA1423. The theme of the week has been "Do the right thing- stop bullying!" To push this message into all classrooms around the district, different events and activities have taken place each day including watching and discussing video clips about bullying, wearing orange in solidarity to stomp out bullying and participating in an activity called "I am the Majority". 

 Bullying does not occur inside a vacuum- there are so many variables that can be manipulated to help stop bullying from occurring in our schools. Educating ALL students about bullying- giving them the tools to move from "Bystanders" to "Upstanders"- is a critical LIFESKILL that we are tasked with addressing.

As a Lifeskills teacher, I jump at the opportunity to get my kids involved in school-wide activities and programs. This was a perfect chance for my kids to learn an important lesson while being included with their general education peers. To begin our lesson on prevention bullying, we watched this YouTube clip titled "I Am the Majority".

 We talked about what it means to be in "the Majority" of kids who believe that it is NOT ok to bully- I was so impressed by our kids' responses!

 Each team in our building was given large white notecards and the instruction to have each student write "I am the majority" followed by an "I" statement about how that student would be "the majority".

 Because some of of kids have handwriting difficulties or limited reading ability, I modified this activity so the kids could cut and glue their "I am the majority" statement and fill in the blank with their choice from a pre-made statement bank (for example, "I will be helpful", "I will listen to my friends" etc.).

 Our wonderful sixth grade peers were on hand to help us out!

 When we were finished we practiced reading our statement cards....

and of course! posing for some pictures.

 The kids were really excited about this project!

 Once we finished, we brought our cards to the counseling office so that they could be hung on the wall next to our general education friends' cards. Here we are checking out the school's anti-bullying bulletin board.

To view the Dateline clips we used as the basis for our classroom discussion on bullying, click here. The anti-bullying activities we participated in this week served as a great platform for teachers to help their students self-advocate, something we work hard to address daily in Lifeskills. 

Our school district will be on Fall Break for the next two weeks, returning to classes on Monday, October 28. We are looking forward to some R&R and will be back, recharged and ready for more adventures, in a few short weeks! 

HAPPY FRIDAY!