Friday, June 13, 2008

Notes

  • Kayla and I took our classes together this past week about bullying and violence in our schools. We were kind of excited to get together on Thurs. night with a few teachers from our school to let them know what we've been learning and to hear how their summer has been going. I want to let you know some of the things I've learned.

  • I learned...
  1. Bullying occurs on average every 7.5 minutes in our schools
  2. Most bullies bully for power and control over others because that is all they can control in their lives
  3. The most important thing is to listen to bullies and victimes and let them share what is in their heart
  4. Women are more likely to bully using words and men with physical actions
  5. If you or your child is being bullied it is important to tell someone, if that person doesn't listen, tell someone else. Don't suffer in silence
  6. Bullies often model what they see at home. Most broken homes, whether rich or poor, see an increase in bullying and violence with those children.
  7. Bullies are usually crying out for help when they bully but don't know how to verbalize those feelings.
  8. There is a strong correlation between a child's ability to learn and the importance of feeling safe.
  9. It is important to teach your students or children to overcome their fear so it doesn't control them.
  10. The most important thing is to let our students and children know that we care about them as individuals so they can trust us and we can help when good/bad things are going on in their lives.

Some of the movies we watched were Coach Carter, a documentary called Bullied, Battered and Bruised, Bang Bang You're Dead, Karate Kid, Going Up the Down Staircase, The Great Debators, Bowling for Columbine, and two national news documentaries on Columbine High School and Virginia Tech University. Lots of thoughts and other interesting points were made during class that will help me as an educator and one day as a parent. I'm very glad I decided to take these classes to help our children in the world today.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

that is really interesting stuff... i have never heard of a couple of those movies, but they sound good.

you look super cute in that picture kasey!