I noticed after the first couple weeks of school that students weren't showing each other respect anymore. They don't know when to stop teasing each other or when to walk away. I asked students to write down a trait that they wanted to be remembered as next to their pictures I have hanging up. Students wrote things like: responsible, nice, caring, smart, and funny. We talked about what we can do to in order for our peers to think of us in this positive light. At the end of the week I brought students to our meeting place and asked them to look at their picture and the trait that they had wrote next to it. I asked students to give me a thumbs up if they think they have been acting in a way that reflects that trait, and only a few thumbs went up. We talked about what kinds of things that are going on that are stopping us from being remembered the way we want to be. I realized that the students are aware of what they are doing but aren't seeing the correlation between their actions and consequences (what others think of them as, or how it makes them look). I started to go over the expected behaviors we have in our school and started to practice scenarios of what is appropriate behavior in certain situations. I had the typical outcome-it sticks with some students but not others. I took away Dojo points and had students write notes home talking about their behaviors during the day. Students would get it signed and bring it back, no change in behavior. Just like any teacher (or what I think any other teacher) would do, I got on Pinterest and started searching for ideas to stop the disrespect I was seeing. I came across a 4-day lesson to "Banish Bullying". I started to do more research on these ideas and found the site Erase Meanness. After looking through this site I was hooked after seeing their mission to "help students make the connection between the choices they make and the world they leave behind by asking "How do you want to be remembered?"" I knew that my students' actions aren't reflecting the people they want to be remembered as, and the people I want to remember them as. I was determined to try this out.
Day 1: I cleared the board and wrote "Mean" in huge black letters.
Students started piling in for the day and noticed this right away. Students asked each other why it was written on the board and what does it mean. Some joked around with each other and called each other "mean". A few hours later I began the lesson. I started with having students read the word to themselves and write down what that word means to them. Students wrote down ideas about bullies, physical harm, not being nice, hurting others feelings, and not including others. I had students draw a line under their ideas and we watched "Anti Bullying PSA: The Price of Silence". Looking out at the fifth graders faces, I could see most of them looked worried and anxious, and the few smirks I saw at the beginning began to fade. Students reflected after the video identifying the different roles that were played. They said they felt their stomachs tighten while watching it and they were scared for the victim. Students talked about what it means to be a "bystander" and what you can do in a situation where you see someone being picked on. In the students' written reflections about the video they wrote lessons they learned about sticking up for one another and being "brave enough to speak up". One child wrote "I felt bad for the [victim] because I have been a bully too" and I could see that this was reaching some of the kids. They were making connections to things they have felt and situations they have been in.
Day 1: I cleared the board and wrote "Mean" in huge black letters.
Students started piling in for the day and noticed this right away. Students asked each other why it was written on the board and what does it mean. Some joked around with each other and called each other "mean". A few hours later I began the lesson. I started with having students read the word to themselves and write down what that word means to them. Students wrote down ideas about bullies, physical harm, not being nice, hurting others feelings, and not including others. I had students draw a line under their ideas and we watched "Anti Bullying PSA: The Price of Silence". Looking out at the fifth graders faces, I could see most of them looked worried and anxious, and the few smirks I saw at the beginning began to fade. Students reflected after the video identifying the different roles that were played. They said they felt their stomachs tighten while watching it and they were scared for the victim. Students talked about what it means to be a "bystander" and what you can do in a situation where you see someone being picked on. In the students' written reflections about the video they wrote lessons they learned about sticking up for one another and being "brave enough to speak up". One child wrote "I felt bad for the [victim] because I have been a bully too" and I could see that this was reaching some of the kids. They were making connections to things they have felt and situations they have been in.