Monday, August 15, 2011

Bullies and Backpacks


The Lady of Shalott
John William Waterhouse, 1888
Five hundred years ago the word “bully” meant friend, family member, or sweetheart. Oh how the times have changed! Now, bullying has become a prevalent and sinister part of our children’s education. It no longer ends when they leave school at the end of the day but permeates their homes, slithering its way in via Facebook, Twitter, emails and texting; these attacks can leave children feeling adrift and alone.
Today I read a note from one of my friends who recently moved to another state. Both of her children were my storytelling students a few years ago, each equally amazing, smart, talented and kind in their own unique way. Of course a new home means a new school system and this should be an exciting time filled with new adventures and friends so it was upsetting to read that her youngest is experiencing problems with his new classmates.  I pray they will recognize what a great and supportive friend he will be if only they will extend a welcoming hand.

I have put together a number of resources below. I hope you will pass them on to your children’s teachers and perhaps read them as well. Hopefully you will never need them but information is power and it is important to know the signs if your child is being bullied at school.

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. " ~ Leo F. Buscaglia


Anti-Bias Lesson Plans and Resources for K-12 Educators: Words That Heal – Using Children’s Literature to Address Bullying - A good place to start if you are planning a program or lesson on anti-bullying. The site offers discussion guides, extension plans statistics and an annotated bibliography of children’s fiction. http://tinyurl.com/66kyjp

Children’s Literature to Address Bullying - A good place to start if you are planning a program or lesson on anti-bullying. The site offers discussion guides, extension plans statistics and an annotated bibliography of children’s fiction. http://tinyurl.com/66kyjp

COPS – Center for Problem-Oriented Policing by Rana Sampson – Bullying in Schools
http://www.popcenter.org/problems/PDFs/Bullying_in_Schools.pdf

Cyberbullying.org – From our friend in Canada, a useful website with related resources. http://www.cyberbullying.org/

Education Guardian – A number resources that specifically address bullying in the United Kingdom.  http://tinyurl.com/3okglg9

Education World - Many sites, activities, lessons plans and resources to use in the classroom and community to help eradicate bullying. http://tinyurl.com/26r2l48

International Bullying Prevention AssociationResearch, newsletter, conference information and more.  https://ibpaworld.org

Psychology Today: Back to School: Packing Your Own Emotional Backpack: Resources for your child (and you) - This is a very current article, from August 2017. In addition there are links to other resources, including information on laws in each state, LGBTQ resources and more.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-can-t-sit-us/201708/back-school-packing-your-emotional-backpack

Seeds of Peace
-
"A non-profit, non-political organization dedicated to preparing teenagers from areas of conflict with the leadership skills required to promote coexistence and peace. Their outreach program also includes a Conflict Resolution CD Rom which is used in both Israeli and Palestinian schools. They also publish The Olive Branch, an online magazine to further their work in the world.”  http://www.seedsofpeace.org/

Stop Bullying Now - This site is full of resources to help address the problem of bullying. There are specific areas for teachers, administration, communities, parents and other professionals. There are also games and webisodes for children to help them deal with the issue of bullying. Use this link to access the main page. http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/

Stop Bullying.govInformation for parents, teens, educators on intervention, monitoring and prevention. http://www.stopbullying.gov/

Unlocking the Classroom: The Storytelling Project’s Anti-racism Curriculum - “…developed at Barnard and in NYC schools and includes over 30 lessons for high school students that include arts-based storytelling activities to discuss racism.” http://tinyurl.com/25zwa8r


ACTIVITIES 

Activities that Connect Kids – Some wonderful ideas for the classroom to encourage cooperation and friendship.– These activities will help students learn about empathy and compassion.  Two sites:
http://tinyurl.com/43krpak


ARTICLE

New York Times – Pages and pages of articles about bullying in all of its forms. The sheer volume of articles speaks for itself! http://tinyurl.com/3n2k2o3

BOOKS

Storyteller Sue Black has compiled an amazing bibliography of “Books with themes of inclusion, friendship, self esteem, peer pressure, empathy, compassion, being brave, standing up, holding fast to dreams, being new, being different, and bully behavior: verbal, physical, social, cyber."  http://www.youandme-bullyfree.com/downloads/SuggestedReading.pdf

Empowering Children to Help Stop Bullying at School: A curriculum for grades three and up by Carol Wintle.
https://www.amazon.com/Empowering-Children-Help-Bullying-School/dp/1892056542

Once Upon A Time: Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying: Lessons from 99 Multicultural Folktales for grades K-8 by Elisa Pearmain.
https://www.amazon.com/Storytelling-Teach-Character-Prevent-Bullying/dp/1892056445

CRAFTS

Caring Chain to Stop Bullying
http://tinyurl.com/43rl2f5

DLTK-KIDS – Friendship crafts for ages 3 and up.


READER’S THEATER

Tolerance.org – Why Frogs and Snakes Never Play Together
http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/r&r_pourquoiplay.pdf


Karen Chace  2011 ©  Updated 2017
Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and weblinks may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links.  At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

This blog post was painstakingly researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my newsletter via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.

9 comments:

Carol Wintle said...

Please add Empowering Children to Help Stop Bullying at School: A curriculum for grades three and up by Carol Wintle to your list of books. It is available at www.carolwintle.com
Also, asking your child's school to put together a friendship group to help them as a new student, socially can be a powerful way to protect them from further harm.

Mary Grace said...

Thanks for reposting this, Karen! I'm sending your URL to a school I'll be visiting in early fall. (And maybe some others, too!)

Karen Chace said...

Wonderful; thanks Mary Grace.

Karen

Pete Vanderpool said...

As a Santa Claus for 21 years and a child advocate, I appreciate this compilation of data. Thanks for sharing.

Karen Chace said...

Hi Pete,

And I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. Happy to know the resources will be useful to you.

Karen

Kevin Cordi said...

Karen,
What a great resource! I am wondering if you can add our website which specifically addresses how we can use stories to address bullying behavior. With appreciation, let us talk soon,
Kevin
www.ourstoriescount.com

Jenni Cargill-Strong said...

Dear Karen,
Thanks again for your great resources! Can you also add Elisa Pearmain's book "Once Upon A Time: Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying:
Lessons from 99 Multicultural Folktales for grades K-8." available at her site: http://www.wisdomtales.com/publications.html I have found it a really invaluable and easy to use resource.

I will be recording an album of stories from Elisa Pearmaine's wonderful book "Once Upon a Time: Stories to Build Character and Prevent Bullying" with permission from Elisa. You can follow the album's progress or pre-buy here http://igg.me/at/storytree-new-cd/x/2242226

Jenni Cargill-Strong said...

Dear Karen,
Thanks again for your great resources! Can you also add Elisa Pearmain's book "Once Upon A Time: Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying:
Lessons from 99 Multicultural Folktales for grades K-8." available at her site: http://www.wisdomtales.com/publications.html I have found it a really invaluable and easy to use resource.

I will be recording an album of stories from Elisa Pearmaine's wonderful book "Once Upon a Time: Stories to Build Character and Prevent Bullying" with permission from Elisa. You can follow the album's progress or pre-buy here http://igg.me/at/storytree-new-cd/x/2242226

Jenni Cargill-Strong said...

Dear Karen,
Thanks again for your great resources! Can you also add Elisa Pearmain's book "Once Upon A Time: Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying:
Lessons from 99 Multicultural Folktales for grades K-8." available at her site: http://www.wisdomtales.com/publications.html I have found it a really invaluable and easy to use resource.

I will be recording an album of stories from Elisa Pearmaine's wonderful book "Once Upon a Time: Stories to Build Character and Prevent Bullying" with permission from Elisa. You can follow the album's progress or pre-buy here http://igg.me/at/storytree-new-cd/x/2242226