Another anti-bullying assembly? Are kids raising their eyebrows? After these assemblies, does bullying seem to increase?
Another anti-bullying assembly?
Have you heard the above statements about anti-bullying assemblies? Are you one of the people who believes they have no value?
Actually, they can have incredible value if done right. They must present the information in the right way. Not a good idea to lecture students or have Continue reading
Anti-bullying multi-media school assemblies are a way to create a buzz in your school about bullying prevention. Children want to go to school and feel safe. They want to believe they are cared about by the school and that teachers and principals will help them out if they need support. Through a school assembly, a strong message can be conveyed to children that school safety is a top priority.
Many children have fear that they will be picked on or bullied. The result is that students can be tense and worried during class and not learn as well as could be expected. Children must be relaxed and happy to perform at their optimum.
In order for children to feel safe and protected from bullying, teachers can play a major role.
S.A.F.E. is my acronym for the day.
4 Points for teachers:
S ee what’s going on – Keep an eye on the Continue reading
Respect is a topic that comes up in schools daily. The need for respect is always growing, and it helps to reduce the amount of bullying in schools as well as other benefits for the students, teachers, and parents. Here are three simple tips to increase the level of respect in your school:
1) Treat People Right
Students should always be respectful to each other and their belongings. This should continuously be emphasized by the teachers. Respect should be shown even when others are not around to witness. Students who only act appropriately when a teacher or other authoritative figure is around are missing the point of respect. It should be used at all times, and does not matter if it will ever be noticed or not. The fact that you are being respectful will come out, and people will see that in you.
2) Choose Positive Thoughts
Respect relates to your innermost thoughts. Everyone can control their own thoughts, and therefore should always think of positive things. Students and teachers can have trouble doing this at all times, and should be practiced frequently. This means that one should clear their mind of any biases, prejudices, or past events that may put them in a sour mood. You should also stop thinking or saying profanities, put-downs, and rumors. Every person, student, or teacher should be treated as an equal, and your actions start with your thoughts. If you think of positive things about people, it will help you to show respect.
3) Forgive and Forget
One of the most important things to increase respect for people is to forgive what they have done to you if they have done anything bad. This may take time and a lot of effort, but it will help you to feel better and act with more respect. Restoring relationships is important for both children and adults. Talk with the people who are to blame, and tell them that you forgive them. Listen to what they say, and try to understand how and why things went badly. Rekindling old friendships can brighten your day, and grow your respect in people.
A major misconception about respect is that only children need to work on it. This is false because it is up to everyone to make respect grow. Working with these three tips about respect in your school will help to make a safer, healthier, respectful school.
As an anti-bullying week event we visited Sir Wilfrid Laurier public school in Hamilton on November 19, 2012 to present a parent/child presentation called ‘Stand up – Keep Your Kids’.
Dayna Liddle, Parent Council Rep Sir Wilfrid Laurier PS
We had a great audience of receptive parents and children who were eager to learn more about bullying prevention. A group of enthusiastic children arrived early to practice role-plays, which they did with sincere conviction. Parent Council representative, Dayna Liddle, was one of the parents in charge of arranging and overseeing the event. Dayna is obviously adamant about bullying prevention.
We talked about a number of concepts which parents can use to help safeguard their children at home, school, and in their communities. Here is an overview of three strategies we discussed.
Confidence:
The energy a human being exudes often comes across as being positive or negative. It is important to ensure that our children are sending positive vibrations to the world, as in my opinion, this positive energy will also attract positive energy. As parents, it is important to encourage our children to walk with confidence and show confidence in the way they carry themselves. If we are constantly criticizing our children or finding fault with the way they do things, they will develop a low self-esteem that will begin to be apparent wherever they go. Instead, it is important to lift up our children, encourage them, look for the positive, and help them to understand that they are valued individuals who can make a decided difference with their friends or in their community. I strongly believe children who carry themselves in a positive manner, will be targeted less often in bullying situations.
As a parent myself, I understand that it is my job to direct my son if he makes a mistake or does not follow directions. I know I need to be firm and definite about my expectations, however, it is vital that I also help to build up his self-esteem on a continuous basis.
Be Aware of your Child’s Online activity:
When police officers do presentations about cyber bullying, one of the things they talk about is making sure that the computer is in a central place in your home. I also emphasize this very same idea. The computer should not be located at the back of your family room, the corner of your basement or in your child’s bedroom if it is connected to the Internet. Make sure the computer is in a central place like the kitchen or family room where everyone goes. As an adult we are all responsible for making sure we know exactly what our children are doing online. This includes games, research, online chatting, and social media websites such as Facebook or twitter.
Be aware of what your children are doing on-line
Cell phones, video, and YouTube:
Many parents are concerned about their child’s safety, and rightly so. As an effort to keep our children safe many of us provide our children with cell phones. However cell phones usually have many capabilities including cameras and video cameras and GPS. These functions while being very useful can also complicate life and provide interesting tools for would be cyber bullies. If a fight breaks out at your child’s school, someone is likely to pull out a cell phone and start videotaping the event. We all know that it is popular to upload these kinds of videos to YouTube or similar sites. Videos such as this often get a high number of hits and it can be a real perk for a student who is trying to get attention. Also what many parents don’t realize is that YouTube will pay users who get a large number of hits on their site. This can also be incentive to upload videos such as I have described.
As a presenter and anti-bullying advocate, I appreciate the fact that this anti-bullying event was made possible by an Ontario government PRO grant. Thanks to everyone who helped organize and support this event at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Public School in Hamilton.
Bruce Langford, anti-bullying advocate and presenter www.standupnow.ca
I have a story to share with you about just a small number of students who really made a difference in their school.
We had visited the school last year and presented our ‘Stand Up For Respect’ assemblies to all the students. Apparently, some really got the message:
After seeing what they referred to as ‘too much meanness and too much bullying’, five students decided to set up a ‘Stand Up For Respect’ club.
At first, only about a dozen students came to the weekly meetings, but then word started to spread that some cool stuff was happening at the meetings and those students were starting to get noticed. They were speaking up and setting examples that made some positive impact.
After two months, between thirty and forty students were attending the meetings.
They spent their time making posters at some meetings. (The principal let them put the posters up around the school.)
Then they decided to record some commercials that could play on the school announcements.
One student suggested they work on a design for t-shirts, so they starting coming up with different designs. They thought it would make sense to get more people involved, so they put their t-shirt ideas up in the front hall of the school and let everybody vote on their favourite. Then there would be a draw, and one of the voters would win a ‘Stand Up For Respect’ t-shirt.
One week the students were able to get permission to have their meeting in the school computer lab, and they did research on-line. They found videos about showing respect and they decided to ask if they could show some at a school assembly. They had other ideas for the assembly as well. They thought it would be cool to do a skit about stopping bullying by being respectful and standing up against bullying.
They knew that a lot of kids in their school liked music, so they decided to make up some songs about respect.
More and more ideas came together and they thought they could do the assembly for students and maybe do another one at night for parents and kids.
The ‘Stand Up For Respect’ meetings had to start happening in the gym, because more than 130 students were coming on a regular basis, along with seven or eight teachers who were helping out.
They started a contest which each class could participate in called Respect Elect (ric).
Classes could think of a way to decorate their door on the topic of respect, but they had to use bright electric colours. Then the ‘Stand Up For Respect’ club would ‘elect’ the door they thought had the most impact. A picture was taken of every door and the pictures were put on the school website. The winning class got a pizza party. (The local pizza restaurant donated the pizza!)
Parents phoned the school and talked about how impressed they were that the school was being so active to encourage respect.
Just a little story about one school community that really got on board to make some great changes.
Bruce Langford is an anti-bullying advocate who presents bullying prevention assemblies and keynote addresses.
Bullying was the topic. Toronto, Sarnia, Kingston, Collingwood, Kitchener, London and Cambridge talk radio are no match to the Lorne Brooker Show in Belleville today. Can you believe it? A beautiful white swan graceful swam by as we proceeded to broadcast the Lorne Brooker Show live, on the air in Belleville. Listeners from all over Belleville, Trenton, Hastings, Quinte and Prince Edward Counties were tuned in. We talked about bullying as it was in the past. We talked about cyber-bullying and the bystander. We talked about bullying attitudes. The phone lines lit up and our callers told interesting
stories about how bullying had touched their lives. Lorne Brooker made thoughtful comments and confidently steered the conversation in an appropriate direction. Callers shared their views about how money should be spent to help reduce bullying in the Belleville-Quinte area. We talked about bullying in the Hastings Prince Edward schools and how a 10-year old girl named Mary had written a letter about her own bullying experiences that touched a nerve with so many in the community. Her mother helped create a brand new organization called Parents Against Childhood Bullying – PACB. The scenery was so beautiful from the fourth floor studio window, yet the subject was disconcerting at times. Solutions to society’s bullying problems are not easily found, but I certainly agree that one of the steps involves community dialogue.
Talk radio is alive and well in Belleville Ontario Canada!
Bruce Langford was in Belleville as a keynote speaker at The Hastings and Prince Edward Human Services and Justice Committee Conference 2012 along with speaker Dr. Bruce Ballon, Head A.C.E.S. for Problem Gambling. Dr. Bruce Ballon was speaking on the topic of Internet Addiction and Mr. Bruce Langford was speaking on the theme of ‘Stand Up Against Bullying’.
Bruce Langford is an international speaker and presenter on the topic of bullying and cyberbullying www.standupagainstbullying.com
A 10-year old girl in Belleville Ontario is taking a stand against bullying at her school. She says verbal and physical attacks toward her have been ongoing and she has had enough. She wrote a letter explaining details about the bullying she has been experiencing. She says she spends recess in the kindergarten room because nobody will play with her, and explains that she feels alienated and dejected. Her mother believes that the school staff is not protecting her daughter.
These are certainly serious allegations. Although I don’t know all the details surrounding the situation, I have a few suggestions to hopefully calm the waters.
1. I encourage the girl’s parents to set up a meeting with the teacher. Have a list of concerns to address and suggested outcomes. Take notes. Insist on a specific plan of action.
2. After 5 days, re-evaluate the situation. Has the bullying stopped? Has the situation improved? If not, set up a meeting with the principal and make a written plan. Set a date for a follow-up meeting to talk about whether or not things have improved. No child should feel unsafe at school.
3. Ask to see the bullying prevention action plan set out by the school. Ask what initiatives have been put into place to encourage respect and reduce bullying. Insist that you are looking out for the well-being of your child.
Do not give up. Continue to connect with the teacher or administrators to carry out the plan of action. If the plan of action is not working, insist on an alternative. Be aware of the Hasting and Prince Edward District School Board’s commitment to providing caring, safe, respectful and inclusive learning environments for all students. Do your best to remain calm and professional, yet strong with your assertions that your child be provided with the caring, safe and respectful environment referred to by the school board.
I will be most interested in the outcome of this situation and am optimistic it will come to a positive conclusion for all involved.
Bruce Langford provides bullying prevention programs for schools. www.brucelangford.ca
Virgin Islands Sunset
Here is a bullying acronym – Ways to turn bullying around:
Beautiful person that has a
Unique personality and can be a
Loyal friend also
Loving & caring so
Youth stand up for your rights and
Individuals take a stand
Never give up on yourself and
Grow your confidence.
Never give up – keep on being strong.
Stand Up Against Bullying!
This acronym was created by students at the United States Virgin Islands Youth Summit 2012 under the leadership of Bruce Langford www.brucelangford.ca
A student report:
Today we went to the U.S. Virgin Islands Youth Summet at SugarBay Resort and Spa. There were about 300 5th and 6th graders. We are all from the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Education Schools.
We watched BennyDL go live on ATFM radio broadcasting directly from SugarBay Resort. He talked to callers, sang songs and talked about bullying prevention. BennyDL is a DJ but his real name is Bruce Langford.
Later we watched videos & talked about the issues related to bullying. We got into groups with students from other schools. Some of us made up poems and songs about bullying and what to do. Some of us made up role-plays and skits about bullying. Some groups presented to everyone.
We put our ideas together into one pledge we believed in. The pledge we came up with is simple:
Our Stop Bullying Pledge
I pledge to stop bullying and not be a bystander.
I will lend a helping hand to others to help keep our communities safe.
Students from 7th to 12th grade also met and came up with the following vow:
The U.S. Virgin Islands Anti-bullying Vow
We solemnly vow to abolish bullying!
We hereby declare we will use our courage and strength
to not be a bystander,
but instead be a leader, take action and to take a stand.School Speaker
Bruce Langford is an international presenter and anti-bullying advocate www.brucelangford.ca
Use determination and courage to stamp out bullying. Confidence and willpower can be strong forces when dealing with cruelty and the students here in the U.S. Virgin Islands know how to use their confidence to their advantage. It is important to be strong and stand up against meanness. Students must be willing to lead by example and show others they won’t put up with bullying. It is imperative for teachers to be on-board and to be willing to take a stand against bullying as well. We can all make a difference by using our inner strength and self-confidence to our advantage. Always keep your safety in the forefront of your mind. Your safety should be your first concern.
The students at Prophecy Academy in the United States Virgin Islands understand that their level of confidence can have a direct impact on the amount of bullying that takes place. We must all be strong and willing to help each other in our universal community. Just watch the video below, and you will see strong minded, confident youth who believe in themselves and are empowered by God to make a difference.
Just remember; Stand Up Against Bullying and take a stand!
School workshops, seminars and keynote talks by Bruce Langford, the Stand Up Against Bullying Guy www.standupagainstbullying.com