Unveiling the Truth about Bullying

Reading through the Hip Deep book, I came across an essay titled "Showing My Faith on the Outside". The essay immediately caused me to recall the similar case my best friend experienced also in sixth grade.
Synopsis of "Showing My Faith on the Outside"

Sixth grade Pakistani Muslim girl decides to wear the Hijab. Her friends started to ignore her and she felt like the outcast in the class. During the lunch period she would hang out with kids from another class who were multi ethnic and accepted her for who she was. They would ask questions about the hijab and wish they believed in their faith as much. Continued to be an outcast in class her closest relationship was with Allah as she would pray during the lunch period in the principals office.

The girl and my friend both experienced episodes of bullying that they surely did not deserve. I feel that it is important as teachers to know how to handle bullying episodes and work on preventing it. I feel like it is essential and necessary to share with you helpful guidelines to deal with bullying in your classroom and to share with your school. 





THE DO's:

Stop the bullying immediately.
Stand between the bullied student and the bully(ies), blocking eye contact. Don't send any bystanders away. To avoid escalating the tension, wait until later to sort out the facts. Talk to the parties involved separately once they are calm.

Refer to school rules regarding bullying.
Speak in a matter-of-fact tone of voice to describe what you heard or saw. Let all students know bullying is always unacceptable.

Support the bullied child.
Do this in a way that allows him or her dignity and to feel safe from retaliation. Make a point to see the child later in private if he or she is upset. Increase supervision to assure bullying is not repeated.

Offer guidance to bystanders.
Let them know how they might appropriately intervene or get help next time. Tell them you noticed their inaction or that you're pleased with the way they tried to help.

Impose immediate consequences.
Wait until all parties have calmed down. Do not require that students apologize or make amends that may be insincere. The consequences should be logical and connected to the offense. A first step could be taking away social privileges i.e. recess or lunch in the cafeteria.

Notify colleagues and parents.
Let the bully know he or she is being watched.


Follow up and intervene as necessary.
Support the bullied child and the bully, enabling them to vent feelings and recognize their own behavior. The bully may need to learn new methods of using his or her power and influence in the classroom.


THE DON'Ts:

Do not confuse bullying with conflict. Bullying is a form of victimization, and addressing it as a "conflict" downplays the negative behavior and the seriousness of the effects. Educators should strive to send the message that "no one deserves to be bullied," and to let the bully know the behavior is wholly inappropriate.

Do not use peer mediation. It can be very upsetting for a child who has been bullied to face his or her tormentor in mediation. Giving both parties an equal voice can empower the bully and make the bullied student feel worse. In addition, there is no evidence that peer mediation is effective in stopping bullying.

Do not use group treatment for bullies. Some schools use therapeutic strategies such as anger management, skill-building, empathy-building and self-esteem building to reach the bully. In practice, group members can actually reinforce each others' bullying and antisocial behavior.

Adapted from "Misdirections in Bullying Prevention and Intervention," and other tip sheets by Stop Bullying Now!, a website dedicated to helping youth "take a stand" and "lend a hand."

Gender Equity in the Classroom

I came across an article that included great tips on the topic of gender equity in the classroom. I found the tips to be really helpful and universal, and could really be modified to use at any grade level.

"As teachers, it is important for us to understand the shifting pressures affecting this generation of
students if our efforts are to be relevant to them. Our attempts to promote standards of equality may
seem awkward to students for whom the gender roles of the past have new meaning, and are adopted
or rejected for different reasons than our own. Even the remedies at our disposal may seem as
patronizing to these students as the paternalism that we intended them to replace." (p.1)
"Strategies of inclusion for the contemporary classroom:

1.  Assume nothing about your students with regard to gender, treat them equally, but make an
effort to respect their differences.
2.  Observe the gender dynamics in your classroom, especially at the beginning of the class. Know
your students individually, their attitudes and the reasons for their silences and respond
accordingly:

• If they are quiet but engaged, an encouraging gesture may be all that is needed to include them. 
• If they are being intimidated or interrupted by others in the class, your protective intervention may be called for in a way that gives them strength.
• If they are alienated or hesitant by nature, find ways to show that you are especially interested in what they have to say.

3.  Create an invitation to speak by offering a range of encouraging responses. If there are reticent
women in the class, the sense that there is an invitation to speak without being put on the spot can
be a strong inducement to participate.
   To create openings for reticent women, you might try to:

• Ask students all to take turns at presenting material.
• Assign them to small groups or supportive pairs to solve a problem.
• Give students time to answer and be sure to indicate that you are paying as much attention to the hesitant ones as to others.
• Credit a quiet student by making her the expert of the moment.
• Refer back to the comment of a quiet woman to make it a pillar of discussion.
• Refer to a silent student's written work in an affirming way.
• Avoid interruptions. Your own impulse to complete your students' thoughts for them, or that of other students may discourage quiet students.
• Resist filling every uncomfortable pause with your own voice.

4.   Avoid the temptation to call only on the most talkative students. Appreciate aggressive women as
you would aggressive men, but be aware of the effects that each has on others and the group.
5.  Do not allow the same students to dominate every discussion. Break up gendered monopolies by
eliciting responses from others.
6. Encourage women who seem to be at a disadvantage by virtue of culture or training: who expect
to be interrupted, doubt their own authority or frame their comments as questions. But be ready to
credit intelligent observation and engaged listening among them as a distinctive kind of
participation.
7.  Resist the temptation to respond to inquiring tones of voice as if they were questions. Instead of
answering, try to identify and credit the comment within a question.
8.  Don't call on women to the exclusion of men. Students tend to resent a new favoritism as much
as the old.

Suggested Reading and Reference:
Tips for Teachers

Digi-teens

I came across an interesting article titled “Digi-tools: Hi-Tech for the Digital Generation” by Diane Carver. The article describes and reviews a course offered by the Bethel School District as part of the Career and technical  Education department to Ninth grade students. The course, conveniently titled “Digitools” provides enrolled students to interactively learn different subjects by “working”. The concept of the course is completely hands-on and the students’ success depends entirely on them and their efforts. From day one, students are considered employees of a business simulated in their classroom. The main object of the course is that students are requested to fulfill a number of tasks and are evaluated in their performance of doing so. So many other qualities important for students to learn are highlighted within the course such as competition, perseverance and pride. Within the class curriculum students learn far more than basic programming and computer skills but many of the tasks requested venture into the realms of business, marketing, advertising, communication and undoubtedly innovation.

I chose this article because I find learning while “working” to be a fascinating phenomenon and I endorse it 100%. This article presents us with a perfect and ideal example of what it means to teach progressively. Students of this day and time request that we assure them that they are prepared for the world outside the classroom walls and courses like Digitools will be a tangible way of doing so. In the Digitools classroom the student steers his own fate and chooses to fail or succeed depending on the level of commitment allotted and the prevalence of comprehension in all areas within the unit. Teachers, like Mrs. Aszklar manage to achieve and maintain progressive education within their classroom walls as she steers clear of teaching strategies such as rote memorization and allows for students to be inquisitive and for their curiosity and interest to build in the topics that appeal to them most. More importantly, the course focuses on building much needed connections between the concepts taught and life outside those walls, and as we know making connections is a progressive strategy of teaching as the teacher is not plainly teaching the subjects required but instead allowing students to reach higher level thinking skills such as synthesizing and inferring.

I am impressed at how the course is designed to cover different subjects and proves to be relevant to the curriculum. Mrs. Aszklar seconds that notion when she says “ My assignments and activities are designed around my students to make the classroom learning environment not only rigorous,but also extremely relevant. My students come to class excited to learn and are engaged for the entire period.” ( p.40) Activities such as writing a cover letter, and customizing a resume is sure to strengthen students’ language arts skills, participating and conducting job interviews works on their oral skills. Not to mention the ample web-based tools that they are required to use that help them become more creative and innovative. 

Marc Prensky, the author of “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” writes the blatant truth about why the educators of our time seem to have a great deal of trouble instructing the youth of this generation. He labels the youth to be N-gen (Net Generation) or D-gen (Digital Generation) because the technology of today is all they know and do. He finally coined the term Digital Natives and for the less in-tune teachers; Digital Immigrants. He argues, that unfortunately the gap between teachers and students today will not mend by trying to change the students because, we have to face the fact that technology is not going anywhere and it is booming and evolving by the hour some days. Consequently, it is important for the digital immigrants to instead reach out to them by providing them with learning tools that speak their language, and try to refrain from reaching back to their “accent”. He strongly suggests that instructors and organizations work on revamping their methodology and content to better serve the natives. He urges to steer clear of the “legacy”; otherwise known as the traditional content and keep up with the “future” more progressive content. Prensky goes on to say “we have to invent, but not necessarily from scratch. Adapting materials to the language of Digital Natives has already been done successfully. My own preference for teaching Digital Natives is to invent computer games to do the job, even for the most serious content. After all, it‟s an idiom with which most of them are totally familiar.” (p. 4) Computer games seem to be a viable solutions according to several sources as Diane Carver also agrees with him when she describes creating video games as one of the most successful means to comprehension in the Digitools course “where students use Scratch game programming to create games that can be viewed and played by their potential customers. Students may also create games for employee training within their simulated business. When students realize they can use their animations and games to create interactive content within their organization, they begin to realize how all these elements fit together from a business perspective.” (p.41) Therefore, we can see the importance of bringing the digital natives and immigrants to speak the same language and to conform to the difference and a course like Digitools helps students “bridge the gap between using technology

for fun and using technology for practical, real-world functions. Digitools is a great way to get students motivated about learning and a great foundation on which to build and promote technology-related CTE programs.” (p. 41)

In terms of applying a course like Digitools to your adolescent instructional setting, you should be sure to include plenty of hands-on, interactive and most importantly “realistic” activities that prepares students to deal with the world around them. Also, to use Prensky's terms, as teachers we should try really hard to learn the native language of the adolescents we are teaching in order to have meaningful classroom sessions. 


Suggested Readings and References:

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital native, digital immigrant. On the horizon, 9(5),

Carver, D. (2012). Digitools.

YouTube Power

The video begins with an image of an eye glancing over several webpages. The image caught my eye due to the speed of the images reflected, and a faint alarm rang in head regarding the time and speed at which we use the web and how reliant and trusting we are of it. This video encompasses the main problems faced by the students of today and is a sincere cry out to their teachers to listen to them and understand their needs and means to learning. We all know, and are learning everyday that technology use is the way to go. As teachers we are asked of our administrators to become more familiar with the gadgets available and work on integrating them into our classrooms, but unfortunately only a few have built up courage to cross to the “other side”; the progressive side.

What impressed me most is the silence factor throughout the video, I was touched by the students’ messages just by looking at their posture and facial expressions. I was able to sense the sincerity and genuine concern they hold for their future and academic life. The whiteboard was a great way to voice their opinions and their handwriting provided their individuality and uniqueness but yet they all had the same goal: Engage ME! The statistics they shared were the most troubling because they are an unfortunate reality. The following quote “Teach me to think, to create, to analyze, to evaluate, to apply, teach me to think.” is the essence of why we teach and what we pledged to instill in students. Today, teachers, need to embrace the digital age that surrounds us and help students learn by doing.

What intrigued me to share this video with you is the prelude to the video that states the vision for the K-12 students of today. The prelude states “ Students will use engaging technologies in collaborative, inquiry-based learning environments with teachers who are willing and able to use technology’s power to assist them in transforming knowledge and skills into products, solutions, and new information.”  That sentence alone should be the motto and philosophy of every school today because it reflects the reality that surrounds us. 
My two cents on this topic is I believe YouTube is a great vessel for interactive and educational videos such as the one critiqued here which could surely be integrated in classroom and would add volumes of wealth to students’ knowledge and overall experiences. This is a resource I would suggest using as a teacher to aid in delivering the vision and the mission for our students and for the team too; to ENGAGE!
Finally, YouTube can be a great venue for students to set up video diaries regarding any problems they may be facing and find a support system of students who are experiencing similar issues. 

Moral Decisions

I would like to begin this topic by recalling an incident that occurred in my 2nd grade classroom, when one of my students stole a “toy” tablet from his classmate and I happen to witness him snatch it from her backpack during recess. His actions got me so conflicted and I wasn’t confident in what to do next. I literally went to my desk and sorted the incident out, my decision was to first and foremost confront him and let him know what I saw. I wanted to see whether he would deny or admit to it, before searching his backpack. Luckily, he admitted to it and gave me his reasoning, which was simply “I really want one and my parents say I can’t have one.” I asked him to return the toy back before his classmate came back from recess and discussed why his actions were wrong and that stealing is not a solution. Next, as a consequence to his action I asked him to stay in from recess the next day and write a letter to his parents, explaining why he needed this toy by listing his reasons and persuade them to purchase one. Then, to write a letter to his classmate asking her,if she would consider setting up a play date where they can play together and take turns using the tablet. 

Taking decisions in a educational setting affects and reflects on all the parties involved, primarily on the students, parents, and administrators. Dolgin generalizes that most adolescents and adults tend to rely on heuristics also known as the rules of thumb, or general strategies and principals usually set by society (p.135) However, it really important that teachers model for their students how proper and effective decision making happens. Students need to be aware not to act on things off of a whim but instead to go through the process to make appropriate decisions. Dolgin defines good decision making to be “a complicated process involving information search and processing to understand available options, as well as problem solving to find novel, or creative solutions. (p.134)” Also, according to Ross (1981), good decision makers must master 5 essential skills (p.134):

1. identifying alternate courses of action
2. identifying appropriate criteria for considering alternatives
3. assessing alternatives by criteria
4. summarizing information about alternatives
5. evaluating the outcome of the decision making process

These were the skills used to take the best decision I could with my students’ incidents. These skills are necessary to be taught in our classroom as they lay a foundation for many of the thought processes that students go through on a daily basis. However, we should not forget that good decision making must also be paired with a mature identity. According to James Marcia, a mature identity can only be attained when one undergoes crises and makes commitments. He categorizes identities into 4 statuses: diffused, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achieved. We learn that our objective as teachers is to help students in achieving their identities by defining their crises and develop strategies to handle them and commit to the decisions they agree upon (p.158). In the essay “Showing my Faith on the Outside” I would confidently place the 6th grade girl under identity achieved as her decision to wear the hijab was not made haphazardly and was based on her beliefs and exercising her faith; this shows a great deal of maturity and independence as well as a sign of effective decision making. Finally, we as teachers should recognize the importance of including topics such as decision making and identity formation in our curriculums in order to keep our adolescents on the right track and help them evolve.  

Changes

It all began in sixth grade, puberty was kicking in left and right and I was changing day in and day out, unfortunately, my classmates (girls and boys, but mainly girls) found it “amusing” that I was a bit chubby in the stomach and my eyebrows almost connected and I was bullied daily for for three years. The bullying, caused a great deal of anguish on my part and led me to go for days on end eating only 3 apples a day, developing acute bulimia and pretending to be sick as to not participate in swimming lessons. It was depressing and overbearing but I would never speak of it to anyone. In reaction to the bullying, I transformed into a bully myself in two incidents; which I remember like it was yesterday; I created a song with hurtful lyrics and read it to the class in attempt to put down a classmate and I name called another classmate in the center of the school gym. I regretted  those actions momentarily and luckily my parents, principal, and counselor then formed an intervention when they became in light of the situation I was going through. 

According to Anna Freud (p.37) defense mechanisms are unrealistic strategies used by the ego to protect itself and to discharge tension. Which was probably why I resorted to the act of bullying. Moreover, in the Social Learning Theory, Albert Bandura “emphasizes that children learn through observing the behavior of others and by imitating this pattern - a process referred to as modelling.” (p.41) Having being obsessed about fitting in to the cool crowd, I came idolize them and their actions; one of which was bullying; which is also an explanation to why I chose to bully back, fight fire with fire. Unfortunately, one of the main reasons to why those students found it fine to harass me stems from the preconcieved notion and power struggle of the SES. I didn’t come from the wealthiest of families or the poorest but I was still not decked out in designer clothes, with my nails done and my eyebrows shaped, which shunned me as an outcast in relation to the rich and rude bullies. Dolgin finds that students with low SES with respect to the school “will find themselves more and more socially isolated as they proceed through the grades and, as a result, tend to seek friendships with out of school youths.” (p.59) The association with these youth has many drawbacks, primarily that they are obscure and dangerous as well as highly influential in taking the wrong decisions. In “Hip Deep”, the story of “ Hunger’s Diary” really resonated with me, particularly how her sickness physically affected her. The weakness, tiredness, and all around pain are now a thing of my past. Now I am happier than ever, on the road to healthy and holding the word moderation so close to heart. 

My advice to you is to work hard as a teacher to make meaningful relationships with your students so that they are comfortable in delving into sensitive topics with you. As teachers we should always be on the lookout for our students' developments whether physical, cognitive, social or emotional, and provide suggestions and helpful advice for them to cope with the adolescent changes they are faced with. The lesson to adopt from this piece is embedded in this quote:

“Lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at you.”

 -David Brinkley

Progress, don't Regress!

 Progressive Education  VS.   Traditional Education

If there is anything that adolescents thirst for it is a need for keeping up with trends. Teachers can quench that thirst by teaching progressively. As defined by Dolgin, progressive education urges schools to prepare students for life by teaching citizenship, home and family living, a vocation, physical health, gratifying use of leisure time, and effective personality growth.” (p.308) This form of education is really ideal for any teacher to adopt as it tackles reality and worldly concepts which are a major component of any student’s life. The atmosphere of the classroom in the progressive track is a place where “students are responsible for their own learning rather than that they are being held responsible for it.” (p.313)  Teachers can achieve progressive education within their classroom walls where they steer clear of teaching strategies such as rote memorization and allow for students to be inquisitive and for their curiosity and interest to build in the topics that appeal to them most. Also, more importantly teachers need to focus on building connections between the concepts taught and life outside those walls, making connections is a progressive strategy of teaching as the teacher is not plainly teaching the subjects required but instead allowing students to reach higher level thinking skills such as synthesizing and inferring. A progressive curriculum is one that offers plenty of tracks and options for students to feel comfortable choosing the curricula that best suits them and interests them. Adopting a progressive education in school would surely in my opinion decrease the drop out rates in districts as students will essentially be more enthusiastic about attending school daily and learning because they want to. Progressive education also lends a firm hand to the formation of an adolescent’s identity; in chapter 10, Dolgin confirms that adolescents have both a society and a culture and defines adolescent culture as “the sum of the ways that adolescents behave; it refers to the body of norms, values, attitudes, and practices shared by members of the adolescent society.” (p.242) A progressive education will take part in molding this culture through the topics they are subjected to at school. Topics such as friendships and dating are extremely important to tap into and include in school curriculums because teaching them would provide students with objective and non biased facts to learn from versus learning from parents whose over protection can teach them biased and subjective manners of dealing with such topics. Moreover, progressive education will instill a sense of self-efficacy in students as they learn vocational skills and begin to believe in themselves and their abilities to complete tasks. In “Hip Deep” we read of several stories where if students were in a progressive school, the events of the story may have well been avoided. In the essay, “Will the Tortoise Win the Race” the student was brought down by his prior teachers and was not encouraged to try his best. Progressive education calls for the inclusion of effective personality growth namely self esteem, in the student’s case it is great that he has been moved to a school that will help him in building self esteem and self efficacy in order to graduate and become an active and contributing member to society. 

My advice to you is to always keep up with the newest trends and techniques in teaching to ensure the students' engagement in classroom and more importantly to open up the floor for students to discuss their problem areas and issues that matter the most to them. 

Suggested Readings and References:

Dolgin, K. G. (2011). The adolescent: development, relationships, and culture. (13 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Young, A. L. (2006). Hip deep. Providence, RI: Next Generation Press.