Monday, August 6, 2007

other videos

The videos under Digital citizenship are excellent. Think before you post is one of the best video's I've seen in a long time on what can truly happen and continue to happen long after you want it to.
The anti-bullying campaign was excellent also. Those number's are disturbing because it's things like this that we as teachers sometimes overlook or just plain miss. Along with everything else we have to be able to see bullying in the classroom and playground and effectively deal with it. There is no reason any child should feel not welcome or safe with in the boundaries of school and beyond.
My daughter was bullied when we moved to a south end school in the city. I thought we where moving her away from the problem purchasing a home in a nicer area, but we where introduced to a whole new style of bullying. Not only physical while she was at school, but cyber bullying while she was at home on media like MSN and websites built by the other kids. I did what I could but the principle felt he was in control over the situation and he was not. Anyway it's important that we listen to kids make sure that their environment(s) are all safe. These videos really show kids and teacher's that this should be a high priority.

5 comments:

DRS said...

So how would you have wished the problem was handled differently? I've seen this dealt with in a number of ways and it always proves to be a challenge.

Brian said...

I think teacher's need to be more aware in their classrooms to who is on the bottom of the totem pole and if they can't affect change then put it in the lap of administration. At this point most school board's have statements all over their website's and schools about their anti-bullying campaigns, but in this case they never really implemented anything strongly enough to change anything. Further more parents should be made aware of their children's dealings. If kids are using the family computer for destructive ways when their young it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what their going to be doing when they get older. And in no way should a child feel unsafe at school , but I think every parent would refuse to let their child be bullied in their homes or making them feel unsafe or unwanted at home. I don't know if this answers the question or creates more, but it's a touchy subject for me because it happened in my home. This may lead to me editing this tomorrow, but I still stand behind it even though it could be worded better.

Unknown said...

Hi Brian,
I agree totally with your comment that schools have the anti bullying in place but don't take strong enough measures. I speak with first hand experience. My daughter's school has a zero tolerance for bullying yet when someone taped a note to my daughter's desk (grade 3) that said you are a loser and stupid and we hate you, nothing was done. My daughter showed it to her teacher who never told me about it for starters, and then when my daughter started to cry at home one day, she finally told me about it. I approached her teacher who was not interested in looking into the matter. I then approached the principal with no luck either. I was very disappointed with the school because a zero tolerance should be zero and I was told "well no one was hitting her or punching her."
If this had been my classroom, I would have done more to find out first who wrote the note, and second to address the fact that leaving nasty notes on someone's desk is also a form of bullying. This was not done in this instance.

When the survey came around the school if the child feels safe in the school or every been bullied it was handed out in the class and the students were expected to fill it out in front of everyone. I find that unfair and not suitable. This survey should have gone home with the students so the parents could discuss this survey with their children and learn of any bullying that the child is doing or having done to them. This would have been a fantastic opportunity to get involved in your child's life with the school and the school failed to realize this. I did not even know my daugher had filled out this survey until two months after the fact. My daughter put down she was not feeling bullied at school because she was sitting beside the child that she felt left the note on her desk and was intimidated. So what good was that survey with inaccurate data. It was about as useful as the new generic report card...zero usefullness.

In my home I would have a family computer monitor facing out into the room and I would look at it when the children were on it. I would also check their history and if they delete the history they would not be using the computer.

It is very hard for children to tell us when they are being bullied. I know this because my daughter and I are very close and she was hesitant to tell me about it. It broke my heart to see her in tears and so upset and it really upset me that the teacher did not use this as a "teachable moment" in the class to address that bullying is not always physical.

DRS said...

One of the very difficult issues is the line between school and out of school activity. Technology is blurring this line even further. Having said that, it seems that the old "in loco parentis" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_loco_parentis
needs to be the standard in our schools. If teachers truly adopted this, they may handle things differently and yet speaking on behalf of teachers, sometimes they lack the resources (time and information) to properly deal with the issues.

In any case, it's a tough but critical issue we have to get a better handle on.

Alex said...

What a powerful collection of videos on cyber-bullying. Scary stuff- and I wonder if they would leave the right impression with kids.