The Effects of Bullying

As a professional, I have had many opportunities to talk to students, colleagues and parents about the topic of bullying.  A fellow teacher and I implemented and spearheaded the program Bullyproofing your School in our elementary school and did numerous presentations to other schools and other school divisions.  It has always been a topic that has been of concern and interest to me.

I saw this activity posted on a friend’s Facebook page and thought I’d share it.  I do think it demonstrates with simplicity the effects that bullying can have.

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.

I don’t know who to attribute the original activity to, so if you know, please feel free to let me know by leaving a comment.

CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngmmemuda/

At the risk of offending some Twitterites

CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelrusswurm/

I was recently “followed” by someone whose description said that he was a writer and an educator and a parent.  This is interesting to me, so I followed him back.  Instantly, I get a direct message from him saying, “Glad to meet you! Will you like me on Facebook, too?” with the link to his FB page.   It rubbed me the wrong way, kind of like meeting someone for the first time and have them say, “Glad to meet you! Can I borrow $20?”

So, he is clearly using a IFTTT – type application that automatically sends a DM when someone follows him, and that doesn’t bother me.  But it seemed awfully forward to send me a request to “Like” him anywhere when I haven’t even had a chance to read anything about him or by him to decide that I’ll continue to find him interesting enough to follow!

So, please, people.  If you want to publicize your FB page, blog, or whatever, that’s awesome.  I’m all over that and should do a better job of it myself.  But give me time to get to know you or your tweets or at least the time to check out your Twitter profile to look for links to your other ‘stuff.’

Maybe this makes me a snob.  I prefer ‘selective.’  I’m not about the quantity of people who I follow, it’s the quality.  And until I spend more time learning how to filter/group my twitter-feed, I will continue to be selective.  Tell me something I will learn from or laugh about or share with others.  I will try to do the same.