Today was the day....

I got up this morning and put on a fall appropriate outfit—yes, fall not Fall.  I chose an outfit that would survive an on stage fall.  Today was the day I was going to do the hip-hop dance at the bullying assembly that I mentioned in an earlier post.  I reported to rehearsal on time—didn’t always keep time with my steps but learned the moves and made it through the performance.  Luckily there was another teacher, about 15 school kids, and the group presenting dancing on stage—I could blend in a bit. 

The assembly was really good.  The performers were all middle school and high school aged kids.  They talked about local incidents as well as national.  They sang, they danced, and they acted out some scenarios.  They related to the students and got the message across.   Their message for the kids was about stopping bullying and making a difference.  They also talked about how important it is to have trusted adults who work with kids like teachers, principals, coaches, and youth services librarians and the importance of reporting for both kids and adults. 

I am planning a lesson to continue the discussion and I am sure there will be more lessons to follow.  I might use part of Flowers for Algernon (there is an excerpt in our Literature books) and talk about how Charlie was treated to reinforce the message.  

Cyberbullying

I had been reading Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online by Anastasia Goodstein when I was sent an e-mail about a seminar that was going to be given by a police officer on cyberbullying.  I had been to a seminar given by this same officer a couple of years ago and had decided that I wasn’t going to go. 

After reading the chapter on cyberbullying in the book, I decided that I would go to hear what he had to say.  Things are different now then they were just a couple of years ago and it seems that teens and tweens have a lot more ways to access the digital world now then they did then.  He talked about how kids were using tweets and posting pictures to photo sharing sites in addition to the other social networking sites that were popular with them a couple of years ago. 

Both the book and the police officer gave examples of real world situations—some were about empowerment and some were very sad. 

The officer said that cyberbullying was not just a juvenile problem but also a community problem.   He talked about monitoring mobile devices, computers, and connected gaming consoles.  Since libraries are part of the community and often offer these devises for check out or use in the library, I looked at a few public library internet/computer use policies and found them to be similar library to library. 

I did an article search and found a couple of interesting articles in the Young Adult Library Services Journal.  “Stick, Stones, and Words Can Hurt You:  Antibullying Resources” by Madelene Barand offers a list of books, fiction and non-fiction, for teens and adults as well as a list of online resources.  The officer talked about using stories such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as an example of bullying, a story well known to all kids.  “Cyberbullying and Teens What YA Librarians Can Do to Help” offers information about who the bullies are, who their victims and what YA librarians can do to help.  There is also a list of resources and information about reporting cyberbullying. 

I’m interested in it, I am sad about it, and soon I will be dancing about it.  Some of the schools in the area are bringing in a group to have an assembly for middle schoolers about bullying and cyberbullying.  My principal asked if I would be willing to be in one of the skits, a hip-hop style dance, and I agreed.  I apparently have a 75-minute rehearsal to attend that morning—I am part of the community.   We’ll see how it goes.  

Agosto, D. E., Forte, A., & Magee, R. (2012). Cyberbullying and Teens What YA Librarians Can Do to Help. Young Adult Library Services, 10(2), 38-43.

Barnard, M. (2009). Sticks, Stones, and Words Can Hurt You: Antibullying Resources. Young Adult Library Services, 8(1), 33-39.

Goodstein, Anastasia. (2007) Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online. New York, NY: Saint Martin's Griffin.