Don't Be a Bully!

Time has really flown this summer! With school already peaking its head around the corner teachers, parents and students are getting ready to head back to school. Some are excited to go back while others are dreading the first day.

Some of these children who are dreading the first day could be the victim of a bully.  Bullying has become a major problem in the schools! 77% of students admit to being the victim of a bully! More than 3/4 students!

Through some research I have found 9 different types of bullying here are the ones that I have seen the most:

• Cyber Bullying –

With technology becoming more and more popular this form of bullying has become more popular as well. Cyber bullying includes sending emails or tests that are mean or that threaten a person, spreading hurtful rumors, using social media(Facebook, Twitter, Etc) to post or send mean or threatening messages, and breaking into someone’s account.

• Verbal Bullying –

When someone says something mean to you or threatens you.

• School Bullying—

This type of bullying is any form of bullying that takes place on school property. In a school setting bullies will gang up on a victim and harass them throughout the day.

Around 1/3 of students 12-18 years old have reported being bullied according to National Center for Education.

That is an alarming number! This however does not include the students who did not report what was going on.

• Text Bullying –

This type of bullying is bullying that is done by sending threatening, mean and hurtful, messages on a cell phone.

Workplace Bullying –

This is when people are bullied in the work place. Workplace bullying can happen at any time in your life.

• Physical bullying –

Which includes: stealing from an individual, fighting, sexual harassment, and practical jokes.

There are lots of signs that a child has been physically bullied they include and are not limited to:

•  Having bruises and cuts frequently
•  Frequently saying they do not feel well before school
•  Becoming extra sad or depressed
•  Losing their personal belongings at school with no explanation

           

Let’s Get Personal

I personally was a victim of bullies. My 9^th grade was a living nightmare. Although I hated going to school I still went almost every day. I was called ugly in every way imaginable. As a 14 year old girl you can imagine how that would hurt my self-esteem. From that year until after high school I went on thinking that these bullies were right. Even thought I was only bullied for one year of school what they said stuck with me until I graduated. 4 years that is a long time for it to stick with a person.

Honestly most of my family will find out about my bullying from reading this blog. Why you might ask. Back then I didn't want to bother them with my little problem. I feared that if I told them they would contact the school or do something which would cause the bullying to become more frequent.

When I talk to some friends about it they have asked how I got through that year and it is honestly a mystery. I had a small group of friends that I mainly saw in school but unlike now I was very shy and intimidated by making new friends.

How can we help?   We can tell children to:

• Ignore the bully! This may be very hard to do (I know it sure was for me) but if they don’t make you angry by saying something they are less likely to continue. They only want to upset you and get you to react to them.

• Tell an adult or some type of authority figure! If you let someone know they can keep an eye out for the bullying behavior to try and correct it.

• Don’t lash back at the bully! If you start calling them names they will just feed into it more and continue to bully you.

• Remember you are not alone! When you are being bullied it starts to feel like you are alone and that everyone is picking on you. Not true! There is always someone that you can turn to. You might not see it right away but don’t give up! Find that person! It will make dealing with the bullies a lot easier!

Hmmm when does this all start?

I took a poll of 105 friends, coworkers and family (ages ranging from 18 - 72) asking when they believe bullying starts. More than half believes it begins in elementary school. Where do you stand is it in preschool, elementary or do you believe it starts at another time??

Bullying is a major problem! Children are taking their lives so they don't have to deal with the bullying anymore. We as teachers, professionals, parents, grandparents, friends, and families have to find ways to help these children! 

If you want to look up more statistics you can check out http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/

Let's Power Down!

Having no power for over 15 hours really gives someone a lot of time to think!

While in the dark without cable, internet, computer and cell phone I had an idea for a history lesson for children.

While teaching about the light bulb being invented you should have a historic week. During this week you would need to:

1. Turn off all lights

      This will help the students see just how big of an impact electricity and the light bulb has had on our country

2. No electronics in the classroom this week!

       This will allow the children to see how children learned before there was all this technology around. This might even allow them to appreciate what they have now.

=)

I cannot wait to do this for an entire week with my class! I would love to use candle light to teach during this week but I do not think the school would approve of it. I would try and talk to them and maybe the board to explain why. If not then I can find an alternative to the candles.

Looking for some help or a place to relax? Look no further!

While looking for some part time jobs in addition to my blog and the daycare I came across Care.com. 

This site is pretty awesome if you ask me! They have childcare jobs, tutoring jobs, senior sitting jobs, pet care jobs, home caring jobs, military family jobs and they list Spas and Salons in your area! 

I don't know what could be better for the parent on the go! 

Care providers like me =) can fill out our profile and a background check for the families to read over and select their match! 

OR 

You can log in and search what type of job you want in what area. 


One thing I really like about this site is they will email you with new jobs in your area which you can view in your email. This helps for those that have a little bit of time to look through and apply to these jobs. 

If you are looking for a part time babysitting job on the side, a babysitter for your family or even if you just want to find a good spa and hair salon Care.com is the place for you!

Don't Crash and Burn!

One  thing I have learned from working with children is you need to be prepared. When things do not go according to your plan you have to have some  backups!  

I have found that by having lots of small group activities you can keep the children interested if your first plan does not work out. 

Whatever can go wrong will. Keep this in mind while planning your lessons. For example if you plan for the art project to take 20 minutes and it only takes 5 how will you fill the other 15 minutes? 


By having extra activities for the children it will help fill in some of these gaps. 
Having these extra plans will also help if the children are having trouble with the lesson. The ones who are struggling can have some small group help while the others do another activity. 


Always be prepared to keep your class in order you do not want chaos. When in doubt or stuck remember pinterest.          

Shop Till You Drop!!

What do most girls love to do?? You guessed it SHOP! 

I don't know about you but I LOVE shopping! However I am a HUGE bargain shopper... especially when it comes to crafting supplies. 

When you are doing crafts with children or just for fun it can become costly quickly! 

The most helpful tip I can think of is shop wisely and plan ahead of time! Use coupons and shop during sales or clearances! (hopefully you can use them during these sales!!)

Last Saturday I decided to go to some estate sales with my Grandma (who I call Hammy). At one place I saw close to 20 shoe boxes on shelves. I could kind of see into these boxes and saw a couple of crafting items. So what did I do? 

I went through all 20 boxes! Yes I probably looked a bit mad while sorting through all of this but I did not want to miss one single good item!

Out of the 20 boxes I only got 8 (7 pictured below) and a box of craft sticks (around 1,000 craft sticks) for .....

$7.75 

I am so excited to start making projects with all of these awesome items! The lady that had these also had a couple started projects inside which I can not wait to learn about and try to finish. 

Just from this amazing buy I have project supplies and ideas that I could use for an entire unit about letters! I would say I got a pretty good deal! 

When on a budget for crafting supplies and other educational or organizational products look into yard and estate sales! Chances are you will find amazing brand new products that will bring you and your classroom or even just you and your children/grandchildren lots of fun and new projects!

Literacy Bag

For my Language, Literature and Literacy class I had to create a literacy bag that a child would take home with them. This bag would contain various activities the child could do with their family.

There are many different approaches to these literacy bags. They can match the current theme of the classroom or they can be completely different. This is a great way to help a child if they are struggling with a certain area. This would allow the child to receive a little extra help at home in a fun and interesting way.

A couple things to keep in mind when creating a literacy bag:


       1. Keep the activity fun! - if the child does not think the activity is fun they are less likely to want to do the activities.

       2. Keep it simple - the parents most likely worked all day. They do not want a complicated activity. If it's simple they are more likely to do the activity with their child. They will not spend an hour trying to understand the game. 

At the center where I work where I work we have school age children who come back after school and on several different occasions I have seen literacy bags being brought home. When the parent picks up the child that night they are so excited to go home and play or do whatever is in the bag. 

Having the kids excited to learn is key!