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/

Communities

In the past couple of days I have talked about comments made by early childhood teachers and also from the families of the children in these early childhood classrooms. Let’s take a step back and look at the communities where these early childhood classrooms are located. The people living in the communities pay taxes that go to these schools and classrooms. With their money going into the school they sometimes get concerned with what their money is doing. Here are four comments that community members have made:

   1.       “I don’t want my tax money going to suppose preschool programs in the schools. Parents should take care of their own children.”

                                Me: Preschool is very beneficial for children. Schools are now teachings at a faster pace and children who have not attended a preschool can sometimes be behind the rest of their class. In Kindergarten they are now being taught to read. This means that children coming into Kindergarten need to know and recognize all the letters in the alphabet.

      2.        “Good parents don’t put their kids in child care. I will never do that to my children.”

                                Me: Most families have to work during the day and they do not have someone to take care of their children. Working in a child care center I see how much the children really learn there. I have watched children who could barely write letters able to write their name and other simple words easily.  The children also learn how to work in groups and at the center they make friends.

   3.       “Families don’t care about children like they used to. They want the community to build parks and to provide recreation so they can send their kids out of the house and ignore them.”

                                Me: Community parks are not for parents to ignore their children.  They are a fun place where children go and play. By giving children fun things to do they are less likely to go around and cause trouble in their communities. These parks are also a great way to help reduce obesity in children.

     4.       “I stayed home with my children when they were young. It’s a mother’s responsibility to care for their young ones.

                                Me: A mother does care for her child even if she does not stay home with the child. If a child goes to a child care center the mother has been responsible and found caring people to care for her child while she has to go and work.

The communities where children live and go to school have a huge impact on the early childhood education that these children receive. If the communities support these early childhood classrooms they will prosper and become stronger. 

What followed you home today?

Friday May 31st was a very interesting day. At work I am usually in the baby room but they needed me in preschool that afternoon. When I went in the children were still napping. After their nap they have an afternoon snack and then a story. I found the book "An Octopus Followed Me Home" by Dan Yaccarino (which is a Troll book). The children loved the book and they all sat quietly paying very close attention.

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        When I read the book I did not let the children see the page before I read. Instead I would ask them what other animal they think the little girl has living in her house. This really works well for the preschoolers (ages 3-5) at the daycare I work at. 

After the story I was planning on splitting the class in half. While one group was coloring I would play an alphabet game with the other group. However after seeing how engaged the children were with the story I changed my mind. Instead I had the children move to different parts of the floor and gave each child a large piece of paper.

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        I am not sure why but coloring on the floor is so exciting at my center. If you want to really capture children's attention change things up a bit. Color on the floor or take your art supplies outside. =) 


 I then told them that I wanted to see what animal(s) followed them home. After I told them that I passed out some markers.

They loved it! Every child immediately starting drawing different animals on their paper. When the child was finished drawing I had each and every one come over to tell me what animal was following them home. I wrote this on their paper like:


A dog and a lion followed Miss Sara home today! =) 

We had so many different animals following the children home. There were snakes, elephants, jaguars, bunnies, zebras, dogs, octopus, lions and bears.


This lesson I did really just goes to show you that as a teacher you have to be ready to think on your feet. If you don't there is bound to be some chaos!