No Place for Hate at Our World, Our School

Last week I was in all of the 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms giving lessons on conflict-resolution, using Kelso's choices. I also ended the week with my group of No Place for Hate kids running a table at the Our World, Our School cultural event. This was a great opportunity for the No Place for Hate coalition to encourage kids to sign a pledge to live a hate-free life and receive a No Place for Hate pencil as a reminder of that pledge. Being accepting and knowledgeable about different cultures is a very important piece of living a hate-free life. The more we learn from each other, the more likely it is that we will respect each other and our differences. I am so glad that our school encourages this type of learning and am glad to have been able to be a part of it. Here are some pictures from the event:

 

 

 

 

 

I had such a good time there and I think everyone else did, too! It was so fun to get to watch all of the different cultural performances also. This week I will be in the 4th and 5th grade classrooms for guidance lessons on conflict-resolution. More to come on that at the end of the week. I will also be going into my fourth week of small group sessions with PK-5th grade. Each day of the week I hold about 2-3 small groups of kids from PK-5th grade during their lunches. Those same groups of kids will meet with me for six weeks total. We eat lunch together and play games, have discussions, or read stories related to our group topic. We cover feelings, families, friendships, social skills, managing our emotions, and much more. These are going great so far and the kids always look forward to coming. I get a lot of kids who aren't in small group begging for me to let them come have lunch with me and I wish I could take them all!! Unfortunately there is one of me and over 800 students, but I am glad I get to see all 800+ students in the classroom for lessons at least! 

I hope everyone has a great week!! 

Kelso's Choices and Cultural Heritage Day

This week I had the pleasure of visiting all Pre-K, Kinder, and First Grade classrooms. We read the story, Please Stop, I Don't Like That and discussed ways we can be respectfully assertive in letting someone know their behaviors toward us are bothersome. The kids had fun repeating this phrase with me throughout the story and even getting to practice using it with a partner.

We then talked about what happens when you do tell someone, "Please stop, I don't like that," and they still don't listen to you. I introduced Kelso's Choices this week: 

There are many choices students can make to solve all of their small problems and peer conflicts each day. If you try one choice on the wheel and it doesn't work, try another one. If you have tried two and it still isn't working, you can choose to try another, or go get help from an adult. We discussed how they should always try at least two choices, though, before seeking help from a teacher when they have a small problem. Of course, if they are having a BIG problem, which we have talked about in a previous lesson, they should seek help immediately. At the end of our lesson we got to watch this fun video about Kelso's Choices from Kelso himself: 

The kids LOVE it, but unfortunately they make me feel old when they have no clue that this is a remake of "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice! ;-) Next week I will be in 2nd and 3rd grade classes and we will also introduce Kelso's Choices.

We ended the week with Cultural Heritage Day today and had students and staff wear something that represented their ethnic background and culture. It's always fun to see the cultural diversity within our campus! I am a huge advocate of making sure our students and staff our culturally aware and sensitive, so I enjoyed this Student Council Spirit Day very much! Here are some pictures, including one of me showing off that I am half Mexican by wearing my "Kiss me I'm Mexican" shirt and wearing a Swedish wooden heart around my neck with a Swedish passage to show off my Swedish half!

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!!

Great Parenting Tool

One of my fellow counselor friends passed on a website with a very helpful tool for parents who need help or resources for dealing with a student with behavioral, emotional, and/or academic difficulties. This website is interactive and lets you answer specific questions about your child's needs or issues. Some of these issues include, attention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, organization/planning/time management, spoken language, listening comprehension, social skills, motor skills, and help with academic issues in reading, math, or writing. Check it out, it may be of good use to you! The link is below. Just click "read more" and follow the link.

Understood | For Learning and Attention Issues - Understood Help your child thrive. Chat with experts, connect with parents and get tips on parenting kids with reading, writing, math, organization, attention issues and more. Read more...

Stop Bullying: Speak Up and Red Ribbon Week

This week has been a lot of fun! We have celebrated Red Ribbon Week, Halloween, Ballet Folklorico and the choir performed, I started my new hip hop session, I started Small Groups, etc!! Super busy, but lots of fun! I also made it to all of the 4th and 5th grade classrooms to talk about bullying. We watched a great video, which was aired on Cartoon Network, called, "Stop Bullying: Speak Up". The kids learned a lot from this and it also helped spark a lot of good conversation on the topic.




Red Ribbon Week was full of fun!! Every day we were able to dress up! Here are some pictures from "Give Drugs a Scare with Crazy Hair Day" and "Put a Cap on Drugs Day":

  

 
 
 
 

We also celebrated 20 kids who earned a Red Ribbon Week Prize for showing empathy, which is our SEL Word of the Month, to someone this month. Here is a picture of our SEL Word of the Month wall and some of the kids who received the award. November's SEL Word of the Month is "Responsibility". Talk to your kids about how they can show responsibility at school and home.

Next week I will be in PK, Kinder, and 1st Grade to give guidance lessons on conflict-resolution. Look for more on that next week. Have a safe and happy Halloween!!! 

Red Ribbon Week, Unity Day, and Hip Hop

As I mentioned in my last post, Unity Day was this past Wednesday and to show that OHE "Unites Against Bullying," we all wore orange shirts. Here are a couple pictures of all the orange in the cafeteria. Ms. Ashorn's class even had every single student wearing orange. It was neat to see!

We continued learning about bullying all week in 2nd and 3rd grade. We also watched "Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Bullies" as shown in my previous post. Next week I will be in the 4th and 5th grade classes and we will watch some clips from stopbullying.gov that show different scenarios in which a student is being bullied. We will also discuss what types of bullying they are seeing in the clips and what a bystander and ally are. Cyber bullying is also something that is important to start talking about with all students. With our society becoming more and more technologically advanced, we have to be more careful about monitoring what our children are doing on the internet, phone, computer, laptop, tablet, etc. It is becoming more common to see children bullying each other through technology and is a quick and easy method for them to use. We definitely want to help put a stop to this. More to come on this lesson in my next post, but in the meantime feel free to check out stopbullying.gov for more information on bullying and cyber bullying.

Did you know that I also teach a hip hop dance class after school? Well, today my hip hop group was able to perform in front of the whole school at our assembly. We dance to Nico and Vinz', "Am I Wrong?" It is a very inspirational song and the kids did a FABULOUS job!!! I am so proud of them all. My second session with a new song and choreography start up next Tuesday. Contact me if you would like to sign up!

Next week is Red Ribbon Week where we will continue to promote an anti-bullying environment, but will also encourage children to make a pledge to live a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle. To spread awareness and make our pledges in a fun way, we will have themed dress-up days all week.

Here are our themes for the week.  Please allow your child to participate and take a stand against drugs!

MONDAY – TURN YOUR BACK ON DRUGS

                        Students wear their shirts backwards.

TUESDAY – GIVE DRUGS A SCARE

                        Students have crazy hair

WEDNESDAY – GIVE DRUGS THE BOOT

Students dress up like cowboys/cowgirls; can be bandanas, cowboy hats, plaid shirts, and/or boots *(bring tennis shoes to change into for P.E. if you wear cowboy boots)

THURSDAY – PUT A CAP ON DRUGS

                        Students can wear a cap or hat of their choice.

FRIDAY – GIVE DRUGS A SCARE WITH GOOD “CHARACTER”

Students can dress up as their favorite book character (no masks, face paint, weapons) *(bring tennis shoes to change into for P.E.)

Hope to see everyone dressed up! Have a fantastic weekend!!! 

Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Bullies

Today was a busy week, but I was able to get to all Pre-K, K, and 1st grade classrooms to talk to them about bullying. We watched a Howard B. Wigglebottom video from www.wedolisten.org called, "Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Bullies."

In this story, Howard is being bullied by the Snorton twins every single day of the week. They do things to him like taking his lunch, stealing his shoes, pulling his ears, saying mean things to him, and stealing his jacket. Howard keeps hearing a voice in his head throughout the story that says, "Be brave, be bold, a teacher must be told," but he is scared to tell because he is afraid things might get worse. After seeing the Snorton twins get bullied by their big sister and discovering why maybe the Snorton twins are bullying, he decides to be brave and bold and finally tell his teacher about what has been happening to him and the Snorton twins. The teacher tells the principal, who tells the Snorton twins' parents and Howards problems have been solved.

After the story we talked about how bullying is something that occurs repeatedly and is usually done when no one is watching. We also discussed what bullying isn't and that if it is something that only happens once or twice, it is probably just being mean, but not bullying. For example, if a student gets pushed in line and this isn't happening frequently, it is just being mean and a bad choice that was made, but it is not bullying. We talked about who they can go to if they are being bullied or see someone else being bullied: a teacher, a counselor, a principal, a bus driver, a nurse, or any adult that they trust. Here are a couple of helpful posters to serve as a reminder:






Next week I will be in the 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms and we will complete this same lesson. Also, Wednesday, October 22 is National Unity Day where we will "Unite to Take a Stand Against Bullying". To show our support for bullying awareness, the entire staff and student body will wear orange that day, so don't forget to have your child wear orange and wear orange yourself! For more information on Unity Day, you can go to: http://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/unity-day.asp
Have a great weekend!

October is "Bullying Awareness Month"

Did you know that October is "Bullying Awareness Month"? Many of us hear the word "bullying" thrown around a lot, but many people don't actually understand the true meaning of that word. Labeling a student as a "bully" is a serious allegation and is a term that should not be taken lightly. I often hear kids say that someone is "bullying" them when they actually mean that someone has teased them once, or someone hurt their feelings. It can be confusing, so here are two posters that I found on a fellow blogger, Ms. Sepp's, blog that are very helpful in deciphering the true meaning of bullying.

Hopefully these two charts help to clarify things a bit. We take bullying allegations very seriously at Oak Hill and I want to be sure students understand how to identify whether it is bullying or not. I will be giving lessons all month, to all grade levels about what bullying is and what it isn't, how to report it, and what to do when you are being bullied. We will also talk about being sure it is bullying before making the serious accusation. If it is teasing or someone being mean to them, rather than bullying, we still want the situation to be handled, but without using the word "bullying". For these types of smaller, peer conflicts, I work with students all year on how to handle conflict on their own, or when necessary with the help of an adult.

Next week I will be in Pre-K, Kinder, and First Grades to watch a "Howard B. Wigglebottom" on bullying. It includes a fun, interactive song that really helps the kids remember what to do if they are being bullied and how to report it. The kids loved it last year and sang it all year long! More on this lesson next week. 

A great website to go to for a lot of great information on bullying and how you can help prevent your child from either being a bully, or being bullied is: http://www.stopbullying.gov/

I also just received information on a great new, interactive app you can use regarding bullying. It includes conversation starters, tips, warning signs, reminders, etc. You can download this app in the app store for your iPhone or through Google Play. Here is a video and the link for more information on this great tool: 

http://store.samhsa.gov/apps/bullying/WT.mc_id=EB_20141001_KNOWBULLYINGAPP

If you ever have a question about bullying or would like some more resources, feel free to ask! Hopefully together we can help put an end to bullying!