October is best known around here for Halloween, parties, fun, dressing up, and sometimes for scary costumes and activities. Teachers, let's talk about something even scarier than the Halloween ghouls, the make believe flesh-eaters, walking dead, and all the other scary things that people choose as costumes for a merry, scary Halloween! October 7th is National Bullying Prevention Day, and teachers across our country will be including bully prevention lessons wherever they can within their curriculum. The lessons about standing up to bullies, walking away from bullies, and not being a bully yourself are important ones. They may be life changing, and may in some cases be life-saving.
Our community has been hit hard in the past several years by suicides of young people. In some cases those suicides were triggered by bullying. I know we're not alone in these statistics.
I have blogged about finding I Am Bullyproof Music before. I saw such life-changing moments in my own kids in my classroom when I started to just work this into our day that I started writing to Lessia, the composer and lyricist of these songs. To this day, I believe that it was fated from the beginning for us to meet and collaborate on units of teaching that will be game-changers in your classroom and life-changers for your students. It can be used as insiduously as the latest rap song or Taylor Swift composition creeps into the brains of your students, or it can be part of a very intentional unit plan.
Music has that effect on all of us. Kids are much better able to remember the lesson if a catchy tune was part of it!
It seems so simplistic, but it is so very true: Kids who are confident and strong inside can stand up to or easily dismiss bullies. Weak and insecure kids can easily become bullies themselves as they attempt to grab some measure of self-esteem, and can oh so easily fall prey to bullies all around us. Believe me, the scariest guys do not always bother with a costume or disguise. They look for weakness or insecurity and go after it.
October is the perfect month to sample just one unit from Bullyproof Rainbow. Positivity Rocks is specially priced just for the month of October. I really hope you'll give it a try! When you visit Bullyproof Rainbow, you'll also find videos to use for free starring kids from my classroom and our afterschool club (led by my friend Cindy and me, two retired teachers on a mission to build stronger kids!).
If you're planning to attend NCAEE in Charlotte, NC on October 18, please attend the session led by Lessia and me on how bullyproofing can easily be done right within the curriculum you've got to follow. We'd love to meet you!
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I hope this post will help you as you put it all together for October, and that you will check out some of the additional posts by this awesome group of teacher-bloggers, who will be linking up right here until October 11!
Great blog. So true about kids catching on when using tunes. Sounds like a great workshop that you'll be running.
ReplyDeleteI love using music in the classroom, too!! Thanks for the bullying awareness reminder!!
ReplyDeleteThis is such important teacher work, thanks for sharing you expertise and experience!
ReplyDeleteRetta, you know I think you're the bomb. I mean, really... the bomb. As usual, you have written a most excellent blog post. Thank you for including me in your teaching and in your magic. I look so forward with rocking it with you soon :-)!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice blog about bullyproofing your class. Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSo fabulous to hear that you and Leesia are teaming up. And kudos to you for starting the club! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteA great article on bullyproofing which is very helpful.
ReplyDeleteSuch an important topic! Thanks for sharing your ideas.
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