As you already know, bullying is one of the major problems at schools
around the world, and it can affect students of different ages. In our school
we are quite concerned with this issue, therefore we started an anti-bullying
prevention program in order to increase awareness and information about this.
The program consists of two informative and practical lessons where I explained
what bullying is, types of bullying and what to do in case we suffer it or we
know someone is being bullied. In the final part, students need to work in
groups and prepare a chart summarizing what they learned previously about
bullying. As far I started to work with grades 5th, 6th
and 7th. Students at this last grade ended the entire program,
contributing with posters and a speech during assembly time. In this speech,
student communicated publicly their commitment against bullying, informing and
warning other schoolmates about this curse on society.
In SEL subject, in October we talked about self esteem and different
ways people can increase other’s self esteem, for example giving compliments.
We did the activity of “bucket filling” with some grades. First, I gave a
bucket to each student. Then students had to write compliments and positive
messages to other classmates and put inside their buckets. At the end, students
had the chance to check the notes from others. The activity was quiet
successful and everyone enjoyed it. I hope they can transfer this experience into
other situations, not only at school, but also at home and other life scenarios.
We also started already talking about emotions, identifying comfortable
and uncomfortable feelings, and what physical signals in our bodies can give us
information about such feelings. We connected these discussions about emotions
with the recent Sport Day, where students also could practice what they learned
previously about self esteem and positive messages that we can say to
ourselves. In fact, the event was a great opportunity for them to experience
joy, excitement and proud.
Thanks again everybody for your support. Without the help of parents and
other teachers, my job as school counselor couldn’t get any fruitful result. I
hope we can keep this mutual cooperation in the following months.
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt