Lee Bullying Survey

Fourth grade has been exploring the different roles associated with bullying and how we can help when we see if occurring.  In order to gain a perspective of the atmosphere at Lee, I had students complete the following bullying survey:

Bullying Survey

After completing the survey, we looked at the summary of results to brainstorm how we can prevent bullying at our school.  59 fourth grade students participated in the survey.

Bullying Games to Reinforce Concepts:

Beat the Bully
School Daze Crazy Maze
Rumor Control
The Bully Roundup

No Name-Calling Week

During the week of January 20-24 Lee Elementary, along with other schools nationwide, are celebrating No Name-Calling Week.  Although it is never kind to call someone a name, this week re-focuses our attention to the importance of treating others the way we'd like to be treated.

The first question I usually get from students is, "What do I call you if I can't call you your name?"  I explain that this week is about making sure we call each other names that we like.  For example, my name is Ms. Sepp, so calling Ms. Sepp is fine.  I also have a nickname that other students in the school call me, "Ms. Seppy."  Since this is a nickname that I like, it is okay to call me that.  The only way we know that someone likes to be called a nickname is if we ask them.  For instance, one class was studying the different states and saw that Mississippi is very similar to my name.  One student asked if they could call me "Mississippi" and I politely told them no, because I didn't like that nickname.  It's okay to tell your friends "no" if you do not like the name they have come up with.

I read My Name is Yoon written by Helen Recorvits to many of the classes.  This story is a great example of how diverse each of our names are while reinforcing the meaning each of our names has to us.  At the end of the story Yoon finally feels like herself and has grown to like her new home, so she is ready to use her Korean name.

We then explored what the history of our name is.  I looked up students names and gave them a printout of what languages use their name and the meaning of it.  Some were easy and popped up right away, others took a lot of digging...like my first name "Jaclyn."  I typed students name in a fun bubble font for them to decorate.  In addition to the language and meaning of their name, they also added nicknames they liked being called and why their parents named them that to their paper.

GT Elementary Student Games Day & Parent Networking Event

Austin Independent School District

Advanced Academic Services Presents

GT Elementary Student Game Day & Parent Networking Event

Saturday, February 8, 2014 
9:00 – 11:00 a.m. 
Baker Center Cafeteria 
3908 Avenue B 
Austin, TX 78751 

Kids, bring your favorite board game or card game and join other GT students in having some fun! 

Parents, spend time networking with other GT parents. If you can, bring your laptop or tablet so you can explore Austin ISD GT resources.

Bully B.E.A.N.S. are Making a Comeback

In second grade we read Bully Beans by Julia Cook.  This is a favorite of my students because of it's strong message about standing up for yourself...and obviously getting to have jelly beans as a treat!  Julia Cook does an amazing job explaining that we all have the courage inside us.  With encouragement from others, we are able to stand up for what is right and communicate how we want to be treated.

We created upstander dice to give us choices of how to help when we see bullying occur.  Each side illustrated a different idea of how to handle yourself when someone isn't treating you kindly: ask them to stop, be an upstander, invite them to play, ignore them, give an "I Message," & tell an adult.

Tough: The Bully

Continuing with the series of Erin Frankel's books, we read Tough.  This story is told from the aggressor's perspective.  Students learned the reasoning behind Sam's mean behavior toward others at school.  Students in fourth grade created posters to hang around the school to teach other students what they can do if they witness bullying: