Final Post

Write one last blog post answering the following questions: 

• Which in class writing was your favorite? Why?
• Which in class writing was your least favorite? Why?
• Review all your writing chronologically (earliest to latest). List three interesting observations or changes in your writing. Which are the most profound (obvious and important)? Why?
• If you could change anything about your writing this semester what would it be? Why?
• What did you like best about this course?
• What did you like least about this course?
• What would you have done differently this semester if you could have a do-over?
• What did learn about yourself as a student, a thinker, a writer this semester?
• What could I, Ms. A., have done differently to improve the course?
• You begin this course with an engagement and participation score of an A.  Attendance, participation in activities and group work help you to maintain this grade.  Evaluate yourself and assign yourself a grade for the in class portion of this course.  Don’t forget the reasoning behind your self assigned grade.

When you are finished, submit a direct link to your blog post.  You will find a link to submit your blog under the TurnItIn! button. This link will remain open until May 4, midnight.  

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• I think that my favorite writing was the pigeon possible, because I enjoyed writing from different view of people. Rather be from someone who was on the street witnessing or  writing in the view of the pigeon. Plus we got to watch a short movie on it.
• I think that my least favorite was the one where we had to come up with a slogan of are own. I completely could not think of anything to write and am just not good at come up with thing like that.
• After reviewing my writing that I've done in here. I notched one change, that was the writing progressed, I wrote more and more. I think I was getting more and more comfortable about my writing. Another change I notice was the use of my words. I would not use so much descriptive or as my learn the call them, juicy words, in stead I would use little to none bigger word due to the fear of not being able to spell them. And finally, I noticed that I actually liked writing those little workshops. With that, I gradually would put more thought & soul into the writings.
• If I could change one thing about my writing it would be to put in more effort into my writings. I'm not going to lie, I didn't like them very much at first because I just didn't like writing, but I warmed up to it. And ended up liking it.
• What I liked best about this course was that it was not like a regular English class, were you have to do an essay one after another. It got old really fast.
• The thing I liked the least was the I Believe essay. I didn't enough it very much because I could really think of anything. And I didn't quite understand it, which on my part is stupid because I could have asked the instructor what to do.
• What I would do differently if I got to do a do-over would be to attend class more than I did. And to finish all of my work instead of just doing some of it and forgetting about it.
• I learned that as a student that I need to attend my classes more to know what's going on, as a thinker, that I have require a little more time to gather idea's because I am not a heavy use of creative, and final as a writer I learned that I have a lot potently, I just need to use and apply it more. 
• I think that we could have done more writing because to me they are very engaging and I had a lot of fun with them.
• After evaluating myself with all my work I've done and the amount of time spent in class. I think my letter grade should be somewhere between B & C. Honestly probably a C because I may have done the class work, but I didn't finish all of it sometimes. But majority of the time I did, and did what was asked for us for those assignments. But I did miss a couple of days there in class and from the I Believe essay, I didn't get around to finishing it so I just never turned it in. That probably part of my reason, not turning it in. 

Extra Info On Bullying.

Stop Bullying on the Spot

When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time. There are simple steps adults can take to stop bullying on the spot and keep kids safe.

Do:

•   Intervene immediately. It is ok to get another adult to help.

•   Separate the kids involved.

•   Make sure everyone is safe.

•   Meet any immediate medical or mental health needs.

•   Stay calm. Reassure the kids involved, including bystanders.

•   Model respectful behavior when you intervene.

Avoid these common mistakes:

•   Don’t ignore it. Don’t think kids can work it out without adult help.

•   Don’t immediately try to sort out the facts.

•   Don’t force other kids to say publicly what they saw.

•   Don’t question the children involved in front of other kids.

•   Don’t talk to the kids involved together, only separately.

•   Don’t make the kids involved apologize or patch up relations on the spot.

Get police help or medical attention immediately if:

•   A weapon is involved.

•   There are threats of serious physical injury.

•   There are threats of hate-motivated violence, such as racism or homophobia.

•   There is serious bodily harm.

•   There is sexual abuse.

Anyone is accused of an illegal act, such as robbery or extortion—using force to get money, property, or services.

 

Get Help Now

When you, your child, or someone close to you is being bullied, there are many steps to take to help resolve the situation. Make sure you understand what bullying is and what it is not, the warning signs of bullying, and steps to take for preventing and responding to bullying, including how to talk to children about bullying, prevention in schools and communities, and how to support children involved.

After reviewing that information, if you feel you have done everything you can to resolve the situation and nothing has worked, or someone is in immediate danger, there are ways to get help.

The problem	What you can do
There has been a crime or someone is at immediate risk of harm.	Call 911.
Someone is feeling hopeless, helpless, thinking of suicide.	Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  online or at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The toll-free call goes to the nearest crisis center in our national network. These centers provide 24-hour crisis counseling and mental health referrals.
Someone is acting differently than normal, such as always seeming sad or anxious, struggling to complete tasks, or not being able care for themselves.	Find a local counselor or other mental health services
A child is being bullied in school.	Contact the: •   Teacher •   School counselor •   School principal •   School superintendent •   State Department of Education See more on working with the school.
The school is not adequately addressing harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or religion.	Contact: •   School superintendent •   State Department of Education •   U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights •   U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

Prevention at School

Bullying can threaten students’ physical and emotional safety at school and can negatively impact their ability to learn. The best way to address bullying is to stop it before it starts. There are a number of things school staff can do to make schools safer and prevent bullying.

Getting Started

Assess school prevention and intervention efforts around student behavior, including substance use and violence. You may be able to build upon them or integrate bullying prevention strategies. Many programs help address the same protective and risk factors that bullying programs do.

 

Assess Bullying in Your School  

Conduct assessments in your school to determine how often bullying occurs, where it happens, how students and adults intervene, and whether your prevention efforts are working.

 

Engage Parents and Youth  

It is important for everyone in the community to work together to send a unified message against bullying. Launch an awareness campaign to make the objectives known to the school, parents, and community members. Establish a school safety committee or task force to plan, implement, and evaluate your school's bullying prevention program.

 

Create Policies and Rules  

Create a mission statement, code of conduct, school-wide rules, and a bullying reporting system. These establish a climate in which bullying is not acceptable. Disseminate and communicate widely.

 

Build a Safe Environment  

Establish a school culture of acceptance, tolerance and respect. Use staff meetings, assemblies, class and parent meetings, newsletters to families, the school website, and the student handbook to establish a positive climate at school. Reinforce positive social interactions and inclusiveness.

 

Educate Students and School Staff 

Build bullying prevention material into the curriculum and school activities. Train teachers and staff on the school’s rules and policies. Give them the skills to intervene consistently and appropriately.

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Working in the Community

Bullying can be prevented, especially when the power of a community is brought together. Community-wide strategies can help identify and support children who are bullied, redirect the behavior of children who bully, and change the attitudes of adults and youth who tolerate bullying behaviors in peer groups, schools, and communities. 

•   The Benefits of Working Together

•   Potential Partners

•   Community Strategies

•   Additional Resources

The Benefits of Working Together

Bullying doesn’t happen only at school. Community members can use their unique strengths and skills to prevent bullying wherever it occurs. For example, youth sports groups may train coaches to prevent bullying. Local businesses may make t-shirts with bullying prevention slogans for an event. After-care staff may read books about bullying to kids and discuss them. Hearing anti-bullying messages from the different adults in their lives can reinforce the message for kids that bullying is unacceptable.

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Potential Partners

Involve anyone who wants to learn about bullying and reduce its impact in the community. Consider involving businesses, local associations, adults who work directly with kids, parents, and youth.

•   Identify partners such as mental health specialists, law enforcement officers, neighborhood associations, service groups, faith-based organizations, and businesses.

•   Learn what types of bullying community members see and discuss developing targeted solutions.

•   Involve youth. Teens can take leadership roles in bullying prevention among younger kids.

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Community Strategies

Study community strengths and needs:

•   Ask: Who is most affected? Where? What kinds of bullying happen most? How do kids and adults react? What is already being done in our local area to help?

•   Think about using opinion surveys, interviews, and focus groups to answer these questions. Learn how schools assess bullying.

•   Consider open forums like group discussions with community leaders, businesses, parent groups, and churches.

Develop a comprehensive community strategy:

•   Review what you learned from your community study to develop a common understanding of the problem.

•   Establish a shared vision about bullying in the community, its impact, and how to stop it.

•   Identify audiences to target and tailor messages as appropriate.

•   Describe what each partner will do to help prevent and respond to bullying.

•   Advocate for bullying prevention policies in schools and throughout the community.

•   Raise awareness about your message. Develop and distribute print materials. Encourage local radio, TV, newspapers, and websites to give public service announcements prime space. Introduce bullying prevention to groups that work with kids.

•   Track your progress over time. Evaluate to ensure you are refining your approach based on solid data, not anecdotes.

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Additional Resources

•   The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Model Programs Guide (MPG) contains information about evidence-based juvenile justice and youth prevention, intervention, and reentry programs.

•   The FindYouthInfo Program Directory features evidence-based programs whose purpose is to prevent and/or reduce delinquency or other problem behaviors in young people.

•   Three Bold Steps for School Community Change: A Toolkit for Community Leaders  (Safe Schools/Healthy Students). This kit shows how partnerships with people from different parts of a community can create positive, lasting change for students.

Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE)  is a national youth violence prevention effort. STRYVE Online helps communities with access to information and tools, effective strategies, training and technical assistance, and online community workspaces.

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-      www.stopbullying.gov.

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Getting Started

The Bullying Prevention Training Module Presentation is research-based resources that can help you lead bullying prevention efforts in your local community.

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Get the Training Module

 

Organizing a Community Event

The Community Action Toolkit includes materials to create a community event using the research, ideas and bullying prevention and response strategies that you learned about in the Training Module.

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Get the Toolkit

 

Working with Stakeholders

The User Guides are tailored to 11 audiences that play a critical role in bullying prevention and include information for delivering this training.

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Get the User Guides

 

Trainings for Educators and School Bus Drivers

The National Center of Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) offers bullying prevention training toolkits filled with research-based, user-friendly materials trainers can use for events and workshops. Each Training Toolkit includes a step-by-step facilitator's guide, a customizable power point presentation, handouts, and feedback form.

Bullying Victims

When it comes to bullying victims, it becomes apparent that bullying has serious and lasting effects. Bullying victims often experience a series of emotional problems that can last the rest of their lifetime. The effects of bullying are detrimental and dangerous for the victim.

Many bullying victims take on years of therapy and treatment in order to help get over the psychological pain that bullying has caused.  In many tragic cases, this type of physical and emotional toll on a person can damage their self esteem so much that it results in suicide for the bullying victim. In an effort to prevent that kind of unfortunate ending, here are a few tips about bullying and how to know if your child is a bullying victim. 

Signs that may indicate your child is a bullying victim:

•   Comes home with unexplainable injuries

•   Comes home with damaged clothing or other belongings

•   Frequently "loses" items like books, electronics, clothes or other valuable items

•   Tries to find excuses to avoid going to school, is often sick or has other excuses

•   Hurts themselves like with cutting, burning or eating restrictions

•   Loses interest in friends or participating in extra curricular activities

•   Acts afraid of going to school or school activities

•   Appears moody, anxious, depressed or withdrawn

•   Feels helpless

•   Exhibits low self-esteem

Another way to help prevent your child from being one of the many bullying victims is to know what the risk factors are of your child becoming one of the bullying victims. When it comes to being a bullying victim, the children, teens and adults who are the highest risk are those who don't get along well with others, have few or no friends, is less popular than others their age, does not conform to social or gender norms, has low self esteem or if they are suffering from anxiety and depression. If your child is exhibiting any of these behaviors they might be at risk for becoming a bullying victim.

It is important to help your child become more social or make friends that are kind and loyal. Having your child around a healthy environment and good group of friends is helpful in keeping them from becoming one of the bullying victims. It is also helps them see their self worth and self value raising their esteem to where they are able to handle bullies by not allowing themselves to become a target. 

When it comes to the serious issues surrounding bullying victims, there are many emotional issues involved. If your child or teen has been a bullying victim and does not show signs of recovery or returning to being their regular self, it is a good idea to consult outside help in the form of counseling or a support group. Many parents forget that even though the actions of the bully has stopped, that does not mean their teen or child has recovered from the emotional damage they received as one of the bulling victims. Bullying can often do long-lasting damage to a person's self esteem. Without being able to resolve some of these emotional issues, your child is at risk of becoming a bully themselves or might project the lingering feelings of rejection and hurt onto themselves. Children and teens who do this often will face struggles with eating disorders, cutting, burning and other forms of self mutilation. In the most severe cases, teens may not be able to handle the bullying, or may not be able to cope with the after effects of bullying and instead will resort to drastic measures like suicide to escape their pain.

With bullying, the first thing to do in order to protect your child is to stop the bullying. This may be through encouraging your child to report the incidents to a teacher or the school administration. As a parent, you may have to help your child report the bullying to school administrators. The next step is to get help for your child. If they were one of the bullying victims, it is important to get them help. For some children and teens, they just need an outlet for their emotions maybe through art, writing in a journal, sports or other outlets. However, some teens face higher-risk emotions and need to be professionally treated. Through counseling or support groups, bullying victims can learn to move on and let go of their pain.

-    http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-victims.html.

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- It is estimated that 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. Source: National Education Association.

- American schools harbor approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million of their victims. Dan Olweus, National School Safety Center.

- 1 in 7 Students in Grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying.

- 56% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school.

- 15% of all school absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied at school.

- 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school.

- 1 out of 20 students has seen a student with a gun at school.

- 282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month.

- Those in the lower grades reported being in twice as many fights as those in the higher grades. However, there is a lower rate of serious violent crimes in the elementary level than in the middle or high schools.

- 90% of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying

- Among students, homicide perpetrators were more than twice as likely as homicide victims to have been bullied by peers.

- Bullying statistics say revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings.

- 87% of students said shootings are motivated by a desire to “get back at those who have hurt them.”

- 86% of students said, “other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them” causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools.

- 61% of students said students shoot others because they have been victims of physical abuse at home.

- 54% of students said witnessing physical abuse at home can lead to violence in school.

- According to bullying statistics, 1 out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying.

- Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school-shooting incidents.


Bullying can take many forms but it usually includes the following types of behavior:

• Physical – hitting, kicking, pinching, punching, scratching, spitting or any other form of physical attack. Damage to or taking someone else’s belongings may also constitute as physical bullying.

• Verbal – name calling, insulting, making racist, sexist or homophobic jokes, remarks or teasing, using sexually suggestive or abusive language, offensive remarks

• Indirect – spreading nasty stories about someone, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumours, sending abusive mail, and email and text messages (cyber bullying).

• Cyber Bullying - any type of bullying that is carried out by electronic medium. There are 7 types including:

1. Text message bullying

2. Picture/video clip bullying via mobile phone cameras

3. Phone call bullying via mobile phones

4. E-mail bullying

5. Chat-room bullying

6. Bullying through instant messaging (IM)

7. Bullying via websites

Suicide remains among the leading causes of death of children under 14. And in most cases, the young people die from hanging. (AAS)

A new review of studies from 13 countries found signs of an apparent connection between bullying, being bullied, and suicide. (Yale School of Medicine)

Suicide rates among children between the ages of 10 & 14 are very low, but are "creeping up." (Ann Haas, Director of the Suicide Prevention Project at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention)

The suicide rate among young male adults in Massachusetts rose 28 percent in 2007. However, that does not reflect deaths among teenagers and students Carl's age. (Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health, in a report released April 8, 2009)

• Since 2002, at least 15 schoolchildren ages 11 to 14 have committed suicide in Massachusetts. Three of them were Carl's age. ("Constantly Bulled, He Ends His Life at Age 11," by Milton J. Valencia. The Boston Globe, April 20, 2009)

• Suicide rates among 10 to 14-year-olds have grown more than 50 percent over the last three decades. (The American Association of Suicidology, AAS)

• In 2005 (the last year nationwide stats were available), 270 children in the 10-14 age group killed themselves. (AAS).

- http://www.makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org/facts_new.html.