Month: February 2016

Bullies in the Classroom

Posted on by Kirt Ethridge

tiny steve rogers

{Image is a gif of pre-serum Steve Rogers from Captain America: The First Avenger.}

“I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they’re from.” 

-Steve Rogers, Captain America: The First Avenger

Today’s blog post is not about superheroes. It’s about the absence of them–about the fact that, no matter how fiercely I love my kids, no matter how much I emphasize the values of patience and respect, they won’t always be super kids. Just like I won’t always be a super teacher. Children can be fantastically accepting. They can also be brutally judgmental.

About once a year, my students go through a fit of bullying. They pick on each other all year long, but once a year, they find a target and go after them. I remedy this with an anti-bullying curriculum, the introduction to which I will leave at the end of this post. This curriculum works well with the 2nd-8th grade set.

Younger children are more complicated. After school, I sometimes help watch the younger students. One of the three-year-olds, “Betsy,” was nonverbal when she joined us a little less than two months ago. Today, she came up to me with her coat and said, “Zip my jacket.” Her acquisition of language has been swift and astounding. Honestly? I love all my kids, but Betsy’s special. She comes to me when she’s feeling squealy, spinny, stimmy. We flap our arms together and laugh. I adore her kinetic joy. I’m constantly proud of her strong, high voice, even when she’s using it to yell “MOVE!” at the other kids. Hey, assertiveness is a positive trait.

The kindergarteners have been mocking her voice. They play with her with the express purpose of laughing at her. They mimic her and laugh, and Betsy laughs along. She doesn’t get why they’re laughing. She just thinks they’re having fun.

This infuriates me. Partially because Betsy is so special to me, yes. But partially because some of those kindergarteners are special to me, too. Two of them are the younger siblings of my favorite student (listen, you can have favorites without playing favorites; I think I’ve gotten pretty good at this over the years). They’re bright kids. Sassy, noisy, wild, smart kids. Kids who I love. That makes their bullying more difficult for me to handle.

I told them off for it today, all four of them, that posse of kindergartners laughing at a three-year-old who’s just found her voice. They stopped for a minute as we walked up the stairs from the cafeteria to the restrooms. Then, in the restroom, they started up again. Betsy loves to sing in the restroom: her sweet, garbled song. The girls mimicked her as they stood in line in the hall.

Betsy got to go out to recess with the boys. I kept the kindergarten girls back. How would you feel, I asked, if your friend was making fun of you? I told them off. I had them sit in time-out. I had them apologize.

They’ll do it again. Maybe not as often. But they’ll do it.

Sometimes this superhero teacher feels pretty useless.

Bullying Myths and Facts

Myth: Bullies will go away if you ignore them.
Fact: Bullies WON’T always go away if you ignore them. Sometimes, they’ll take you ignoring them as a sign that you’re okay with them bullying you. The only sure way to get bullies to stop bullying you is to tell an adult so the adult can help keep you safe.

Myth: All bullies have low self-esteem.
Fact: Some bullies do have low self-esteem, but that should not be used as an excuse for their actions. No matter whether a bully has low self-esteem or not, they don’t have the right to bully anyone.

Myth: People might be hurt when they get bullied, but they’ll get over it.
Fact: Not everybody gets over being bullied. Bullying can lead to anxiety—a long-lasting condition where your brain releases chemicals that make you feel scared, even when you’re not in a situation that would normally scare you—or depression—another long-lasting condition where your brain doesn’t release enough chemicals to make you happy, so you feel tired and sad. Some people never get over all the fear caused by bullies. That’s why bullying is so terrible. What happens to you as a kid can affect you for the rest of your life.

Myth: Bullying is just a normal part of growing up.
Fact: A lot of people are bullied while they’re growing up, but bullying shouldn’t be considered normal. Some people say it’s normal because they feel helpless to stop bullies.

Myth: The best way to get rid of a bully is to fight and get even.
Fact: Fighting and getting even doesn’t stop bullies. If you try to hurt your bully on purpose, then you’ve become a bully, too. The best way to stop a bully is to tell an adult you trust what’s going on.

Myth: Bullying is just teasing.
Fact: Some teasing is bullying, but bullying is never just teasing. It’s not the victim’s fault for being upset. It’s the bully’s fault for hurting the other person.

Myth: People who complain about bullies are babies.
Fact: People are not babies for telling on the people who bully them. They are very brave. It’s scary to tell on your bullies. Some bullies say they’ll hurt the people they’re bullying if they tell. It’s always best to tell and get help.

Myth: Telling on a bully is the same as tattling.
Fact: Telling on a bully is not tattling. If an adult doesn’t listen to you because they think you’re just tattling, and the bully keeps bothering you, tell another adult you trust what’s going on. Keep telling adults you trust about the bully until one of the adults helps you.

Myth: Only boys are bullies.
Fact: Both boys and girls can be bullies.

Myth: Some people deserve to be bullied.
Fact: NO ONE deserves to be bullied.

How has your classroom dealt with bullying? Let me know in the comments.

Substitute to the Rescue!

Posted on by Kirt Ethridge

superhero-sick-day

{Image is a picture of Spider-Man lying in bed in costume. There are a glass with a straw in it and a bottle of cough syrup on the bedside table. The caption reads, “SUPERHERO SICK DAY”.}

Last week, for the first time in the history of this blog, I didn’t post a lesson plan. Now, I’ve been late with a post before, but I always managed to get something written by Tuesday.

That is, until strep struck. I don’t know about you, but with me, the older I get, the sicker I get when I catch strep. I feel as if I had it every other week as a child. (I wasn’t too upset. I liked the bubblegum medicine.) Sore throat, low-grade fever, whatever. I was fine.

As an adult? Not so fine. I spent last Monday sleeping and the rest of the week sleeping. Luckily, my city’s been plagued by a combination of snow and paranoid school superintendents, so I didn’t miss much school anyway. But what if I had?

This week’s post is a series of simple superhero lesson plans you can leave behind for your sub whenever a disease catches you.

  1. Superhero Identities: Sometimes students try to sink the sub by switching names. A good way to prevent this is to leave the substitute an attendance sheet which includes photographs of each student beside their name. At the beginning of the school year, have each student pick a superhero identity. They can be a hero from a current comic, such as Daredevil, or one they’ve created on their own. Write this identity by their real name and photograph. When they have a substitute teacher, have them wear “Hello, my name is _____” badges with their superhero identities on them. Leave a note with the sub saying that the students should be referred to by their superhero identities if at all possible. Even the biggest grumps cheer up when they’re being called “Superman.”
  2. Superhero Hangman: This game is almost the same as regular Hangman. The two twists are all answers must be related to comics in some way, and the hanged man only dies when he has a cape as well as the rest of his body parts.
  3. Flash Superhero Fiction:  The substitute has the students pull out their journals. They give them fifteen minutes to write a superhero story. This may be in comic or prose form.
  4. Superhero Newspaper Analysis: Collecting newspaper articles for your students is always a good idea. Have the substitute give each student one article, preferably an article with a lot of tension or action. Then each student should write either a story or an essay about what a particular superhero would do about the events happening in the article.
  5. Superhero Twenty Questions. 
  6. Superhero Pictionary. 
  7. “Where’s My Teacher?” Comics: Leave the sub with a lot of blank paper, pencils, pens, colored pencils, and other art supplies. Have the sub pass out these materials and have the students draw a comic about what they think their superhero teacher is doing while they’re gone.
spiderman with flu

{Image is a cell from an old Spider-Man comic. Spider-Man lies in a hospital bed (still in his full suit). His doctor is holding a clipboard and speaking to him. The doctor says: “I didn’t want to wake you, but I thought you’d like to know.. You’ve had the worst case of flu I’ve seen in years!” Spider-Man says, “The…FLU?!!” The doctor says, “Well, it wasn’t an ingrown toenail!”}

Superhero Mock Elections

Posted on by Kirt Ethridge

shield your vote

Cruz. Rubio. Trump. Fiorina. Carson. O’Malley. Clinton. Sanders–tonight’s a whirlwind of presidential candidates at the Iowa Caucus. But what exactly is a caucus? How does it work? What does it have to do with the real presidential election, anyway?

Today’s lesson plan is a multi-day unit: a mock election with superheroes as candidates. Links to more detailed explanations of terms will be provided as necessary.

Students will engage in lecture, whole group instruction, cooperative learning, hands-on activities, and discussion.

Materials Needed:

  • Poster board
  • Markers, glitter glue, Elmer’s glue, pens, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, and other art materials that can be used on poster board
  • Printer paper
  • Computers for student use with access to Power Point, Google Image Search, and a printer
  • Computer/Projector
  • Laser pointer (optional; don’t perform Lasik surgery on each other, kids)

Standards Met:

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

PART ONE: THE PRIMARY

  1. Ask your students if they have been paying attention to the presidential election. If they say yes, ask them if they paid attention to the Iowa Caucus (did they watch it on Snapchat?). Then ask them if they know what a caucus is.
  2. Define caucus for the students. A caucus is a meeting of members of a political party. In the Iowa Caucus, Iowans meet up at local voting precincts and choose which delegates from their political party will represent them in county conventions. These county conventions vote for delegates for Iowa’s state political party conventions, who choose delegates for presidential nominating conventions.
    1. Tell your students that a primary election is one in which members of each political party choose which candidate they want to run for President. Right now, there are many Republican candidates and more than one Democratic candidate. Once people have voted in primaries across the country, the candidate with the most votes will continue running for President. So, while right now the race is Trump vs. Rubio vs. Cruz VERSUS Clinton vs. Sanders, etc., after the primaries, it’ll be narrowed down to ONE Republican vs. ONE Democrat.
  3. Explain to your students that people put so much importance on the Iowa Caucus because it’s a fairly successful (47%) predictor of who will be in the presidential election. Whichever Republican wins the Caucus has a pretty good chance of going on to run against whichever Democrat wins the Caucus.
  4. Tell the students that as a class, you are going to run a mock primary election using superhero candidates. Tell them that they will be separated into two equivalent groups. (Don’t name these groups Democrats and Republicans. I can see the bloodshed already. Name them the Marvels and the DCs.) Then, within those two groups, three people will run for president in-character as superheroes. They will advertise; they will debate; they will give speeches. They will do everything they can to gain supporters within their own party. Then, in a primary election, people within their party will vote for a candidate to go on to the main election.
    1. It’s important to note to the students that political parties in real life aren’t restricted to only having three candidates for the primary. Point out how many Republican candidates there are. The students are limited to three candidates because otherwise the vote could easily be split. You have a class of 30ish people, not thousands.
  5. Divide the students into Marvels and DCs. Within these groups, YOU pick the three who want to run for office.
  6. Give the candidates time outside of class to think of their superhero personas. Have them come up with a vague outline of their political platforms. These can be real–healthcare, immigration, etc.–or imagined–superhero registration! Batman v. Superman! They should have a small speech (it can be as simple as “Vote Cap. FOR JUSTICE!” Or it can be more involved) and some debate points prepared. They should present their persona and platforms to you at the beginning of the next class.
  7. The next class period should be campaign time. Set up six stations for the students, half for the Marvels and half for the DCs:
    1. Speech area #1 in front of the projector–for candidates with (pre-approved) PowerPoints or images to be displayed behind them
    2. Poster station #1–with poster boards, art supplies, etc. to make banners
    3. Handshake station #1–for candidates to speak with their voters
    4. Speech area #2
    5. Poster station #2
    6. Handshake station #2
  8. Optional step: debates. Debates work well if you have a mature class and moderators. They work even better if you have covered speech and debate in your class before. No matter how immature the current US Presidential candidates act, we need to raise a generation that knows how to behave in a debate.
  9. Remind the students that the next class day will be primary election day!
  10. Primary Election Day. Before class begins, set up two closed-off, private areas where students from each party can fill out their ballots.
  11. When students come into the classroom, have them line up in front of their respective ballot boxes. Display the image at the beginning of this post prominently. Remind them frequently that their ballots are secret. In real life, they cannot take a picture of their ballot! They can, however, post about their favorite candidate just as much as they want.
  12. Once the voting is over, tell the students that their ballots, like many ballots in Iowa, will be hand-counted. This may be done by you or by some volunteers from another class.

PART TWO: THE ELECTION

  1. In the next class, reveal the winners of the primary. Have them both come up and make a quick speech.
  2. Tell the class that for the general election, they may cross party lines. You may vote for the DC candidate even if you’re a registered Marvel voter. In fact, this is encouraged. Listen carefully to each candidate.
  3. Campaign time, part two! Set up your stations again. Allow the students to move freely around the classroom. The candidates can make speeches and shake hands; the voters can make posters, listen, and ask questions.
  4. Optional step: debates.
  5. Remind the students that the next class day will be Election Day.
  6. Election Day: same procedure as Primary Election Day.
  7. Count ballots. Find appropriately-designed celebratory material. Decorate your classroom in those colors/designs before the students come in. Allow for celebration and consolation.
  8. Once the students have recovered from the shock/rage/glee, bring them back together. Tell them that the election process does not always go smoothly. For example:

There are many painful, convoluted aspects of the election process. Your classroom’s version was a streamlined procedure.

 

What did your students think of the mock election? Who won? Who will win the real election? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments.