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Beginnings and Endings
For all of our Bully B’ware subscribers, thank you for your interest in this important topic. Somehow, last month got away from me, and for those of you who were waiting patiently for the May update, I apologize!! For those of us who complete our school year in June or July, times have been busy indeed! Our journey continues… Here is the June newsletter.
What do we need to learn about beginnings and endings? At my school, we are ending our year, however plans have already been started for our next big beginning, meaning the start of the new school year in September. We know a lot about preventing bullying. About bullying, we know that it is easier to be proactive than reactive.
About preventing bullying, we know that the adults need to have common expectations for the behaviour of our students. About teaching our students about bullying, we also know that the adults need to model the kinds of behaviours that we expect of our kids.
So how do we make good endings? We celebrate all of the good things that our kids have done throughout the year. We make a big deal about little things. To have good endings, we make a big deal about all the little things that have been good, we don’t review the bad. We honour our kids who have tried to make a difference in the right way. We recognize our kids who have gotten better at making safer decisions. We show our kids how much it matters to us when they try to do the right thing and make our schools safer places for everyone. We celebrate. We talk about the plans we have for next year.
Please be sure, as you give your awards out this year, that you reward the things that you say are important. While traditions say that we need to recognize our top academic achievers and MVP athletes, be sure you include awards that honour those that contributed to making the school a better place. Perhaps changing the order of calling the awards might be a consideration.
Bullying is not just about mean behaviour. It is about attitude, and welcoming, and endings and beginnings. It is about exclusion and favourites and reserved staffroom tables and/or chairs, and closed friendship groups. As we finish out our school year, let’s be sure that we honour our work, preserve our relationships and set things up for success for next year. July and August newsletters will talk about healthy start-up and new beginnings. Bully B’ware Productions will be developing new resources for school and communities to use as support tools in this journey. At my school, we will continue our work towards building safer schools and communities, which I am happy to share through this venue. Stay tuned!
This month’s special offer: “Take Action Against Bullying”. Receive 10% off any workshop booked this month. Contact Sandra for details at info@bullybeware.com
