The Buddy Bench

While I was on my second practicum at a kindergarten, I noticed there was some bullying happening between some of the girls. These girls were calling another girl nasty names and not letting her play with them. When she went over to play the girl's would just walk away and tell her they did not want to be friends with her. This girl who wanted to play would walk away upset that she thought she had no one to play with. As I noticed this I spoke to my AT about how she handles situations like this; my AT replied by saying she had not noticed this happening before. My AT and I spoke to the other teachers about it, their response was the same, none of them had noticed it. Because of this we talked about ways we could encourage the children to be inclusive and allow any child that wanted to play with a group were able to play with them. We came up with an idea called 'The Buddy Bench', the idea behind this was if you did not have any one to play with you go sit on the bench, when one of the other children noticed someone sitting on the bench it was their job to invite the child sitting on the bench to join in on the game they were playing. 

'The Buddy Bench' seemed to work well and it also encouraged the children to be inclusive in the playground at kindergarten. 

Below I have added a link that explain the whole 'Buddy bench' concept and how it has been working in schools: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr-IrvjyaAU

References:

Buddy Bench [Photograph]. (2015). Retrieved October 2015, from http://buddybench.org/2014/10/09/gray-academy-jewish-education/

Olsen, G,. (2014). Eight year old Clare creates Buddy Bench to stop Bullying. Retrieved October 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr-IrvjyaAU

The EFFECT

Bullying has many effects on a child; it can affect them physically, emotionally, mentally and socially.

Some of the effects that are depression, anxiety, feeling of sadness and loneliness, loss of interest for activities they used to enjoy, health complaints, changing in eating and sleeping patterns and academic problems.

Below I have added a few videos that show the effects that bullying has on children.

This first video is about how a young boy has been bullied and he is afraid to go back to school as he struggles to make friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylgCnXgH_bc

This second video is about the wallbreakers project it looks at the effects of someone being a bystander and not helping the victim but just watching it happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLe-IvXUEX0

This final video is looking at how bullying has affected children experience with bulling and how it has made them feel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2_HrjJ2bo

References:

Christschool, (2010). Bullying and it's effects on children. Retrieved October 30, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylgCnXgH_bc

Concord Media, (2012). Bullying - The Children Speak. Retrieved October 30, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2_HrjJ2bo

U.S. Department of Health and human services, (n.d.) Effects of Bullying. Retrieved October 30, 2015, from http://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/effects/

Wallbreakers, (2012). Wallbreakers: Bystanders. Retrieved October 30, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLe-IvXUEX0

The Bully's Victim

Being bullied by someone else is never a nice thing to experience, when someone is bullied it could lead to a lot of things; including low self-esteem, self harming,becoming introverted and withdrawn, anxious or they may feel isolated.

According to Rigby, 2003 there are two different types of bully victims;

1) The passive victim; who is one that shows no fear, by not responding at all or being overly emotional whic could both lead to more bullying as the bully may feel they are getting the reaction that he/she was wanting.

2) The Resistant victim; who sees the bullying as a challenge to them and finds ways to 'get even' or to 'fight back'.

(Both diagrams found in Rigby, 2003, pp. 13-14.)

References:

Rigby, K,. (2003). Stop Bullying: A Handbook for Schools. Australia: Australian council for Educational Research, ACER Press Ltd.

WHY?

Why do people bully?

The short answer: because the person being bullied feels they have more power and are in a higher posistion so therefore feel it is their right to bully another person.

In Rigby, 2003, p.17 the author mentions 14 reasons of why someone would bully another:

1. They think that bullying pays; in some schools they are admired by other; they are able to get what they want; and thye are less likely than others to be victimized. 

2. They are aggresive and impulsive, which makes them constitutionally more inclined to engage in bullying.

3. They enjoy the submission of others.

4. Bullying others is consistent with a macho or imposing image a person may have, especially of one male but increasingly so for females.

5. It sems like fun, especially when one is part of a group engaged in teasing someone.

6. They have relatively low levels of empathy, which results in a bully being unaffected by the evident distress of others.

7. Prejudice leads then to believe that some kinds of people deserve to be bullied; for example, people of a different ethnis group or of a different sexual orientation.

8. A generalised hostility towards others has been endangered by negative experiences with prents and families, especillay feeling unloved and/or over-controlled.

9. They have been influenced by aggressive 'models', in real life and/or watching violent videos.

10. The victim is percieved as having provoked the negative treatment; commonly bullies see their bullying behaviour as 'pay backs'.

11. Cronic boredom at school may result in bulying as a means of making life more interesting.

12. The achievment of desired goals is seen as more important than the insensitive means employed to attain them. This applies particularly to some people in management positions.

13. They are slaves to authority prepared unquestioningly to do their bosses' 'dirty work' by imposing on others.

14. They see ot as part of their role.

Although these ideas only touch on the ideas of why someone would bully another person I feel that these give a strong baseline as to how we can pin point those who are bullying others.

References:

          Rigby, K,. (2003). Stop the Bullying: A handbook for schools. Australia: Australian council for Educational Research, ACER Press Ltd.

Changes over time

My question is has bullying changed over time? Is it something new or is it something that has always been around and just become more visible in society?

Basically the simple answer is yes it has changed over time, but to explain it a bit more than just saying yes it has, if we look back to the 1950's a bully was simply described as one person picking on a weaker member of society by hitting, kicking, punching. If from the 50's we fast forward to the 1980's we then see that a bully is more about using verbal ways to bully as in name calling as well as physical forms of pushing younger people, Now we fast forward to society today, bullying has now evolved so much and is alot easier to do with the internet around and social media,the bully now no longer needs to see the reactions of the person they are bullying they can do and say what they want on social media, which escalates this so much more as it allows other people to also join in and have a say of what they think without thinking or seeing how it affects the person being bullied.

References:

Magnificant living. (n.d.). How has bullying changed over the years?Retrieved October 14, 2015 from https://magnificentlivingforteens.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/how-do-you-define-bully-theres-no-doubt/

Time [Photograph]. (2015). Retrieved October 14, 2015 from http://theleadershipprogram.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/time.jpg

Words hurt

As I was scrolling through facebook I came across this video which was made by a couplde of year 9 students at the college I went to before moving up to Auckland.

This video helps to bring awareness to how words do hurt and how you do not have to submit and conform to what society says you should do and how society says you should act.

https://www.facebook.com/waiopehucollege.levin/videos/10204550582036463/

References:

Waiopehu College. (2015, Spetember 9). Anti-bullying. Retreived from https://www.facebook.com/waiopehucollege.levin/videos/10204550582036463/?pnref=story

Stick and stones

"You're too little to be in this class. You're a shrimp."

"I'm not a shrimp. I'm a person."

You're a shrimp. You're name is 'Shrimpy.' Ha, ha."

"I don't wan to be a shrimp. A shrimp is a little fish.I'm a boy."
(Sprung & Froschi, 2005, p. 95)

We've all heard that phrase; 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.'

Some of us may have even said it at some point in our lives, but reality is that words do hurt.

In Sprung, & Froschi, (2005) it discuses this idea that words can hurt and how we can approach this topic in a classroom environment or an early childhood centre (it may need to be adapted slightly to suit the children's ages and stage's). They use the above dialogue as a puppet show to show to the children and to get the children to think about the situation and how it could be hurtful.

References:

    

         Sprung, B., & Froschi, M.(2005). The Anti-bullying and Teasing Book for preschool classrooms. United States of America: Gryphon House, Inc.

          [Photograph]. Retrieved August 8, 2015, from http://www.google.com/images