This week, October 8-12 marks the beginning of Anti-Bullying Week. I began at the begining of September, reading the book Wonder by R. J. Palacio to the 5th and 6th grade classes. It has been a wonderful experience reading to the students. This book has been amazing. It is about a boy named "August" who has a facial abnormalty. He hasbeen homeschooled and has never been to school, but will begin middle school in 5th grade for the first time. The book is about his experiences. You can imagine he has a variety of experiences from children who don't want to be around him because of his abnormalities to those children who get to know him for who he is. These children find out "Auggie" is a wonderful person. We are finding that he is ordinary and at the same time an extraordinary human being.
One teacher who August meets at school, talks about precepts and what a precept is. A precept is a "rules about something that is important." The first precept Mr. Brown introduces to "Auggie's" class is "When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind." —Dr.
Wayne Dyer In upcoming weeks we will be discussing this precept in depth and what it means. We want to stamp out bullying and teasing in our school and in our community and what better way than to "Choose Kind."
I have begun a Wonder book blog for our kids. It has been wonderful watching and discussing the book with the students online. Many of them relate to August and are very sensitive to his situation. I desire for our students to choose kind in every situation. I desire for our kids to take this life lesson and learn how to handle situations such as this in their every day lives, in school, on the ball field, and in the store. I want them to learn to stand up for kids like August and get to konw them. We have great kids at West Madison and I know that they will learn to choose kind in every situation that they are presented with through out their lives.
Mrs. Miller is reading the book Have you Filled Your Bucket Today? to all the Kindergarten and First Grade classes. The premise of the book is the idea that we all carry an invisible bucket that contains our feelings. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When our bucket is empty, we feel sad. A bucket filler is someone who says or does nice things for other people. By doing this, they are filling other people's buckets and filling their own bucket at the same time.
On the other hand, a bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things.
I am of the opinion that someone who bullies is a person who is very sad. If we start with Kindergarten and First Grade, teaching them ways to fill their buckets we can help to stamp out bullying in our school. In the First Grade classrooms, each student has a bucket. Each student is encouraged to say (write) something kind to another student to fill their bucket. At the end of the week, the students empty their buckets and read the nice things said to them from their friends in the class. She has completed this activity with several of the first grade classes. The children are really excited about filling each others buckets. Mrs. Miller will do similar activities with the Kindergarten classes.
As we continue these activities through out the year. I know that these activities will move West Madison from a good place to be to a GREAT place and stamp out bullying in our community.
On the other hand, a bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things.
I am of the opinion that someone who bullies is a person who is very sad. If we start with Kindergarten and First Grade, teaching them ways to fill their buckets we can help to stamp out bullying in our school. In the First Grade classrooms, each student has a bucket. Each student is encouraged to say (write) something kind to another student to fill their bucket. At the end of the week, the students empty their buckets and read the nice things said to them from their friends in the class. She has completed this activity with several of the first grade classes. The children are really excited about filling each others buckets. Mrs. Miller will do similar activities with the Kindergarten classes.
As we continue these activities through out the year. I know that these activities will move West Madison from a good place to be to a GREAT place and stamp out bullying in our community.
