Anti-Bullying Conference Coming Soon!

Franklin High School's award winning applied theatre program, (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shadows-the-anti-bullying-drama/) Shadows,

in partnership with the Tyler Clementi Foundation (www.tylerclementi.org)

and the National School Climate Center (www.schoolclimate.org)

is offering their first ever hands-on

 

Anti-Bullying Workshop and Conference. 

 

The day will involve hands on arts activities to help student and adults explore bullying in their communities and brainstorm on ways to make their schools and towns safer and more inclusive. Presenters include theatre practitioners, spoken word artists and media specialists. Workshops run both morning and afternoon with a special lunchtime performance.

At the end of the day, adults and students will have the opportunity to come together to bring realistic, usable ideas back to their schools to try and create grassroots change in their communities. Lunch is provided.

Confirmed workshop leaders include (more being added daily!)

KEYNOTE SPEAKER FROM THE TYLER CLEMENTI FOUNDATION, www.tylerclementi.org

Richard Cardillo, Director of Education, National School Climate Center

Alyea Pierce, Spoken Word Artist, Finalist in Poetry Jam, New York City

All proceeds go to continue spreading the dialogue about anti-bullying and safer, inclusive school culture.

Join us for this very special event!

There are group rates available. Please contact Jennifer Little at Franklin High School, jlittle@franklinboe.org for more information.

Visit http://shadowsantibullying.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn for tickets and more information!

Will The Show Go On If Nothing Changes?

This is being reposted from Cooperative Catalyst.

I recently read the post about whether being a classroom teacher is how one envisions themselves. It is a challenging question. When I was the age of my students, if someone had asked me, "Do you want to be a teacher?" the answer would've been an emphatic, "Good God, NO!" I never wanted to be in the classroom. My parents are both professors, my sister is a teacher, my other sister is a professor - I've been surrounded and immersed in education my entire life. I never thought it was my "path." I was going to be a "Star!" Capital letters, of course :-) So, I ran off to California, studied theatre and music and began pounding the pavement of fame and fortune. I chased the brass ring for nineteen years, traveling the world, wearing characters and costumes like someone else's life. I had a blast. And they paid me to do it. I made it all the way to Broadway and film and television. I went to the opening night gala's; worked with the "stars;" had a fan club; slept during the day and worked all night; saw myself on television and the big screen; didn't have fortune but had plenty. Perfection, right?

One day, I woke up and thought, well... now what? I had this huge epiphany that although I had a great career and life; I wasn't sure I envisioned my life... here. So at forty, where do I go? And I started thinking back. Back to the awkward, shy, bullied adolescent that I was in middle school. When a funny, caring science teacher who also doubled as the theatre director noticed a kid in trouble. He reached out and rescued me. He introduced me to theatre, to friends, to a community who accepted me for who I was and gave me a safe haven. And it suddenly occurred to me, that it was time to return the favor. Pay it forward if you like. I figured I had survived the politics of professional theatre and film; education should be a walk in the park! So I went off to be a theatre teacher...

It's been seven years since I joined the ranks of fulltime teachers in public schools. I love the kids. I hope I reach one or two along the way. Maybe give one or two the safe haven that Mr. Williams offered me. But as I work, as I go along, I wonder. When did education become about covering your ass and protecting your job? When did education become about politics and political parties? When did our young people become pawns in an economic battleground that seems to imply our jobs as educators is to turn out "workers" in a global economy? When did we decide that creativity equaled wastefulness? That resourcefulness and independent questioning equaled rebellion and disrespect? That questioning how the material impacts daily life equaled misbehaviour?

I keep getting told - this isn't theatre - this is education. I get it. In theatre, it's pretty simple. We may not like each other all the time and we may not always get along but there is a simple goal. Everything needs to focus on the "show." It is the MOST important thing at all times. If the show succeeds, everyone succeeds. If the show fails, we all fail and are out of work. So, if there is a problem, you can't waste time with committees and debates and discussions, arguments and endless meetings - you have to solve it quickly. It that isn't the best long-term solution, put it in place today, figure out the long-term solution tomorrow and implement it. The show goes on and is top priority at all times. You don't like your co-cast member. Who cares? You do the show together. You cover each other's back onstage. You make each other look good at all times. And at the end of the night, you go home and forget about each other. The show is top priority.

You see, I thought education would be similar. That the kids were the "show." They would always take top priority. We would put aside petty differences, politics and divisions and focus on them succeeding. If they succeed, we succeed. If they fail, we failed - ergo - we have to fix the problem. Not fix the kids, not kick them out of the system - but fix what we are doing so that the kids "go on." I was wrong. Things can work and get thrown out. Why? They're too expensive. Things that aren't working require meetings, committees, review, more meetings, more committees, more review. Endlessly with no action in sight. Meanwhile, the kids, every more resilient and strong, move forward despite our best efforts to screw it up.

So, when I envisioned myself trying to be a classroom teacher, I didn't envision this. I envisioned making a difference. Helping someone as someone helped me. Working in a community where everyone focused on the students and their success. Instead the endless battles seem to be about blame and greed. Firing teachers, kicking out students, passing mindless standardized tests that prove...nothing, punishing schools who lack resources, and using education as a grand political tool to divide an already deeply divided country.

And no one seems to remember the simple rule. Everything needs to focus on the "show." It is the MOST important thing at all times. If it fails, we're all out of jobs. We all go down. If our young people don't get our best, the show closes ... for good.

How To Create A Community In Which Students Feel A Part

We are about three months until the end of the year. I have been meeting with the freshmen class once a month to discuss Bullying and how we, as a community, can work together to make the school safer, stronger, more cohesive. It has been challenging. There have been times when I have been feeling that the task is bigger than I am. That it isn't a matter of educating the students but rather overcoming the school's attitude - the adults, the administration, the parents, the overwhelming apathy in face of problems that seem insurmountable and unsolvable. There are days when I listen to the people I work with as they discuss the futility of creating change when there is no clear leadership - when the students are "disrespectful" - when nothing ever lasts long enough to have an impact. And I have a student who is being bullied while I do this work, and I watch in frustration and growing anger as her parent fights for her right to attend school safely and nothing seems to make the situation better. The bullies get suspended - they don't care. We organize a group of students to walk the victim to classes and offer protection in the halls and cafeteria - the bullies target her in classes and the teachers seem oblivious. We get the teachers on board and the bullies wait for her outside her house.

And yet, despite my frustration and my anger. My feelings of impotence. My days when I listen to colleagues as they vent about their lack of power and their feeling that it is useless to try and create change because change will never come. And then I have moments... moments when the students themselves (always the first to embrace change and willing to take leaps of faith) take my breath away. I went in for the March Bullying Awareness sessions (as the students have dubbed them). We had discussions about the ultimate fallout from bullying - bullycide. We talked about the Tyler Clemente case and the Dharun Ravi sentencing. And the students explored who Tyler's death impacted. And these young people, who in October questioned why we should "stick our noses where they don't belong," who asked me "were you raised to stick your nose into every one's business?" who claimed they would never "snitch," and that if it didn't impact them, it didn't concern them. These young people suddenly spontaneously began discussing bias and safety and how do we as a community, make it safe for everyone to be who they are and to have privacy no matter what. How do we change things? What message does it send to the gay community if they feel unsafe to be open about who they are? They argued passionately about posting videos that have the potential to embarrass others and how they would feel if someone was so impacted by their "joke" or "prank" that it shattered their life. They were engaged. They were passionate. They were a community.

When did this happen? I didn't even notice. Their teachers noticed. They have pulled me aside and thanked me for the dialogue; for the opportunity; for the growth they are seeing. And even though I still feel (on days) tired and the lone voice in the wilderness. I still feel anger and frustration for the victims who still are unsafe. I feel hope. I feel that if we continue the dialogue, the awareness building... we can build a community where bullying just isn't tolerated.

So to end this meandering... I'll add a diamond poem written by some of the freshmen about bullying and their feelings.  Poems created with nine words, utilizing what bullying means to them, how it looks, how it sounds, what safety means and then some sort of ending. Here are a few examples of their work:

Upset

Helpless            People

Laughing               Crying               Screaming

God                 Parents

Together

Disgusted


Pain                      Fear


Cries                   "Help"                        Laugh


Home                                 God


Overwhelmed

Frustrated


Pain                 Evil


Hell                            Tears                       Silence/Whispers


Acceptance                    Trust


Gone

Mad

Verbal               Physical


Cursing                        Shouting                      Yelling


Friends                Counseling


Relief

School Year Resolutions

With the New Year rapidly approaching, I am readying myself to gear up to go back to work and back to the business of preparing our new Self-Esteem piece, teching our Shakespeare show, and continuing our year-long Year of Respect curriculum with the general student population.  I always ask the students in my class at the beginning of the school year to create "School Year Resolutions" - something they can do personally to make our school a better community.  In addition, I ask them to practice random acts of kindness - one per week - an act for someone they don't know in our school community.  Our theory being that if we all practice random acts of kindness, perhaps over time, kindness will spread.  We know negativity spreads - often quickly and virally - kindness just takes longer and grows slower. 

This year, I upped the ante.  I've been working with the 500+ freshmen students since the fall on anti-bullying and empathy curriculum.  I've been doing workshops with these young people, listening to their voices, their opinions and asking them to create scenarios and solutions to bullying they see and hear.  They have been wonderfully creative in this task.  They're starting to figure out that there is strength in numbers - that if more than one person stands up - they have a better chance of creating change.  They've figured out that humor is a wonderful distraction - and can be a safe alternative to confrontation.  They've learned that sometimes reaching out to the victim is an incredibly powerful step that has no risk to themselves - especially when they work in tandem.  One group split their efforts, several worked to distract the bullies while another group led the victim away to safety and support.  They are somewhat astonished with themselves.  They can't believe they came up with these ideas.  And although they are still not one hundred percent sold that this will work in real life, when we wrap up the workshops I often see lightbulbs in many eyes, as they contemplate their own power.  It is wonderful.

As part of the latest workshop, I challenged the freshmen to two resolutions - one to take the anti-bullying pledge with us.  And the other, a School Year Resolution - one act or daily decision they can do to make our high school a better place.  This vision the students could see -- if ALL of them tried one thing (just one) that the school would be better by all of us.

So, I enter 2012 tired but hopeful; pulled in too many directions but ready to go on; still behind on work but willing to continue the fight.  And my students -- well, they didn't even take the winter break off.  They've been emailing me and texting me additional information all week for our new Self-Esteem piece.  Gotta love the students.  They continue to be the reason I get up in the morning, ignore the media blitz telling me what horrible people teachers are, fight stubborn and scared administrators and enter 2012 with a sense of purpose and joy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Jersey Anti-Bullying Law and the Reality of Implementation...i.e. What WERE They Thinking?

This past week I have spoken with the Deputy Speaker from the NJ Assembly, multiple members of NJ School Boards, our own District HIB Specialist and close to five hundred fourteen year olds about bullying and the new New Jersey Law. At the end of it all, I have to wonder...WHAT were they thinking?

Yes, New Jersey has the "toughest" law in the country? Does that make it the best? Although the legislature was in the process prior to Tyler Clemente’s suicide, his death prompted an emotional and hasty reworking of the bill which meant that districts didn’t have time to fully create a comprehensive, educationally sound plan of action, nonetheless to try and implement the same. Districts scrambled to do what so often students are accused of – doing the minimum amount of effort to “get the passing grade.”However, in this case, no district is sure how the grading system will work. Will districts be penalized for reporting incidents by being given a poor grade? In which case, will that not drive the issue further underground?

In addition, the districts had to quickly implement some sort of professional development for their staff, administration and community with no time to properly research and fund such development. The legal community made a financial windfall by offering bullying workshops focusing on the legal ramifications of the law and districts grabbed what they could. In the past few months, everyone has become a bully “expert” resulting in massive amounts of companies selling their “solution” to bullying. Again, the lack of time to do proper due diligence on what is effective is hurting the districts’ ability to make smart decisions.

And let's talk about the language of the bill... again WHAT were they thinking? Let's not get into the freedom of speech aspect... oh wait, let's...As Adam Cohen, from Yale Law mentions,


"The law will also, necessarily, thrust school officials into the tricky area of policing student expression, including statements made off campus. This puts schools in a bit of a bind: in several recent rulings, federal courts have reminded schools that they must respect the free-speech rights of their students, even when that speech is harsh or provocative. New Jersey’s law pushes schools in the opposite direction, requiring them to monitor and police certain kinds of speech.”


So now schools are in the unenviable positions of trying to monitor behavior off campus. Most of us are aware that students don't always "hang" with kids from their own district after hours, which begs the question -- when students interact from multiple districts – who is responsible for what? I was told of one incident involving students from multiple districts, off campus and which was reported to multiple administrations. Following up and documenting the incident, as well as deciding what actions to take, how to best handle the situation and who had the ultimate responsibility is something the law fails to take into account.

And let's take a moment to figure out how New Jersey defines bullying ... or doesn't. Again, what WERE they thinking? The Supreme Court clearly defined harassment and intimidation in two separate cases previously earlier in the decade. 

"In Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education(1999), the Supreme Court defined peer-on-peer harassment in the educational context as conduct that is "so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims' educational experience, that the victim-students are effectively denied equal access to an institution's resources and opportunities. With regard to intimidation, in Virginia v. Black(2003), the Court defined intimidation as a "type of true threat, where a speaker directs a threat to a person or group of persons with the intent of placing the victim in fear of bodily harm or death."

New Jersey Law vaguely states all student speech that "is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic" and that "a reasonable person should know" will "have the effect of ... emotionally harming a student" or "placing a student in reasonable fear of ... emotional harm," is bullying. THEREFORE, New Jersey is mandating that students appraise the sensibilities and frailties of their fellow students before speaking.

HOW does this make sense? Why not stick to the preciseness of language previously developed? Please, don't misunderstand me. I am an advocate of the victim. I am a HUGE advocate of culture change and of education for our young people to work on PREVENTING bullying from starting in the first place through empathy and awareness. However, this bill is reactive in nature (punishing the bully after the fact); provides no funding for training or development; and is impossibly vague. The intention is good but the bill is poorly written and developed. It desperately needs a clarification and a proper timeline to encourage districts to implement real educational change by promoting awareness, safety, culture change, attitudinal change and student dialogue. Like the civil rights movement -- real change comes through education not through a penal system.

Just my two cents worth. I'm sure many will disagree. But as one of my students so aptly said... This bill is a house of cards, but with no foundation and no money to pay the mortgage.

Getting Ready for Week Two of Our Year of Respect

Well, I've received some of the student reflections from the first week of the anti-bullying workshops I led in the US 1 History classes I led in the beginning of October.  I think we have a lot of work to do.  How do we create empathy in our young people when so little of it is demonstrated and modeled in the real world?  I was particularly struck by one young man:

"Bullying for me was a social-structuralizing activity that helped me grow as a person.  It taught me about morals and compassion.  There will always be bad in this world.  But that's part of growing up.  It teaches you to stop being such a close-minded pansy and work things out for yourself.  It prepares you for the real world.  But if it's a situation that you ABSOLUTELY can't do anything about, then obviously tell an adult.  (i.e. can't get out of the house, hospitalized many times, things are stolen.)"

So, for this young man, things have to escalate to MULTIPLE hospitalizations to be deemed serious enough to warrant outside intervention.  How do we reach young people who believe it is a sign of weakness to ask for assistance?  Or that it is "being a snitch" to let people know what is going on in others' lives?  Many students feel (and adults I've discovered) that we really need to "mind our own business" and the world will be a better place.  I ponder this concept.  Should the world have minded its own business during Bosnia?  During Rwanda? (Oh, wait, we did.)  How about World War II and the Holocaust?  At what level does the human cost become high enough to warrant our attention?  Is it only upon death?  Or is the despair, loneliness, unhappiness of children enough to catch our eye?  Perhaps I am a hopeless optimist who still believes that one individual can make a difference.  But I wonder...  are we starting to ingrain in our young people such a "me" mentality that they can no longer see anyone's pain but their own?

Not all reflections were this down heartening, please don't misunderstand.  A couple more uplifting ones included:

"The best part of the workshop was the video.  The video contained students from the high school and their words were very powerful.  It really touched my heart and the video was just great.  We students got to understand the teacher perspective on bullying.  Students and teachers got to connect about the bullying.  I learned about bullying that it can start online and in texts."

"It seems like there are never nice words said in our high school.  I learned a lot, especially after the video rap.  People really get hurt from mean words."

So, clearly the workshop connected with many of them.  Most students wrote about the workshops being valuable and meaningful.  So, why do I find myself obsessing about the ones I didn't reach?  I know going in I won't reach them all.  But I find it disheartening to see such cynicism in fourteen year olds.  I can't understand where it finds its roots and growth.  Again, that hopeless idealist in me still wants to believe that young people can find hope and change the future.  I continue to think about how to push them further during the next session, to get them to dig deeper and take the next steps.  I know I have a year for this and I must take one plateau at a time.  But it is an interesting journey when you see these young people once a month and that's all.  So different from my regular students who I see every day, all year long.  There the relationship builds and solidifies and takes roots on trust and respect.  It is a bigger challenge with this program.

I find myself both apprehensive and excited to go back in two weeks to do session two with these students.  Where will we be come May?  Will some of their actions reflect their words?  Will we see a meaningful difference in our school? 

If anyone has ideas and suggestions for additional activities going forward, please feel free to comment.  I look forward to connecting with people. 

Working in those dreaded, debated, hated public schools

This is my first time blogging, so I hope you will bear with me.

So, it's August already.  How does summer fly by so quickly?  Once again, I am reading and inundated by the word from media and our politicians about how I (as a public school teacher) am the bane of society.  Our public schools fail our kids and we're to blame.  I guess I'm naive.  I only started teaching six years ago - coming into the profession from being a professional actor for fifteen years first.  I wanted to "give back."  I've led a good life - traveled the world, performed on Broadway and in films.  I've got it "good" (apologies to all the English teachers out there).  And you know what?  I LIKE my job.  I love the kids.  And I work in a public school... in New Jersey (where we are vilified) and I think we make a difference to our kids.

Now, our school is diverse, lots of different students from around the world in different economic and religious environments.  Lots of different issues and academic standards.  Our budget got slashed last year and I haven't had a raise in two years.  But this past year, by using applied theatre, my public school students researched, developed and wrote their own original device drama about bullying that won awards from Mental Health Associations, has received critical acclaim, has created change in our district and made things better and safer, and is going to be published by a major house this year.  Not bad for one of those struggling public schools, right?  This group of diverse students (Hispanic, Asian, African American, Caucasian, Indian) worked together to create change - and did it.

I'm proud to be a public school teacher.  I wouldn't give up my job for the world.