Social Justice – Page 10

October 20, 2012October 24, 2012 Carmen.Oliveira Anti-bullying, Learning About Your Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Social Justice

My Grade Six Bullying Task Force

In light of the focus on bullying that has come as a result of Amanda Todd’s heart breaking story depicting the path that led her to put an end to the pain and feeling of helplessness she endured for so many years, our class devoted much time and discussion to this urgent topic. I, like every educator or parent reading this, find myself faced with the issue of bullying on a regular basis which can feel extremely frustrating. However, this time around, I decided to take the topic further.

As we read picture books, learned about real life stories, analyzed the roles of the bully, victim, and bystander, and thought about what creates the mentality of a bully and the victims, we came to the realization that the knowledge and understanding we need to effectively deal with this issue lies within us. We looked at ourselves, our care givers, the media, and our lifestyle to find the answers.

Earlier in the week, the government announced that a task force would be created to study this on-going issue on a deeper level in order to come up with strategies and recommendations to support the need for action. I would like to save the government hundreds of thousands of dollars by sharing what my Grade Six Bullying Task Force created within the span of five days. Keeping in mind that I am referring to a group of 30 ten and eleven year-olds, the experience was quite simply enlightening.

In a nutshell (and using “big words”), the main ideas discussed included the following:

we have all experienced the roles of being the bully, the victim, and the bystander. Maybe one role has been more dominant so far, but if we take a careful look, we’ve taken on each of these roles at some point in our lives.
our upbringing and experiences with our care givers have a significant impact on the roles we choose to take on. No one is born a bully or victim. Both come to be as a result of the words, emotions, and actions we are exposed to as we begin to make sense of the world.
we have a choice about the roles we take on in life. The power lies within us to choose whether we will be a bully, a victim, a bystander, or none of the above. Kids need to learn how their thoughts create their reality.
education through self-awereness is the most powerful way to unravel our ideas, beliefs, and feelings with respect to how we treat others and would like to be treated. This will not work if educators and care givers continue to give a “time-out” to those who bully and pat on the back with sympathy to those who are victims.
we need to educate the ones who bully (including their care givers!) through self-awareness, empower the ones who are victims by working on their inner belief system, and hold accountable those who decide not to make a positive decision to change by taking legal action that has an impact on their future.

Bullying will not go away by spending millions of dollars on research and resources. There has to be a fundamental shift in the way we educate and empower people to understand that our ideas and actions originate from a belief system which must be changed at the core if we’re to move forward into a positive way of being. If a class of ten and eleven year-old get this, then we owe it to them to make it happen.

October 8, 2012October 9, 2012 Carmen.Oliveira Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Resources, Social Justice

Social Justice Begins With Me!

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead

As we ease into another school year our class has begun to live the truth of this quote by Margaret Mead. We started by becoming involved in learning a dance for a flashmob that we performed to fundraise for the Scarborough Hospital’s campaign to purchase a new MRI machine. The students felt the opportunity was very meaningful and powerful. It prompted read-alouds, class discussions, and journal entries on the topics of giving back to our community through simple acts of kindness and the power of believing that we can all make a difference in the world we live in.

This experience was a perfect segway to our Me to We Day. The group of students who had the privilege of attending the celebration at the Air Canada Centre came back to school in awe and full of motivation to continue learning about how we can create a life where we are aware of how each decision, belief, and act impacts not only those around us but potentially people around the world.

Feeling that the students were ready to embark on a year dedicated to social justice issues, I decided to use the resource “Social Justice Begins With Me! created by ETFO. Our first activity centred around reading the picture book “Yanni Rubbish” by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim. The activity proved to be one of the students’ favourites so far. We discussed how certain jobs and professions are viewed as more prestigious or important than others and why that is. Amazingly, the students needed absolutely no guidance with respect to understanding that all professions and jobs are important and necessary in their own way. As a cumulative task, each student created a Thank You card for someone in the community that had an important but unappreciated job. This Thanksgiving weekend, they gave their cards and took pictures with the recipients.

I cannot begin to express how satisfying it was to see the pictures of my students bringing such positivity to their community!

This email I received from a student says it all:

Hi Mrs. Oliveira!I gave the thank you card to the librarian(s)!!!! They were so thankful and grateful. The librarian that I gave the card to said she will make sure that she shows the other librarians!! When I left, I felt so good and so helpful! I couldnt bring a camera because they were all not available. I feel so happy!

: Students create their Thank You cards

A student gives her card to a TTC driver

March 29, 2012March 30, 2012 Sangeeta.McAuley Building Inclusion, Learning About Your Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Planning, Social Justice, Use of Technology

Themes As the Driving Force

While there are some conflicting opinions about the use of themes in teaching, I have found that they are extremely powerful tools we can use to help our students connect their world to curriculum subjects.

I began my school year with the theme of Identity, so my Grade 4 students could know more about who they are as individuals. We examined factors like religion, gender, family, and media and how they play a role in shaping our identities. I was particularly excited to zero in on gender, in an attempt to work on one of the UN Millennium goals:

Goal #3 – Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)

This led us to discuss stereotypes that can exist for males and females and through drama, visual arts and writing, my students reflected on their experiences and how stereotypes can lead to exclusion. We read personal stories and viewed clips from the site, “Because I Am A Girl” (http://becauseiamagirl.ca/) and they mapped places in the world where these stories came from and looked for patterns. At the end, students wrote about themselves and their learning in a blown-up version of their individual fingerprints.

Over the course of working within this theme, I began to see the challenges my students had with the concept of Choice and realized I had found my next theme to explore with them.

Goal #1 – End Poverty and Hunger

Goal #2 – Achieve Universal Education

My students made puppet shows on iPads to illustrate a time when they had to make a difficult choice and we studied persuasive writing and how their voices can have an impact on the choices others make. Closer to the holiday season, we planned a fundraiser and I shared Unicef’s website and the survival gifts program (www.unicef.ca/). They convinced me that we should raise money to send a child to school because that would decrease the chances of this child living in poverty. So, we sold popcorn throughout our school, in the hopes of raising $75 to send a child to school. My students designed posters, they went to each class in the school and shared our idea, they counted and tracked the money that came in with the orders and to our surprise, we raised $300 and were able to send 4 children to school. Their one condition before I made the donation: can you please make sure that it is 2 boys and 2 girls?

Over the holidays, I contemplated how relatively quiet my mind was because I wasn’t hearing the daily concerns: he’s not sharing the soccer ball, I can’t find a teacher to help me outside, no one will play with me. In order to help my students with some of these issues, I needed to move to Power and its role in relationships and specifically on the playground. My students took post-its notes outside to record when they heard power being used and we studied about power in science through light and sound. They wrote articles for a class newspaper that outlined powerful people in our school and my personal favourite, we discussed imbalance in power, which led to yoga during our gym periods.

As I move into my last theme of the year, Agents of Change, Mission Impossible music plays in the background while my students are designing badges and creating surveys which will provide them with the data they need to make changes within our school.

Goal #7 – Ensure Environmental Sustainability

When my colleagues ask me how I find time to teach the curriculum, I say: The themes are my curriculum, they are what drive me to make connections for my students.