A+Bird's+Eye+View+of+Bullying

The premise of this session is that a strong character education initiative in a district will help to address and reduce social issues such as bullying in a school/district. Tamra talked about the definitions/characteristics/types of a bully, bystander, and victim and how they all have things they need help with to become a balanced individual. The bully needs to develop empathy and deal with the issues that are causing him/her to be a bully. The bystander needs to develop confidence to stand up for right even when no one else is and the victim needs to see that he/she does have power to act doing the right thing with a plan of action. Dan Parente helped Tamra film real-life examples from around the district and let the students share their stories...some anonymously.

Tamra shared strategies that she believes really help students in Birmingham Public Schools and she shared the good work that is going on at BCS and across the district in these areas at all levels.
 * Teaching Communication Skills
 * Helping Students to have social strategies--not every strategy works with all people--students need tools
 * Discipline Systems designed to teach behavior and not just punishments
 * Development of Empathy
 * Leadership development
 * Educating Parents







Discussion Board Topic: How do you discuss "bullying" situtations with your children? click here to go to the discussion board