Explain to students that the brain relies on chemical messengers called neurotransmitters to send messages to other parts of the body and enables us to express our emotions.  Insufficient or out-of-balance neurotransmitters can produce mood swings, anxiety, and depression. Drugs and alcohol can play a major role in the imbalance of these important chemical messengers.

It is important for young people to understand that, when a drug is taken, it acts as an artificial neurotransmitter.  When alcohol is consumed, for example, it substitutes for endorphins, the neurotransmitters that significantly affect mood, causing the brain to produce less of its own natural endorphins.  Like alcohol, all drugs that replace neurotransmitters cause the brain to produce less of its own natural chemical messengers.  This can have lasting effects on mood and other important brain processes long after the drug is used.

Talk with students about what kind of affects commonly-used drugs can have on their brains and their ability to control their anger and other emotions:

1. Marijuana: Marijuana replaces the natural receptor for serotonin, a neurotransmitter responsible for aggressive behavior, sleep, and hunger, therefore causing an imbalance in the brain.  The brain signals that it has too much serotonin and stops producing it.  When the drug wears off, the brain does not have enough serotonin, which consequently causes withdrawal symptoms, such as insomnia, fatigue, depression, and mood swings.  All of these could affect a young person’s ability to control their anger.
2. Alcohol: Alcohol also alters serotonin levels and substitutes for endorphins, therefore causing an imbalance in the brain.  The brain signals that it has excess endorphins and slows down its natural production of them.  When alcohol wears off, the brain does not have enough endorphins to relieve normal, everyday pain.  Students are less likely to deal with their anger responsibly when in pain or feeling sick.
3. Cocaine: Cocaine releases excess dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for controlling moods and feelings of pleasure, into the brain.  This  blocks the gates where natural dopamine would enter a cell for up to 72 hours and causes some of the natural dopamine to be lost, thus damaging a person’s ability to feel pleasure.  When the drug wears off, users are often unable to feel pleasure, happiness, or other emotions, and become severely depressed.  This can significantly alter someone’s ability to control and express their emotions, including anger.

By teaching students about the ways that drugs and alcohol affect their ability to manage anger, we are equipping them with the knowledge they need to understand the chemical processes behind their emotions and the ways that artificial substances can affect them.  And, most importantly, we give them one more reason to stay away from harmful drugs in the first place.

Click HERE for more information on Susan Fitzell’s Anger Management Curriculum for Teens!

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Throw Out Patterns of Thinking that Accept or Excuse Bullying

We have reached a point in our society where it can no longer be acceptable to sit back and watch children engage in name-calling, taunting, pushing, and grabbing, as if resigned to the inevitability of this kind of bullying. Also, in regards to gender stereotypes, the adage that boys will be boys is a dinosaur. If we want children to be of good character and able to handle conflict peacefully, we need to cast out patterns in our thinking that say, This behavior is normal. Its been going on forever. There is nothing I can do about it. There IS something you can do! Children need to have their natural sense of empathy fostered and encouraged. They need to be taught to see other people’s points of view. It is important that the consequences of their actions are explained to them in terms that drive the point home.

React with “Moral Feeling”

Thomas Lickona in Educating For Character (1992) states, “Recent child-rearing research finds that children who are the most empathic and altruistic have parents who react strongly to their children’s offenses.” For example, you might say, “You hurt Amy. Pulling hair hurts! Don’t ever pull hair!” rather than “How do you think it feels when you pull Amy’s hair?” or “Do you think it’s a good idea to pull Amy’s hair?” It’s the combination of the parents’ moral reasoning and moral feeling that appears to motivate children to take seriously what they have done and to become sensitive to the feelings of others. I personally have found this to be true with my children. If emphatic moral feeling is attached to the reprimand and reasoning, children pay attention. By simply saying, “Don’t pull Amy’s hair. It’s not nice.” — with or without punishment — we will not teach the child to relate his/her behavior to another’s hurt.

Reduce and Monitor Television Viewing

It is also important to note that learning relationship skills is taking a back seat to watching TV and videos and playing video games. Children are not interacting with each other to build necessary social skills. Children bring their computer games to school, which further decreases interactive games and activities. Preschool and primary school teachers repeatedly tell me that children are coming to school without basic social skills. These teachers believe that the media play a large role in this situation. The TV is a wonderful baby-sitter! The price we pay for that “baby-sitter” is costing our children the ability to develop socially.

Teach Social Skills and Expect Courtesy

We need to teach relationship skills in our classrooms and homes. We get so many mixed messages from society and our culture that it is sometimes difficult to know which relationship skills we are missing. Courtesy has gone by the wayside. We often don’t even notice when our children don’t say “please,” “thank you,” or “excuse me.” Language has become littered with vulgarity. Vulgar language seems so commonplace now that it is the accepted norm in many families. “Put-downs” are a form of accepted humor. This is reinforced by countless “sit-corns” where we are entertained by family members and friends insulting each other all in the name of humor.

5 Practical Suggestions for Relationships

• Teach social skills.
• Teach and reinforce courtesy.
• React with “Moral Feeling.”
• Throw out patterns of thinking that accept or excuse bullying:
  • “Boys will be boys!”
  • “Hazing is a tradition!”
  • “Name-calling is normal!”
• Reduce and monitor television viewing. Encourage interactive play with other children.

For more information about conflict education and caring communities, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Free The Children, Conflict Education for Strong and Peaceful Minds. Available in both print and electronic versions!

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Jamie* (name changed) was the high school student who directed his energy to pestering others, defying requests to start working, and retaliating with, “But it wasn’t my fault — he started it, Ms. G!” when I saw him throw paper balls at his friend during my 5th Period class. Don’t negotiate with him, my mentor advised. He wants to argue with you, oppose you, push your buttons, and see what he can get away with. Show him who is in charge. I struggled to digest my mentor’s comments; I wanted to understand why Jamie was reflexively reacting to situations, rather than thoughtfully responding. And, I wondered, how could I use my experiences in mindfulness and yoga to coach Jamie to respond more effectively?

The 5 Breaths activity was crucial to my behavioral management strategy with Jamie. I told Jamie that whenever he felt anger, frustration, or the impulse to annoy his peers, he had my permission to give me a “secret signal” (index finger indicating the #1) that enabled him to step outside and take 5 Breaths. One condition: the 5 Breaths had to be slow inhales and exhales through the nose, with one hand on his stomach. Jamie’s response to practicing 5 Breaths for the first time was, “Ms. G, was that magic!?” The 5 Breaths activity became our thing. It worked for Jamie because it gave him something to do with his body, his breath, and his mind—something on which he wasn’t graded or judged. By directing his energy to his breath, Jamie created time for a response instead of a reaction. For Jamie, this activity gave him control in a situation over which he felt he had none.

As miraculous as the effects may have seemed to Jamie, the slow, deep breathing wasn’t magic. Slow, deep breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system—the body’s “rest and digest” system that decreases heart rate and blood pressure, signaling to the body that it is an appropriate time to relax.

In too many school settings, students like Jamie hear constant commands from teachers and administrators: “sit down, be quiet, sit still, pay attention, stay awake, control yourself.” While these commands—which are more common than the hot chips you see in the school cafeteria—are in place to create order and discipline, how often are students, especially ones with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), actually given the tools and training to truly understand how to comply? Sitting still and paying attention is hard! Just ask any adult who has sat through a staff meeting recently.

For students who may be on the Attention Deficit or Oppositional scale, constantly hearing these commands—without having an accessible toolkit of strategies to manage their bodies, emotions, and thoughts—can be a serious stressor. This stress often activates the sympathetic nervous system, responsible for the “fight-or-flight” reaction (increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and increased signaling to the body to either “fight” or “flee” from an emergency situation—or to flat-out “freeze”). This creates a negative feedback loop, but one that can be broken by giving students tools that help calm them and allow the function of reason to kick in. By letting himself breathe, Jamie was enabling his body to relax, rather than engage his “fight-or-flight” stress reaction.

Teaching students mindfulness, meditation, and yoga provides students with tools to slow down the moment and create time to respond to stressors, which helps students navigate the narrow definition of an ideal learner that we see in our current education system. These tools can be taught in one-on-one interactions similar to Jamie and Ms. G’s story, or in whole-class settings, similar to Ms. S’s story about bringing meditation to her class of 8th graders in Southeast Houston:

At the end of March, just before the Texas State Assessment for ELA and Reading, I nervously began guiding my students through five minutes of meditation every single day. We engaged in breathing, visualization, and positive thinking exercises. Mindfulness, meditation, and yoga had very positively impacted my efficacy as a teacher, so I decided the risk of my students thinking I was totally crazy was worth it!

Meditation turned out to be one of the best gifts I ever gave to my students. I know I taught them a lot about reading and writing, and even about social justice and being informed citizens, but I feel meditation had the greatest potential to help my students through the rest of their academic careers and beyond. It gave them an activity that enabled introspection, emotional regulation, and stress management.

For my students, meditation became a daily routine: my students would remind me anytime they thought I would forget about meditation that day. They adopted the tools for themselves, meditating at home before their exams, or meditating for a few breaths to calm their nerves before walking across the stage for their 8th Grade Graduation Ceremony. I knew the tools were working when one of my students—the one whose name EVERY teacher in the school knew because of his seemingly complete lack of self-control—caught me when I was being very reactive, and offered meditation as an option to self-regulate! I even allowed students to become the guides for meditation and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the ODD students who seemed to benefit the most from this experience.

As education leaders reflect on how and what we are actually teaching our students, it is crucial that we consider how mindfulness, meditation, and yoga can provide tools for individual development of self-awareness, self-efficacy, and resilience in nonjudgmental and inclusive ways.

Kelly Seibert is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she took her first yoga class at the University of New Mexico in 2006. She immediately fell in love with the sense of calm, balance, and empowerment she got from the practice. After some time working on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Kelly moved to Houston to become an 8th Grade ELA/Reading teacher as a Corps Member with Teach For America, and rediscovered the amazing physical and emotional benefits that yoga has to offer. She has been growing her practice ever since, and became an RYT 200 certified yoga teacher. Kelly taught in Southeast Houston for three years, where she decided to bring yoga and meditation into her Core Subject classroom and saw amazing results. Since leaving the classroom, Kelly has taught yoga, meditation, and mindfulness workshops in the Houston community and in Houston schools. Her goal is to share the benefits of these practices to create a more sustainable and supportive educational environment for students, teachers, and administrators.

Developmentally appropriate conflict resolution solutions! Get this Book Now! A unique approach to helping ourselves and our children deal with conflict Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Free the Children, Conflict Education for Strong, Peaceful Minds Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Bullying: Choices and Consequences

For more Behavior Management Strategies, Get the book today! Bring Susan to your campus! Anger Management: Transform Student Anger to Personal Power This is a hands-on, practical introductory program to teach anger management skills. Designed for all educators who work with youth. Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Anger Management: Transform Student Anger to Personal Power

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Take the time to discuss with children, at a level they can understand, the effect TV shows  and other forms of media have on them.

When my son was five years old, I think he believed that if he watched too much TV, he would have brains that look like oatmeal. That’s the only visual image he had for “mush.” Yes, I sometimes would answer in exasperation to the many “Why?”s I got when I enforcing our TV watching rules, “…because TV turns your brains to mush!”

Actually, that’s not far from the figurative. Four-, five-, or six-year-old children developmentally are not able to understand that their brain is being conditioned by media messages. At some level they can begin to understand that TV teaches them something.

Television and Media “Teaches” for Better or for Worse

I used to say to my children, “When you watch Mr. Roger’s, you learn about people and the jobs they do. What else do you learn!” or “TV teaches you about … (fill in with something positive that is very concrete to them, such as ABC’s, counting, etc.). When you watch Power Rangers, or VR Troopers, you are learning also. How do Power Rangers solve their problems? (Most children will answer: “Fighting or they beat up the bad guys.”) This show is teaching you to solve problems by fighting.” This is an important conversation to have about the influence of media on children. Variations of this conversation need to happen regularly.

Teach Children what Television and Media Teaches Them

It is important to help children understand that on TV a person can get kicked ten times and can then get up, but in real life getting kicked hurts.  In addition, discuss with children ways that superheroes can solve problems without violence.

Living in a society saturated by violent images, parents have a difficult road to follow if they are going to take a stand against media violence. Somehow, a balance needs to be achieved. If we completely deprive our children of all media violence, we worry that they will eventually rebel against our standards, making violence a steady diet, or will feel that they don’t fit in with their friends.

At Home: A Moderate Path in a Media Saturated Culture

A moderate path would be to carefully choose the shows that your child is allowed to watch. Monitor the amount of time your child watches those shows. Watch with your child. Discuss their values, lessons, and methods of problem-solving. Discuss what is real and what isn’t. Discuss the real life consequences of behavior modeled on the television show. If your child is paying violet video games, discuss the images and messages in video games, also.

In the Classroom: Critical Thinking through Television and Media Analysis

In the classroom, teachers can take an interest in their students’ favorite shows. Discuss the shows with the students to help them to understand what is real and what isn’t. Help them to employ alternatives to violence in their own play.

Teach and Reinforce Empathy

The single most important thing that parents and educators can do for preschoolers to limit negative effects caused by violence in the media is to teach them empathy. Preschoolers cannot see another person’s point of view. To require three- through five-year-olds to see someone else’s point of view is developmentally inappropriate. Preschoolers can feel empathy. Empathy needs encouragement to flourish. Here are some examples of how to encourage empathy:

• Allow children to talk about their emotions
• Notice a child sharing or showing concern for others
• Hold class or family meetings where relationships and feelings can be discussed openly

And finally, when children are unkind to one another, instead of forcing an apology, require restitution. Here are some excellent ideas for restitution and meaningful discipline. “Restitution Ideas for Disciplined Children” by Debra Pachucki

Excerpted from Free the Children by Susan Gingras Fitzell.

Developmentally appropriate conflict resolution solutions! Get this Book Now! A unique approach to helping ourselves and our children deal with conflict Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Free the Children, Conflict Education for Strong, Peaceful Minds Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Bullying: Choices and Consequences

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I have been using the Education for Peace Series in school settings and in my martial arts program for the past 11 years. The book and accompanying curriculum (sold separately)is powerful, direct and meaningful for children. It helps them to understand bullying at its core thereby teaching students not only to understand conflict but to successfully navigate through it using the Twelve Ways to Walk Away with Confidence. The Twelve Ways provide options for children: they choose which one feels more comfortable for them in a threatening situation. All children are different and have varying levels of comfort with specific strategies. What I like best about this book is that it provides understanding about bullying without casting blame AND provides youth with several means to deal with it. Imagine your child is cornered and alone and is physically or even verbally threatened. What tools does your child have to get out of the situation? If their life is endangered, should they “reason with the bully”, “use trickery”, “shout”, try to “make friends”, or “use humor”? Are there other tools in the toolbox for them to pull out to save their life or avoid a verbal or physical beating? Tools and understanding is what this program provides. Hopefully, a child will be spared if s/he has some skills. Without skills, s/he is more likely to become another victim.

This is one of the Books Worth Reading

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The Power of Saying, “I’m Sorry”

It’s really easy to call someone a bully, but it’s not so easy to be called a bully yourself. We’ve all made mistakes in our lives – sometimes when we were kids and didn’t know better, and sometimes when we’re adults and really should. Making mistakes is part of being human, but realizing we’ve made a mistake and not doing anything about it compounds the problem. Taking responsibility for our actions and apologizing can make a world of difference, not only for the person who was bullied, but also for the bully themselves.

Recently, at a school assembly, I asked the kids to think of someone they need to apologize to. I encouraged them to seek out this person to say they were sorry and to make it up. Immediately after the presentation a brave young woman who was a victim of bullying but also a bully herself told me her story.

“In grades 7 and 8 I was a bully. Right now I really regret that. Every day for the full year in grade 7 I would kick him and he would have bruises on his shins. Now I feel bad. He was petrified of me. In grade 8 I did say I was sorry but I didn’t mean it. But now I see that my actions could cause him to do really bad things. I am very sorry.” Shortly after speaking to this young woman I received an e-mail saying that she had tracked down the young man to apologize.

Saying, “I’m sorry.” is one of the most important things that we can do, not only for the person we hurt, but for ourselves. In an article on the power of apology in Psychology Today, author Beverly Engel talks about the benefits of apologizing. For the person on the receiving end, an apology contributes to “emotional healing when he is acknowledged by the wrongdoer” and “helps us to move past our anger and prevents us from being stuck in the past.” On the giver’s side, “the debilitating effects of the remorse and shame we may feel when we’ve hurt another person can eat away at us until we become emotionally and physically ill. By apologizing and taking responsibility for our actions we help rid ourselves of esteem-robbing self-reproach and guilt.”

When my daughter, Amanda, was bullied I secretly dreamed that the girls who did it would one day call her up and tell her they were sorry. Two of her childhood friends apologized on her last day of school, but her best friends walked away without a word. Two of the girls she was physically frightened of from the second school let her know in their own way that they were no longer a threat, but I’m not sure an apology will ever happen. I know that an apology will not erase the hurt, however I do know that it can help remove the anger and start the healing – healing that needs to take place for both the person who hurt and the person who was hurt.

Laurie Flasko, CSP, teaches and challenges her audiences through her own life’s example. For more information about Laurie and her work, visit her website at www.laurieflasko.com. To order a copy of Bullying is NOT a Game. A Parents’ Survival Guide visit www.bullyingisnotagame.com or follow Laurie on Facebook at Bullyingisnotagame.

Contact Laurie to speak to parents, kids, teachers, mental health professionals at lflasko@laurieflasko.com 905-357-2345

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Words that screamed, “I AM A VICTIM!”

The year was 1987. She was a foster child, unwanted by her natural parents, at odds with her foster mother. The deck was stacked against her. I wanted to take her shopping to buy her decent clothes. If she had a decent haircut and learned to apply a little makeup, maybe she wouldn’t draw such negative attention to herself.

But then, she’d still open her mouth. Out from her mouth came all the words that screamed, “I AM A VICTIM!” Her manner, style, and body language reinforced this image. Kennie was a scapegoat, a target for all other insecure people to taunt and use to get spare change, petty favors, and a good laugh.

One day, I watched as an older, larger aggressive girl verbally took Kennie apart and left her in pieces on the classroom floor. My directives for the verbal attack to end went unheeded. The audience was thrilled with the display the two presented. Kennie ran away. She ran out of the classroom, out of the building, and out into the street. The bell rang. Chaos ensued. I cornered her attacker. I was enraged, furious that one human being could be so cruel to another. I wanted to lay her out flat. She was twice my size.

I spoke, choosing the mildest words I could manage, given how I felt. I told her that sometimes she acted like a complete asshole! I didn’t care whether what I said was appropriate. I was angry and fed up with the abuse Kennie suffered day after day. I was at a loss as to how to help her. What I saw, however, triggered in me tremendous emotional pain, pain buried deep in my psyche, pain I could not forget.

I Was Outnumbered

It was 1972. Patched bell bottoms were the uniform. Boys’ sneakers, army jackets, and skin-tight tops were the rage. The social dress code forbade white socks. My mother, like most mothers, had set ideas on how a girl should dress. My teenage self believed that her ideas were far from fashionable. My wardrobe did not include the grungy, tie-dyed, patched clothing of the times. Some well-meaning aunts would give me bags of outdated clothes they had tired of or outgrown. Consequently, my dress was quite out of style.

One day, I was walking to the store in my 50s-style hot pink stretch pants, white socks, and girls’ sneakers. Then I saw them up ahead. Immediately, fear penetrated my soul. Pride kept me from running. They had been taunting me for weeks. There were five of them. There was an obvious ringleader. She was huge and appeared to be a few years older than I. “Hey, fag! Hey, fag with the white socks!”

The next thing I remember, I was surrounded. She was screaming something at me. She wanted to fight. I wouldn’t. I didn’t know how. There was no escape. I was outnumbered. The slap across my face stung. Angry and humiliated, I swore at her. There was no thought, just reaction. At that moment, the crowd parted. A friend and neighbor from across the street saw what was happening and summoned her older brother to help. They provided for my escape. The girls never bothered me again. I would be eternally grateful for this act of kindness.

That memory of cruelty and abuse, compounded by many, many others witnessed in the classroom over the years, compelled me to search for a deeper understanding of who I am, what I believe in, and how I could act on those beliefs. Thus emerged my philosophy.

Children are born with a wisdom waiting to unfold and manifest itself in personality. That personality, however, is directed by the environment in which the child lives. I believe that whether personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses take a positive or negative path, whether children reach their potential or not, depends on the children’s environment.

Once children have internalized the education provided by their environment, their behavior becomes set in patterns of reaction and response to that environment. This is why self-knowledge with an understanding of the origins of our attitudes, beliefs, and prejudices is necessary before we can change what isn’t working for us in relationships and consciously keep what does work.

Self-awareness and Empowerment

Only when the Kennies of the world can look at themselves, their behavior, their body language, and their appearance with insight and awareness can they begin to understand what they need to do to change from being a victim to being an empowered self.

When people are empowered, they free themselves from the victim role. They are no longer victims or oppressors. They are clear, focused, and centered in the strength of who they are.

We, as teachers of our children and our students, need an awareness of how our environment (media, culture, family values) shapes the way we think and feel. Once we have that awareness, it is our responsibility to educate our children. The alternative is to act blindly on impulses, feelings, and belief systems that have no known source or purpose.

Our culture, the media, and our individual family values have an impact on how we think.

Before they are two years old, children are aware of racial differences. By the age of three, they may attach value judgments to those differences. Between the ages of four and six, they show gender-stereotyped behaviours, and may reject children who differ from themselves in terms of race or physical disability.

How do stereotypes come about at such an early age? The first influences are the attitudes of immediate family members, often acquired unconsciously. Later, children absorb stereotypical messages from books, television, movies, magazines and newspapers.

– Susan Fountain, Education for Development

Scientific evidence presents a convincing argument that heredity and genetics play a major role in who we are. Studies also indicate, however, that our environment has an impact on how we develop. It is only when we are aware of this “conditioning” that we can act to change it.

Children are perceptive beings. If adults engage them in discussion of the conditions in their environment which affect the way they think and feel, children can learn to act rather than to react.

We adults are very aware and lament the negative influence that environmental factors such as the media and the commercial market are having on our children. It is important that we pass this awareness on to our children.

We should point out those things in the environment that condition children to accept stereotypes and bigotry, that desensitize them to violence and vulgarity, and that create in them reactive, inappropriate, emotional responses. Awareness and knowledge give them the power to make proactive decisions.

Developmentally appropriate conflict resolution solutions! Get this Book Now! A unique approach to helping ourselves and our children deal with conflict Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Free the Children, Conflict Education for Strong, Peaceful Minds Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Bullying: Choices and Consequences

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Teaching point of view to young students

When considering  teaching peaceful classroom or conflict resolution skills to preschoolers, the most important developmental aspect to keep in mind is that they are unable to see another person’s point of view.

They are very egocentric. They have, however, a natural developmental capacity for empathy that needs to be allowed to flourish.

Have you had the experience of sharing stories in circle time with preschoolers and one child had a sad story to tell? Maybe his dog died and he started to cry. The next thing you know, several children are crying inconsolably. What happened? Empathy happened.

Preschoolers have the emotional ability to pick up on the feelings of other children and to match them to their own. If, in a given situation, they cannot do this, it is often because they do not have the vocabulary for the emotion. They cannot identify with the feeling if they cannot label it.

Therefore an excellent tool to use with preschoolers is one of those posters with all the labeled ‘emotion’ faces.  Children can spot how they’re feeling on the poster. You can give them the name for the emotion. As they develop a vocabulary for their emotions, they are able to empathize with that emotion.

You can find a Moodz Poster by clicking on the link.

Developmentally appropriate conflict resolution solutions! Get this Book Now! A unique approach to helping ourselves and our children deal with conflict Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Free the Children, Conflict Education for Strong, Peaceful Minds Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Bullying: Choices and Consequences

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Using music to teach peace.

Use music to teach concepts of peace, cooperation, and sharing. Make music a part of every day. Preschoolers love music. It is amazing how much they can learn from the music that they listen to.

When my daughter was 18 months old, I discovered Brite Music). Brite Music has a tape called Safety Kids that teaches children safety rules, including their telephone number and what to do if they are lost in a store.

By the age of 2 ½, my daughter could sing her phone number. When we’d go to the mall, I would ask her what she should do if she got lost. She could tell me. She learned through the music. Consider how children learn their ABC’s. Look at the power of music and jingles in commercials. Music makes an impression that is remembered.

I highly recommend Brite Music. My favorite Brite Music tape is Someone Special You. This tape not only has a message for children, it has a message for all of us. Songs like “I Made A Mistake” (mistakes are for learning), “Think, Feel, Do Polka,” and “I Can Choose The Things I Think” are empowering and uplifting.

Another excellent tape is Teaching Peace by Red Grammer. Although this tape is a bit worldly for this age group, some of the songs relate to children and their feelings. Others relate to world concepts. It is positive music that introduces concepts of peace and world ‘oneness.’ Developmentally, it’s a little above preschoolers, but I think it still has value.

For more on Motivating Students, Get the book today! Bring Susan to your campus! How Can School & Home Develop Motivation and Success for Youth? Give your students the priceless gifts of empowerment, accountability, and motivation to tackle any learning challenge. Learn practical strategies today and implement them in your curriculum tomorrow. Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – How Can School & Home Develop Motivation and Success for Youth?

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Ten Ideas to Help Youth Learn More About Cyberbullying

1. Have students research the problem: Ask students to spend 30 minutes online to obtain a better understanding of what cyberbullying is. Chances are, many students have been victims or perpetrators of cyberbullying without even knowing. Discuss each student’s findings as a class.

2. Interview experts: Through the class discussion, develop questions about cyberbullying that your students want answered. Find a few cyberbullying experts online and drop them an email with the class’ questions. Then, discuss their answers.

3. Create informative posters: Ask students to design and create posters about the consequences of cyberbullying and how to deal with it. Not only will making the posters be a learning experience for the students involved, they can be displayed throughout your school and help educate other students as well.

4. Develop a website or blog: If you have a website for your classroom or subject area, add some information about cyberbullying. Otherwise, create your own cyberbullying resource page for students in your classroom or school to help students who may be victims of such bullying.

5. Have students mentor younger students: Ask your students to work together to create a presentation about cyberbullying to present to younger students. Ask students to share their own experiences with cyberbullying and to include ideas about how to stay safe online. This will help not only your students, but many others as well.

6. Ask students to write a letter: As a homework assignment or in-class project, have students write a short letter to the editor of your local paper expressing their concerns about cyberbullying and asking adults to take the problem seriously.

7. Create a public service announcement: As a class, work together to write and act out a short PSA about the consequences of cyberbullying. Film the skit and post it on the school’s website or show it at an assembly.

8. Educate your students on your school’s bullying policies: Ask students if they think the policies are strict enough and if they think they do enough to protect students from cyberbullying. If students think changes should be made, encourage them to talk to school officials.

9. Design a bumper sticker: As a homework assignment, ask students to design a bumper sticker that sends an important message about cyberbullying and its effects. Choose a winning design and display it throughout the school. Depending on your resources, bumper stickers of the winning design could be made and distributed to students and parents.

10. Write your own cyberbullying handbook: Assign different topics on cyberbullying- such as its dangers and what to do if you are a victim- to each student and ask them to write a few paragraphs on the subject along with an illustration or computer clip art. Then, put each student’s piece together to create your classroom’s very own cyberbullying handbook.

(Adapted from “Activities for Teens: Ten Ideas for Youth to Educate their Communities about Cyberbullying” by Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D. and Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D. at the Cyberbullying Research Center)

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