We all know that teachers do more than teach lessons from a curriculum. They spend many hours a day with students and get to know the students in their classes pretty well. So what happens when a teacher notices that one of the boys in class who is usually quite upbeat and happy, is suddenly quiet and withdrawn? He no longer volunteers to help pass out materials or raises his hand in class. He sits quietly and does not interact with others. Even with attempts to ask him if there is anything wrong he stays quiet and says he is "just tired." However, some moments later another student shares that this same student is being made fun of at school and online because his parents are gay and people are using gay slurs to make fun of him as well as his parents.
The above scenario was problem-solved at one of RESPECT's recent interactive workshops. Several ideas were shared in small group and many were tried on in role play activities with each other and in the large group as a whole. Some of the ideas suggested were:
"I would bring in some of our students from GLSEN and have their advocates educate the whole class. I bet other kids are also being affected. What about the kids who are gay who are hearing this stuff?"
"I'd be really assertive. I'd have the kids look up all of the rules our building and classroom have on this and the consequences. ''I have heard what is going on and I won't have that at our school or in my class. It's against all of our rules and the way we treat each other."
RESPECTable
Highlights
Over the past two months, RESPECT has partnered with Saint James Seton school and their school counselor, Marlena Laney, to offer a brand new program called Hold That Thought. This multi-session series is designed to incorporate the cognitive behavioral principles of learning with teaching methods derived from theatre to help children learn about, experience, practice and apply behaviors that help them to "Stop & Think" before they say or do something that can result in harm or unhappy consequences to themselves or their peers.
