by James Burns | Feb 13, 2018 | Sexual Harrassment, Uncategorized
Encroachme
nt. That’s a football term, right? One team is offside and the referee throws the flag for a five yard penalty. That may be true, but in the world of bullying and relationships, it also has dramatic meaning, with penalties and consequences as well. Here is the definition: to take another’s possessions or rights gradually or stealthily, or to advance beyond proper or former limits. I have spoken about boundaries and limits before and how young children need to learn how to say, “Stop. Knock it off,” and slowly develop the courage to throw the flag and make the bully aware that they encroached on their space. As kids grow older, they enter into another world that involves boy/girl relationships and where problems with dating often occur. Our children need to learn at an early age that just because they like or are attracted to someone of the opposite/same sex, it doesn’t mean that they like or are attracted to them. A relationship between two parties grows out of a quality friendship first. For anyone to try and shoehorn themselves into a relationship that is unwanted is harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Teach your students now to throw the red flag if they believe someone is trying to encroach on their space.
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by James Burns | Feb 12, 2018 | Bully Proof Classroom, James Burns, Relationships, Uncategorized
As our students move forward in life, their desire to have meaningful relationships with the opposite sex intensifies and dating becomes a real novelty. Discussions in high school, and even middle schools, are continually taking place about who is seeing whom, and who likes whom. Even people who are older and have been away from the dating seen for a while find this type of situation awkward, and at times, uncomfortable. Just take a look at two people who are in the initial stages of building a relationship. He/she seems to be the greatest. Get to know them, I mean really know them, and what they are really about. Get on the inside track, and the indecisiveness of whether or not to stay will cause such fear, that arguments will be more common than holding hands. Young daters, and by young I mean high school age ,are more prone to being harassed and intimidated in a relationship then ever before. They enter in and really don’t know how to get out. And, often when they try to get out, they are harassed with rumors and gossip flooding the school building, destroying a person’s reputation. What do people fear the most? Sadly, people fear each other, and the closer they get to someone, the more they fear them. At the high school level our students need to be taught the ins and outs of dating. But, more emphasis needs to be placed on reading someone’s motives and knowing how to make a graceful exit when necessary. Teenagers stay in abusive relationships for many reasons; low self-esteem is one of them. Teach your students that they have a choice and to stay firm when they decide to either stay in or get out. The divorce rate is already too high.
by James Burns | Feb 9, 2018 | Bully Proof Classroom, Bullying, Documentation, James Burns, Uncategorized
Documentation
Whether or not bullying is a problem in your classroom, you should keep anecdotal records of students’ behavior. If you have students who are or who might become potential bullies, anecdotal records are even more important. If a student has more than one teacher, each teacher should keep behavioral logs, and they should be compared from time-to-time. Why is this so important? When parent meetings are conducted, a parent will usually confront the anecdotals from one teacher, but if more than one teacher has similar anecdotal records, the information presented will be viewed more legitimately by the parent. Often, a parent will view a negative one-on-one conference with a teacher subjectively and believe that the teacher is picking on his/her kid or worse yet, that the teacher really doesn’t like his/her kid. As an aside, parent meetings should always be held with more than one teacher present. If that’s not possible, an administrator or guidance counselor should be present for support. Never try to go at it alone with the parent of a student who is a bully.
by James Burns | Feb 6, 2018 | Texting, Uncategorized
Here is a nice little slogan you can post in your classroom and teach to your students: “Send like a friend: Text Responsibly.” It sounds easier than it really is. The reason? We are an impulsive society. We can’t control ourselves, and our students have even less self-control. The use of cell phones, Facebook, and other digital devices used to send messages makes it much too easy to send messages that are hurtful. Students who are victimized by this type of raid on their emotions have no place to go and no place to hide. It can happen right in the privacy of the individual’s bedroom, which in times past may have been the only safe haven for a victim of bullying. I wrote an article that you can read on our site www.bullyproofclassroom.com titled, “Society’s Morality has Not Kept Up with Technology.” Technology, which has become more and more sophisticated over time, is not really the problem. The problem is the lack of self-control and the belief that we can say or send anything we want when we want to. Let your students know that what they say and post will eventually come back to haunt them. Some employers and colleges have started using social media sites as screening tools prior to hiring and college acceptance. Please teach this short slogan to your students and make them aware that the “send” button can be a detonator that can ruin a life—maybe theirs.
by James Burns | Jan 31, 2018 | Uncategorized
Click Here To Purchase
The Real 3R’s Unit Plan On Resilience
Includes Links, Podcasts, Videocasts, Strategies and Tips
Helping Students To Become More Resilient Through Character Training,
Strength And Courage
Designed and Created By:
James H Burns MA, DHL
jameshburns55@gmail.com
by James Burns | Dec 31, 2017 | Frankenstein, Mary Shelly, Uncategorized
Two hundred years ago on New Year’s Day, a third-rate publisher issued an anonymous novel with an outlandish premise, quickly discounting most of the 500 print copies after slow sales. Despite this inauspicious beginning, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus,” has haunted us all the way to a time when life is routinely reinvented in a laboratory.
Ed Finn and David H.Guston
Let’s change the story a bit. What if the Frankenstein Monster was really a nice guy? The Monster who was played by Boris Karloff in a series of 1930 films was a bully, who went on a murderous rampage but in the end he solicited the audience’s pity as the towns people tracked him like a dog because of his abject cruelty. The bully became a victim and in an unknown hamlet in some lot at Universal Studios the crowd trapped him and burned down the building where he sought his escape. They thought they killed him but, this was only 1931 and they had to leave room for several sequels. No doubt the monster was different, which is one of the reasons they had to get rid of him. Weakness and difference are the two reasons why victims today get bullied; well the monster wasn’t weak but he sure was different.
