Bullying is a big problem for kids of all ages.
It seems like there are news stories about bullying and its effects almost every day. Parents, students, and teachers are all working on making bullying a thing of the past, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. What works for one school or student may not work for another. It’s important to try different things to see which ones work best in each situation.
One fifth-grade teacher has found a solution that works for her class.
Kathy Pitt uses index cards and lets the students tell her anonymously who is being bullied. The best part is, the students don’t even realize they are doing it.
She passes out index cards at the beginning of class each week. She asks the students to write down the names of the kids they want to sit with, play with, or just feel the closest to, and she reads each card after class. Some kids write down different names each time, some write down the same names, and some kids don’t write down anything at all.
By reading the cards, she can tell which students are left out.
This tells her they are also the kids who are the most likely to be bullied by the other students. She believes that most kids don’t mean to be bullies and don’t even realize they are leaving other kids out and making them feel bad. Although the kids do not put their names on the cards, she can still figure out which card comes from which kids for the most part.
After reading the cards and getting an idea of how things are going in the class, she can then talk to the kids about their feelings, pair those kids up with other classmates to help them make friends and open up, and keep a closer eye on them so she can tell when they are upset.
This method is something she has been using for years, and she has complete faith in it.
She even shares the method with other teachers and parents who are interested in trying it out on their own kids or who are curious about how it works.
She said:
“When I came up with the idea of simply distributing the cards, it really was to find out which children were belonging and which children were not.”
One parent who came into the classroom to learn more about her student’s math assignment, writer Glennon Doyle Melton, noticed the method the teacher was using, and also found that it was very helpful and innovative.
“This story isn’t just about teachers and kids. This story is about the beauty that happens when we go through our day and we notice people who might not get noticed.”
She hopes that is can help stop bullying in her son’s class and in future classes. According to the teacher, so far so good. She has been using this method since 1999 and says that the kids have responded well to it.
At the end of the day, her goal is to help the kids get along better and break the ice between them so they give each other a chance.
After using this method for a few weeks, she has found that most kids become friends and the bullying stops.
By getting these kids to open up at a young age, they are less likely to bully each other as they get older. She plans on continuing her method in hopes of helping more kids in the future.
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