On February 28, 2024, we raise awareness for anti-bullying by wearing a pink shirt. This is because in 2007, a student in Nova Scotia, Canada was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. The following day, other students came in wearing pink shirts to stand up in solidarity against bullying.
Since then, different agencies and schools around the world adopted this stance to promote anti-bullying by wearing pink shirts.
This day is near and dear to my heart because when I first moved to Canada, I was bullied in elementary school and no one did anything to help me until I was able to stand up for myself.
As a teacher, I refuse to let that happen to my students. Not only do we fully participate in Pink Shirt Day in my class but we focus year-round on bullying prevention as a part of our health and social and emotional learning (SEL) classes.
It doesn’t matter where in the world you live or if you choose to wear a pink shirt or not, I hope you’ll join us by participating in the following activities.
Actionable Steps:
#1. Circle of Love
Have your students sit in a circle to symbolize connection. Then talk about what bullying and bystander effect is with your students. Remind them that this is a safe circle and nothing that’s said in that circle can leave it. Then invite students to share their experiences with bullying and how they handled it. You can also take it a step further and ask them if there’s anything would have done differently after learning about it.
This circle can continue after this one day on a weekly basis. This will really help with classroom management as well as students will feel closer to each other and have a deeper understanding of one another.
#2. Conflict Resolution Play
Teach your students how to resolve different bullying conflicts. Explain to students why it’s important to attempt to resolve bullying conflicts and who they can turn to when they’re struggling. Then provide them with some scenarios where children are being bullied or where others are watching the bullying take place. Have them role play in pairs or in small groups about how they would resolve these conflicts.
Do this on a regular basis so that it comes second nature to your students and that they know how to automatically react to the situation.
Recap:
Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:
- The importance of teaching about Pink Shirt Day on the actual day and beyond.
- Simple ways to teach about Pink Shirt Day to kids: circle of love and conflict resolution play.
Free Resources:
If your children are struggling to hand in assignments on time, check out the following video training: 3 Steps to Teach Children How to Overcome Procrastination to Increase Productivity.
In the mean time, if you’re feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and burnout, then I encourage you to check out the following: FREE MASTERCLASS: Systematic Plan to Super Passionate.
Next Steps:
For calm down areas on a budget, for your students who have autism, CLICK HERE.
If you found this video beneficial, would you do me a favor? Share this with your family, your friends, your loved ones, your co-workers or someone who you think could benefit from this. Thank you!
I’ll see you next Friday at 5:30pm PST.
Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.
Take care,
Charlotte
