Gender Stereotypes Lesson Plan

A few years ago I decided to cut my hair very short.  When I walked into my elementary school the overwhelming reaction I received from the kids was that I looked like a boy, some even told me I shouldn't have gotten my hair cut like that because only boys had short hair.  The next day at an assembly a big stink was made by the adults about one of the male teachers wearing a pink shirt.  I decided that week I needed to talk about gender stereotypes and how we should respond if someone behaves in someway that we consider out of the norm.  The kids responded well and I quickly noticed changes in their behavior.  Since then I have kept my eyes open for opportunities to teach tolerance around societal gender norms. 

Media Awareness Network has produced a very thorough lesson plan for middle school (also appropriate for high school) that uses some activities similar to ones I have used in the past that the kids connect well with.  I especially like having students identify "boy" and "girl" things and putting them in a box showing how society reinforces these ideas.  It is easier in some places (cultures/countries/religions) than in others to simply say - "be who you want to be".  In some cultures this is very difficult.  However, we can still reinforce the idea that we need to be respectful of all types of people.  Teasing, name-calling, bullying, etc. a person because of how they dress or act is not ok.  We can also help our students recognize that not all people feel like they fit into those boxes and we can be supportive of that in different ways.

Click here to go to the lesson plan: Gender Stereotypes and Body Image lesson plan

Classroom management tips

Looking for some new ideas for classroom management?  Is your school trying to be more positive in your approach to rules and discipline?  Here are some resources:

1.  I've been reading the Smart Classroom Management blog and I think it's got some great advice, and would be a great resource to give to your beginning teachers or even student teachers.

Just to give you an idea, the last few posts have been:
How to Be A Better, Happier Teacher By Slowing Down
How To Stop Repeating Yourself And Start Speaking With Power
How To Inspire Classroom Management Excellence

2.  I also really like Love and Logic and have been in a few schools where all the teachers are trained in this style.  I just did a training with some of the staff at my current school and found the Love and Logic website has some handouts for teachers here: Free Resources for Teachers

3. A good book is Lost at School (the same author who wrote The Explosive Child).  I really appreciated the idea that when students can't learn math we teach them, or when they can't read we teach them; we can do the same with behavior.  After I read The Explosive Child I gave it to a teacher friend who worked in our intervention room and though skeptical, she loved it.  I then gave it to my principal who also found it inspiring.

4.  I recently read Discipline with Dignity and found it has some good content.  A quick read and some good reminders about how our approach to discipline can either influence kids to want to behave or scare them into not getting caught.  

CyberSmart! Curriculum

While our students with their knowledge of technology may be able to run circles around us on computers, smartphones, ipads, etc., they still need instruction and guidance about how to use technology in a smart and safe manner.  Whether it is you, the school counselor, that teaches these important life-lessons or a computer teachers, you will undoubtedly deal with issues surrounding technology - namely cyberbullying.

I love the detailed lesson plans Common Sense Media has produced for their CyberSmart! Curriculum.  They range from kindergarten to 12th grade and cover 5 SMART target areas:

• Safety and security online
• Manners, cyberbullying and ethics
• Authentic Learning and Creativity
• Research and information fluency
• Twenty-first century challenges

Do you have other resources for teaching computer safety?  Please share!

National Bullying Prevention Week/Month

October is National Bullying Prevention Month: "Sponsored by the PACER Center—a parent center for families of children and young adults with disabilities—and cosponsored by NEA, the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, and National PTA, this event encourages communities to work together to increase awareness of the prevalence and impact of bullying on children".-NEA website

It seems there are plenty of specific weeks dedicated to bullying prevention depending on what organization you are looking at - many of them seem to be in October and others dispersed throughout other months.  Regardless of the time you chose to teach a bullying unit, I'm sure most of us out there find it an important issue to address.  Here are some resources designed to help teach kids about bullying.

1. PACER Center - This site has 2 separate week-long comprehensive educational toolkits geared towards elementary and middle/high school.

• Elementary includes lesson plans, role plays, coloring book, activities, suggested reading list, etc.  Connect kids to the student-centered website: http://www.pacerkidsagainstbullying.org/

• Middle/High school also includes daily lesson plans and activities.    The student-centered website for these kids is: http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/

2. Peaceful Schools International - a whole list of downloadable resources and websites.  In particular I like the first download - 50 Ideas for Anti-Bullying Week (Anti-bullying alliance).

3. Stop Bullying Now! - A very kid friendly site for both students and adults.  Complete with information, videos, games about how to recognize, stop or report bullying.

Career: What Do You Like?

The BLS Career Information website asks students what they are already interested in, and then recommends jobs based on particular areas. By no means a career interest inventory, it does help younger students (geared towards grades 4-8) see how activities they enjoy could lead them to a potential career option.

"On the kids' site, wording and labor market concepts have been simplified and some statistical detail has been eliminated. In addition, the occupations on the site are categorized according to interests and hobbies common among students. The twelve categories and their corresponding occupations are shown at the end of this Teacher's Guide. To help students continue their career exploration, each occupational description on the kids' site links to related information in theHandbook. The Bureau's Web site for kids is updated every 2 years with each new edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook."

Peace One Day

The Peace One Day website has educational information, lesson plans and videos about Peace Day (September 21).

"Our goal is to provide our Education Resource to every school on earth. With this in mind, we have researched, designed and created lesson plans which we believe will enable today's children to become tomorrow's peacemakers. Our multimedia resources are available FREE online.

The resources are designed to enable students to develop a sense of perspective in relation to our multicultural and interdependent world. Reflective individual and group activities, critical thinking and modern technology are core components of the Resource. Through such experiences students will have opportunities to gain an awareness of Peace Day and what it stands for, as well the sense that they too, as global citizens, have an active role to play.

We recommend the resources be used in conjunction with Jeremy's documentary The Day After Peace. The 32-minute classroom-ready version of the film (with subtitles in Arabic, Chinese [Mandarin], French, Russian and Spanish) is now available to view free online here. The 32 and 58-minute classroom-ready versions and the original 82-minute feature-length film, can all be found on the Schools Edition DVD, available to purchase online from the POD Shop."