My group decided to do our service learning project at Bright Horizons Preschool (my work). We were in a classroom with 19 children and 2 teachers. When we got there, we separated into groups of 6 or 7. Each group had either Melissa, Alanna, or I to have a discussion with. In my group, we began by using a white board to discuss what it means to be a bully. The children came up with the following answers.
1 A mean boy or girl
2. Someone who kicks you
3. They make you cry
4. A strong boy
5. They make you sad
6. When someone pushes me down on the playground
After they finished discussing what a bullying is, we talked about different ways to stop bullying from happening. Some of the children were unsure about how to stop it, so I wrote down some ideas on the white board and asked them which ones they liked best.
1. Asking the bully to stop
2. Talking with a teacher
3. Talking with your parents
4. Staying away from that person
Many of the children liked the idea of talking with their parents. They said that if they tell their moms and dads, then the bullies moms and dads would tell them to stop. After discussing different strategies, we began reading the book, Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? I told them that this was a book about making people feel good. As we began reading, one child said, lets make our own buckets. I told them that when the story was over, we were going to say something nice about each child in the group like the boy does in the story.
After we finished reading the book, I began by saying, “You boys and girls did a great job listening. I can see how smart you all are.” Then I asked each child one by one to say something nice about the child sitting next to them. Once they did this, they were all smiling and saying nice things to everyone else in the classroom.
After completing this service learning project, I felt like I made a difference. Many of the children knew what bullying was, but they were unsure on ways to stop it. After reading the story, I think they really understood the concept I was trying to emphasize. It is important for teachers to discuss bullying with their classrooms and really make sure they understand it. When I become an elementary school teacher, I will discuss bullying on a weekly basis. I think that it is important to do service learning projects with students (depending upon the age) so they can really understand a specific topic. As I previously stated, completing this service learning project made me feel like I had an impact on those children. I was able to communicate with them about bullying and hopefully prevent them from bullying others children or becoming victims of bullying. Within the past couple of years, students have committed suicide because of being bullied. I think that if teachers continue to discuss bullying with students, they will feel more comfortable and safe coming to school everyday. As future teachers, we need to be the ones to stop bullying. Realistically, bullying will never stop, but the drastic measures students are taking because of it needs to be prevented. Children should feel safe coming to school everyday. There is no need for other students to feel that they have the right to bully another child.
In my opinion, I feel that service learning projects should be integrated into the classroom. The more hands on experience students, the more understanding they will have. Teacher can discuss certain topics with their students, but physically getting up and doing something for other people is what makes a difference. We can not just say we want to stop bullying. In order to stop bullying, people need to do projects such as this and really leave an impact on the children. I think that projects such as these can really help get people involved in the community. I think if anything could do anything differently, I would love to have more guest speakers and see the techniques and strategies they use with college students.
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