We covered a lot of ground in Citizenship class this trimester! I want to thank all of my students for being open to our discussions and making such honest and insightful contributions to our weekly classes. What follows is a review of the material we covered. During Citizenship class, we:
- Discussed the importance of empathy, or the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. We examined how empathy compels us to be good citizens of our communities and responsible bystanders who help each other out of bad situations.
- Scrutinized the definition of bullying, with keywords keeps, intentional, and one-sided setting it apart from normal conflict. We looked at the 3 kinds of bullying: physical, social and emotional and discussed examples of each.
- Looked at scenarios describing conflict and had to decide whether they were normal or bullying behaviors. We noticed that sometimes there was a very fine line between normal conflict and bullying behaviors, but our definition, with keywords keeps, intentional and one-sided, helped make the final decision.
-Assessed our communication styles and practiced passive, aggressive and assertive communications.
- Explored the value of “I Statements” and communicating in ways that are clear, don’t place blame, and are respectful.
-Discussed some strategies for handling normal conflict and bullying behaviors, like using assertive (“I”) statements; including students who are left out; grouping together; and telling an adult if danger to you or someone else exists.
-Explored the concept of Digital Citizenship. In our connected culture, we communicate daily in ways other than face-to-face: texts, emails, social networks like Facebook, chat rooms, online games, etc. We have the same responsibilities to each other online that we have in person. “Tone of voice” is hard to communicate in writing, and messages may easily be taken the wrong way, so it is important to remain factual and brief. Messages and pictures that are sent or posted to the Internet can never be taken back. Never write or post anything that you wouldn’t want your parents, teachers, college counselors, and future employers to see!
THANK YOU!