Cyberbullying Reactions

 
Image from https://cybersecurity.alabama.gov/2018/10/12/help-to-stop-cyberbullying/

My experience

As a classroom teacher, every year, I am asked to watch a training video on bullying, which includes a segment on cyberbullying. Also, every year, our school counselor teaches a classroom lesson on bullying, which includes a component on cyberbullying. My current students just had this lesson and they were excited to tell me about connections they made to becoming upstanders instead of bystanders in certain situations. I was proud of their enthusiasm. I thought maybe I would see some of this transfer over to the playground where we had recently seen some unkind behavior. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I tell this story because I think that education and awareness of traditional or cyberbullying can only go so far. I know these are eight-year-olds, but they will soon go off to middle school and high school where they will see an increase in bullying. These types of lessons need to be on-going, not just a one-off "check-it-off-the-list" activity.

How can school librarians help?

As a school librarian, I think that preventing cyberbullying provides excellent opportunities to collaborate with not just school counselors, but classroom teachers as well. 
* Finding books that teach empathy and kindness that aren't just part of a week of kindness. Consistently reading and promoting them, especially at the beginning of the year, but all throughout the year. 
* Teaching lessons like the one by Jill Swain in our resource folder for this week is a good example for elementary schools as well. By clearly defining examples of cyberbullying and having students create posters, I believe a school is more likely to see some transfer of this knowledge into students' lives.
* Participating in programs such as the Digital Citizenship Project in Illinois mentioned in the article by Jon Orech also seems like a great way to involve older students in the conversation. 
* Help administrators find better ways to report bullying incidents. 
* Work on committees that are developing or revising bullying policies. 
* Showing videos like the ones on cyberbullying.org are everyday ways to start important conversations. I especially like the one created by Meadowbrook School for elementary students:

Final Thoughts

I was shocked to hear the statistics from the Faucher, Cassidy, and Jackson (2015) article about the reports of cyberbullying in post-secondary education and in the workplace. I guess because I am lucky enough to never have experienced any type of bullying past high school that I just didn't realize how prevalent it is. To me, this just reinforces why it is so important to begin the conversation and education at an early age and to continue its frequency as students get older. No matter what age the students at your school are, school librarians can and should play an important role in the prevention of cyberbullying.

Works Cited:

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in k-12, higher education, and the workplace.  Journal Of Education And Training Studies, 3(6), 111-125.

Orech, J. (2012). How it's done: Incorporating digital citizenship into your everyday curriculum.  Tech & Learning, 33(1), 16-18.

Swain, J. Introduction to Cyberbullying. Lesson plan retrieved from AASL Learning4Life Lesson Plan Database.

Comments

  1. SydneyMarch 13, 2021 at 9:27 AM

    Amanda,
    I enjoyed reading this, because I am also in an elementary school. It is so important that the conversation start there, and as you say, be a prominent, consistent topic of conversation. The main point I took away this week was that we need to be encouraging programs that actually produce meaningful transitions into the students’ lives. When we show videos, we then continue to talk about them and use them as examples – on the playground, at lunch or wherever we can insert possible opportunities. I really appreciate your suggestions of how we can help at the elementary level!
    Sydney

    ReplyDelete
  2. Caroline MixonMarch 14, 2021 at 9:00 AM

    Amanda,

    I think that it really starts when children are young. That is why I feel it is so important to teach younger grades life long social emotional skills that will stick with them in the grades to come. At my school we have a social emotional program called "Second Steps" that requires classroom teachers to teach a daily social emotional lesson to the class. This builds on their problem solving skills, tools for listening, empathy, etc. It is so important that we enforce and reinforce these skills and address bullying as soon as it starts to manifest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 14, 2021 at 1:21 PM

    Amanda,
    So much of what you said hits home for me! As a former classroom teacher, and now school librarian, I've seen a lot of what you mention. We pay lip-service to kindness during kindness week (though how some of our theme days promote kindness, I am not sure), and check the box each year for talking about bullying in guidance class. But, as you mention, it more-or-less ends there. I applied for the position of school librarian at my school three years ago largely because I believed that a library should be the heart of a school. While I have faced a fair amount of frustration in making that happen (the last year being a particular stumbling block), I still believe libraries can serve as a cultural foundation for creating communities of kindness, where students stand up for each other and treat each other with respect. We can be the lynchpin, connecting students with text and other forms of media (like this week's videos) that can build a shared culture of kindness.
    -Amanda Delorie

    ReplyDelete

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