Bullying during discussion about bullying

Today in my homeroom we took part in an a presentation given by MPD on the effects of bullying.  We viewed videos, a PowerPoint, did some role playing and listened to the variousl reasons why bullying takes place.  Obviously, this is valuable information for the students to hear as many times as necessary to create enough awareness to help prevent bullying from occurring.  It was after the officers left that a more open, honest discussion took place.  One student declared to the class that he was experiencing bullying and described what it was that was being said to him.  Other kids followed up with commentary about the presentation and a few students made their feelings known to their classmates about the bullying that was going on in the 8th grade. We started to wrap up the discussion when one of the boys in the class asked me for permission to punch another boy in the class because he told the student who originally disclosed that he was being bullied to go "kill himself". Because I can't/won't use student names on this blog this is a little hard to follow. So nobody was punched, but the whole class got a little live action bullying on display right in the Room 23.

If this was Anti-Bullying day, I hesitate to think about how Tornado Awareness Day is going to go tomorrow.

Back in the Saddle Again.

Well, its been a few years since my last confession, I mean posting and I am truly glad to be back.  I'm especially glad that I began taking an online course on blogging as an educator.  It includes using Wikis, RSS and Podcasts, but I am not quite to that part in the course yet.  Aside from learning how to better use these amazing Web tools to teach kids,  I am really excited to be back on this site publishing my thoughts on any and everything.  Ultimately I think I'll be creating a school blog and one of my own for me and anyone who wants to notice.