Task Card: Respect for All Essay and Poster Contest
October is National Anti-Bullying Month. All schools in the district are participating in the Respect for All Essay and Poster Contest. You will be writing an essay OR creating an artistic poster about one of the following topics: bullying, being a bystander, making positive choices, being a good friend/citizen, taking a stand, or peer pressure. Essays and posters are due to Miss Cronshawby Friday October 21st, 2016. Submissions will be sent to the superintendent who will choose two essays and two posters. Winners will be announced in late November!
ESSAY POSTER
Sample Posters
Sample Essay Questions
1.What can you do to put a stop to the culture of bullying?
2.What is the danger of standing around and watching while someone else is bullied?
3.Why is it important to accept people for who they are?
4.Write about a time when you stood up for something that you believed in. Was it hard to express an opinion that other people didn’t agree with? Why or why not?
5.Why do you think some people bully others?
6.How can you encourage other people to be more accepting of those who are different?
Sample 3rd Grade Essay: The “Dream”
By: Anna Curry
“Stupid!!” said the big bully at my school. “Stop!” I yelled. Then the bully punched me. I hit the floor.
Suddenly I was in a huge school gym, and I was wearing a blue cap and gown. I looked about 21 years old. I was graduating from college, and wanted to change the world.
I could change the world by making sure that kids know how to handle their feelings in a healthy way. I want to help make sure kids aren’t bullied, and could do this by talking to schools about bullying. Kids bully each other because the bully has been hurt, or feels badly about himself/herself, so the bully wants the other kids to feel his or her pain. I have been bullied, and it is scary. It made me feel put-down and worthless.
After I graduate from college, I could start a new movement to help prevent bullying. Maybe it could be called the “Alliance for a Bully-Free Generation.” I would help schools form groups that meet weekly. One example would be a “kindness club.” In this group, students would find ways to show kindness to others. For example, older students could help younger students feel good about themselves by making cards or bookmarks with compliments or words to encourage them. Another group could be a “share” group. In this weekly meeting, the students could tell their stories of how they were bullied. Maybe bullies themselves could share how they bullied others, and ask for forgiveness.
I believe I could get teachers across the world to come together and discuss their ideas and groups. With technology today, and in the future, we could use Face Time or Skype, and Google Translate to communicate with and reach kids and schools all over the world.
I woke up from this dream, after I had hit my head on the floor. I was in my bed and my mom was sitting next to me. I told her that bullying needs to stop and I want to help. I want to change the world.
Sample 6th Grade Essay: Hitting Bullying out of the Park
By: Kayla Denyce Jimenez
An everyday issue worth fighting for is bullying. Bullying isn't something ANYONE should ever have to go through especially not alone. So my school, James Fenimore CooperSchool is letting bully victims know that they are NOT alone in this painstakingly horriblejourney of theirs. These are a few of the abundance of things my school's staff, students andcommunity have done and is still in the process of doing to help prevent bullying fromhappening.
Our school has taken many different approaches to help prevent and end bullying such as petitions that were handed out to each classroom and signed by each student who is againstbullying and want to help make a difference in stopping it. The students who came up with thisidea thought that this petition would make bullies notice that they are standing alone in thisbattlefield of hatred and unfairness. These petitions were more than just long pieces of paperwith random kids names on them.They were just like those students declaration ofindependence.It's worth so much to them not only in their minds, but in their hearts. Anotherthing my school did was make posters.I actually was one of those students who made a poster.Our poster was black and blue representing the bad hardships bullied victims go through. Wealso had a tree on our poster which represented growth in a victim. This growth symbolizedbecoming stronger in their sense of mind. The poster was covered with poems and quotes aboutbullying. The list goes on and on such as announcements, student-made buttons, poster contest's,t-shirt days, developed websites, blogs, poems, essays, a message on our school's marquee,mural's, pledge walls, Stargirl Books, Stargirl play that had to do with conformity, movies, andso much more.
One of my favorites is the poems that my very own class wrote and worked on. I chosethis out of the many other ideas because I feel when writing the poems, students actually took thetime to stop and think about bullying. This assignment actually forced us to be put in someoneelse's shoes for a change, even if just for a few minutes while writing the poem or maybe a fewseconds or hours.It didn’t matter how long of a time, it just mattered that there was a time whereevery single student took the time to reflect and feel what maybe another kid, teenager, or evenadult on the other side of the paper, the other side of the wall, the other side of themselves hasfelt or maybe remembered once again reading our poems. These poems weren't just words onpaper. No, they're something much more than that. They are another side of ourselves that wenever dared showed for fear of actually being bullied and that’s NOT okay. These poems werefilled with such raw emotion, so much compassion, that I think they honestly did make a change in every student who wrote one. Maybe just a little bit, but if even just the smallest assignmentmade the biggest overall change then we did something right. I can tell you that much.
Another thing my school did to strike out bullying in our family community was a schoolwide assembly which some of my very own classmates organized and spoke in. The assemblytook organization, planning and those kids had to use every ounce of confidence they had withinthem to get in front of peers. They had to show what others didn't, because they're not expectedto. Why are they not expected to? Because they were bullied. Being bullied doesn’t make youcompletely broken, it doesn't make you completely vulnerable, but it does make you one thing,stronger, and if you don’t gain it right away, it's bound to come your way some day. The kidswho summoned their inner self to speak to the whole school gave hope, gave a glimmer ofinspiration, a passage, if you will, for these bullied victims to knowing that they aren't alone.That they had those kids speaking to them, directly to them, for the first time in forever, thesekids have a role model. These victims finally have someone their age, their same interest's, theirsame dreams, and aspirations talking to them. Nicely. Kindly. Open heartedly. Something they'venever felt before. I truly do believe that my classmates who had the guts to stand up there and sayso confidently that you aren't alone are true role models and should forever be thanked andrecognized because it isn't easy telling a whole group of people what you believe and expectingthem to agree with you. This group of particular kids did a phenomenal job at just that.
If you or anyone you know are or have been bullied please know you’re not alone, please realize there are people who love you very much and I'm proud to say I'm one of them. You arePERFECT, you are BEAUTIFUL, you are HANDSOME ,you are SMART, you are STRONG,you are UNIQUE, you are YOU, and that's the most PERFECT PERSON YOU'LL EVER BE,YOU!