Jon SchulmanThe top seventh-grade Peer Leaders at Intermediate School 291 in Brooklyn. From left, Diana Plascencia, Sandra Burgos and Pamela Moronta.
Here is another in our Great Ideas From Readers series.
If you’ve used The Times for teaching and learning and would like to see your idea in our blog, write in and tell us what you’ve done.
Teacher: Jon Schulman, Civics and Law Coordinator
School/Location: Roland Hayes – Intermediate School 291, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn
Grade or Level of Students: Middle School (ages 11-14)
Idea: A student peer-leadership group takes on bullying with monthly grade and schoolwide initiatives.
Why We Chose It: With a few Times articles and Learning Network resources as inspiration, this teacher created a semester-long, student-run antibullying curriculum that his peer leadership group has taken and made their own. Mr. Schulman describes the program at his school, then suggests nine ideas any school could adapt.
What He Did and Why, in Mr. Schulman’s Own Words:
I used the recent articles and lesson plan from the Learning Network on bullying as a springboard for discussion in my peer leadership program.
From reading Times articles, students were able to get a broad picture of the bullying problem in schools nationwide. They used that information to perform a role-play, create “diversity poems,” and give advice on how to handle bullying situations to their friends. I encouraged students in the discussion group to come up with their own solutions to bullying, and to evaluate the newly signed antibullying law in New York.
Read the complete story here.
