Monday 25 November 2013

Be an Upstander and Stop the Bullying!

What is bullying? Well, bullying is a form of rude behaviour meant to hurt the feelings of others. We need to understand that bullying is not cool and it has to stop.

Who is a bystander? A bystander is someone who watches bullying happen and doesn’t do anything about it. You bystanders out there go help a victim and don’t be afraid of what anyone thinks just help every victim you can find.

Who is a victim? A victim is someone who gets bullied. Hey victims stand up for yourself you can stop a bully every day

Those are 3 main people in a bullying situation. But how should I stop a bully he/she might hurt me? Well just go to the bully with high shoulders and arched eyebrows and speak with a non-playful tone and tell the bully "STOP’’. If the bully still doesn’t stop tell the teacher immediately. Bullies often are mean because they live in an environment with mean parents , brothers and sisters to so in other words the bully is showing his anger to someone else.1 in 7 kids are either bystanders or bullies. There are many people you can talk to such as your parents ,your teacher or your guardian. Remember don’t be a bully, be an upstander the opposite of a bystander. Have you ever seen a smarties pack it has a kids help phone number on the back call this number if you need help. If you’re a bullying victim and you’ re in trouble just call kids help phone and they’ll be there on the DOUBLE. Don’t worry you are never alone.

Sunday 10 November 2013

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - Good or Bad?


Schools this year have started an initiative called Bring your Own Device. But is this really necessary? Taking your device to school allows kids to get information immediately while being taught in class.  Children will learn to use various apps & websites like cool math, edmodo, eeko kids which will develop their knowledge. Your child will learn how to use the internet responsibly. Further the teachers will monitor your child's activity on the net so parents can track and see what is being done.

On the other hand bring your own device can cause certain challenges. One, if the kids lose their device it’s not the schools’ responsibility – this brings in not just the cost factor but also students looking after their device. This may be difficult for younger grades.

Further, the schools must ensure that kids do not misuse the internet. Also he internet will also use up the devices giga bytes based on what the kids download – this could reduce capacity of the device..

I do not have enough information on this initiative to comment further, but I think it is not going to be easy for a teacher to  monitor every student while they are using their devices.   But educating students and teaching them responsibility maybe a good way to start.