We are so excited to be launching our brand new series, PACERTalks About Bullying, where each week we will be talking about all things bullying. In our first episode, we’ll share more about PACER Center and what we do.

Transcript

Hey everyone. Welcome to PACER talks about bullying. We are doing something a little different this week with the Facebook live. And this month, for April, our new theme is Students with Solutions. So all month long, we'll be coming to you with some awesome things that students are doing around bullying prevention.

But to start the month off of April, we wanted to share with you about an exciting contest that we do here at PACER called Students with Solutions. So this is something we started about two years ago. And what it is, is it's an exciting opportunity for students to share their creative ideas about bullying through artwork and poetry and videos because students have some amazing ideas. And it really allows them to share these with the world and be creative.

So just to give you a little background on where the idea of Students with Solutions came from is back in 2006, when we started our kids against bullying website which is for elementary school students, we had an activity where students could share drawings and poetry about bullying. So you'll see behind me, on these two posters, where this is actually where we film a lot of our videos for PACER talks about bullying, some of the artwork that we've gotten in from the past 12 years. And we really saw this just as an awesome opportunity for kids to really get creative and share with us what their ideas were.

So we turned it into a contest called Students with Solutions. And so we do this once in the fall and once in the spring. So the spring contest is now open, and it will be open until April 30th. And it's for K through 12 grade students. And the way that it works is on our website we have some awesome discussion questions that you can use in your classroom or your community or club with students to talk about what it means to create a world without bullying.

And we have some different activities that you can go through to really start that conversation. And then what we do is we ask students to respond to these discussions with artwork or poetry or videos. We've had people do raps or comics, really any creative way that they want to express it. And the questions for this spring contest are: how can you help create a world without bullying? Why do you want bullying to end? And what would a world without bullying look like?

So students can respond to these questions in whatever creative way they want. So in this week's video, we wanted to share with you some awesome entries that we've gotten from students all around the country to past Students with Solutions contests. So we absolutely love getting these, and we've gotten hundreds of entries from around the country. And I think we love looking through them just as much as kids like doing it.

So the first one that I wanted to share with you came from a first grade student in Minnesota. And you'll see on it, it says it's okay to be different. And they drew just a variety of people altogether. And so as you'll see as we go through these, some kids get super colorful, some write poetry, some do just singular words but what I love about this is they really show the message of unity, which is, I think, something we can all get behind.

The next one is a little bit of a combination of both poetry and drawings so this one, which I'll show you right here, is a poem with a sun. And so it says I am against bullying. I don't know about you. Let's work together and make the gray skies blue. Before you say something, stop and rethink. The words you're about to say are worse than you think. As you can see bullying is not okay. Some people are bullied every single day.

So I love this one and especially how they combined the drawings with the clouds with the poetry. It just shows how creative kids can get. And this is from a sixth grader in Virginia.

The next one that we have is also from an elementary school student. And I think this one is so powerful. And I'll show it on the camera and then read it out loud just so everyone can see it. But this one is so powerful because it really shows the impact that bullying has on kids. And what it says is bullies hurt. Bullies are mean. They say things that are bad. Sometimes they punch you in the eye. It's so bad that you could cry. So just as much as students write about solutions and ideas to help prevent bullying, they also write about the really hurtful impact that bullying can have on a student's health, on their education, and on their well-being.

And this next one shows it as well, but it's at a little bit of an older age. So this one is from a ninth grade student in Hawaii. And what I think is so powerful with this one is this is something that we see a lot of students just telling an adult or appear that they're find but there's really all this other things that are going on in the background like experiencing bullying. And 57% of kids don't report bullying to an adult. And I think this just shows all the things that they think about when they're saying they're find but in reality there's so much more going on. I think that's what is so powerful with this contest is this is all from a student's perspective. And it's their lived experience. It's something that they go through at school. So not only can they represent what bullying feels like but also some ideas on ways to prevent it in their school.

This is another one that I love that is also from a high school student. This is from a ninth grader in Minnesota. And it says no act of kindness is ever wasted. And then it has some people that are all being kind to each other. And what I love about this is that kindness is something that we all can give. And I think this quote is so true. No act of kindness ever goes wasted. And it's something easy that we all can do. And I think students recognize that as well, the power that kindness has of just treating each other with acceptance and inclusion.

This next one shows the way that kids really integrate words into their drawing and the way that bullying can feel. So this is from a 10th grade student. And as you'll see on here, there's a heart with all the words that kids really want to hear, these positive affirmations and ways that they feel. But then in the heart on the corner, you'll see the way that they feel or words that people say when they bully them. So this is great because it just shows the impact that bullying has from a student's perspective of being called things like lazy or bad, but in reality, there's all of these really positive things about them like they're happy and creative and fabulous.

And this is just a fabulous drawing that I love. So we've seen a lot of different drawings, but one thing that we also get a lot of our poems. So this is another creative way to express yourself, especially for students that lean towards that writing side versus the drawings side. So this is a poem called being kind. And I'll just read it. It's a short one.

So it says being kind is an action, a very powerful verb. Being kind out rules bullying by miles and miles but bullying can be just as powerful. When people are bullied, it screams like a tantrum, rages like a boiling pot. Kindness stops bullying. Sometimes in the dark spaces, in the pitch black, bullying or kindness gives the light. If we show kindness to one another, it will shine so bright bullying will stop. We all need to show kindness each day.

So I think what's so cool is when you start to see these altogether, you can really see these common themes that kids feel about bullying. So just as much as bullying hurts, kindness also has the power to show someone that you're there for them. So I think what's cool about this video is it really shows these common themes that we get from kids all over the world. So these are kids that haven't seen what each other are writing or drawing, but they all have these really common themes of just being kind to one another. So going off that, this one shows how kids really go all out with the color.

This is from a fourth grader in Wisconsin. So it just says be a friend and then has the drawing of someone helping someone else up. So this is something that we get a lot too of people drawing out different scenarios of maybe bullying and then some kindness and really being there for a friend.

And as the theme for this spring's Students with Solution is all about creating a world without bullying, we also get a lot of ones with the world, of really showing that this isn't just an issue that happens here, but it happens all around the world. And we all can create a kinder, more inclusive world. So you'll see a few with worlds behind me. I just want to show you guys one up close. And this says kindness matters, which is so true. And then it has some amazing artwork of people all around the world being kind to one another.

And this is from a third grader in Wisconsin. And just as much as we get some awesome ones like this, we also get a lot of play on words. So this is just one that I absolutely love. It says bee a friend. And it has this young girl being a friend to everyone even the bee. So this is from a third grader in Wisconsin. And we just have a few more left that I wanted to share with you guys. But I think what's so awesome about this is, especially if you don't work in a school, you can really see the some of the awesome ideas that students have around bullying which are so powerful to give them the opportunity to share their voice. But for teachers, this might give you some inspiration of some artwork or some inspiration to get your students involved with this contest.

This one is from a fourth grade student. And you'll see they really went all out with the colors. I especially love the detail of the nail polish on there. But it says show your -- and the last one that I have is from a 10th grade student.

And this is the finale of the artwork, but you'll see some people will do bigger ones. It doesn't necessarily have to be on an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper. But this one just says make the world a better place. I thought this one was a great one to end on just with the theme of creating a world without bullying. So if you work with students or in a school, a community group, a club and you think this is an activity they would like to do, we would love your submissions.

So if you go to our website just PACER.org/bullying you can find Students with Solutions there and it has all the instructions. Again, there's a classroom discussion guide and then, kind of, some ideas on different artwork or creative aspects that kids can create. And submissions are due by April 30th, so you can either e-mail them to us at [inaudible] or you can mail them in. All of that information is on the website. And then what's really exciting is that we have a panel of judges that reviews them. And we give out some awesome rewards and recognition for all the amazing ideas that students have.

So thanks for joining us for this week's Facebook live. I know it's a little different, but we'll be back with our regularly scheduled videos next Wednesday. So we'll see you right back here then and remember, together we can help create a world without bullying. Have a great rest of your day.